Through SDG lens

Goat and other small livestock provide nutritional security to millions of small and marginal farmers and their families who raise them. Besides, due to rising incomes and adoption of adequate amount of protein in diet, consumers are looking for high quality fresh meat. Of the total meat production, 70 percent comes from cattle, buffalo and pig for which the preference is very limited due to socio-cultural reasons. Most people in the country prefer chevon (goat meat) or poultry meat.

Milk from goat is equally nutritious and palatable. It is consumed by three quarters of world’s population making it one the most consumed dairy products in the world. It is an important source of calories, proteins and fats. There is a preference of goats’ milk over cow milk in many parts of the world. Besides being creamier, easily digestible, less allergic it also is an excellent source of vitamin A. Many studies have also shown it reduce risk of cataract, cancer and measles in children.

It is for the umpteen benefits and easy availability of goat based products that it becomes a poor man’s source of nutrition. The Goat Trust is providing goats at reasonable, transparent and farm fair price to the poor through Pashubajaar.com. Besides it is directly intervening in making sure that the women of the household are involved in goat rearing and as Pashu sakhies so that they understand the importance of nutritional fulfillment from goat. The Goat Trust is also catering to the demands of consumer households for goat milk by launching goat milk label, Caprico.

The Goat Trust is committed to women goat rearers and the value that they bring in to the entire value chain. In rural India, it is the women who is the primary caretaker of the livestock and are involved in every activity right from feeding, to milking of the animal. Yet the representation of women as agents of change in the value chain is non-existent. The Goat Trust, is looking into providing right kind of support to all women goat rearers capitalizing on their strengths of patience, caregiving and sincerity. We provide necessary training to goat rearer women to start rendering her services to a cluster of villages as a Pashu Sakhi. We provide entrepreneurial skill training to interested men as well as women in starting their own business of buck entrepreneurship or raising a goat farm, or work for an intensive goat farm or organisation. We are also providing bank linkage support to women goat rearers through the Goat Rearer Groups and Farmer Producer Organisation leveraging the collective bargaining power and social accountability. This way women are given equal opportunities as that for men in enhancing their income generation avenues to fulfil their ambitions as well as support their families and children.

It is said that economic growth should be a positive force for all. Financial progress must come with equitable opportunities for all to contribute. The Goat Trust believes that strides in goat based livelihood promotion should create a microclimate for better opportunities, better resources and better results for those involved in this livelihood activity.
Goat based livelihood, in itself, is a sustainable activity, focussing not just on helping the poor increase their livelihood aspects, but also has immense potential to contribute to local economy in a big way. The capacity building of women goat rearers from community as Pashu sakhies, forming goat rearer groups, providing buck based entrepreneurship training, training and educating youth on goat farm management through IIGMA are a few of many such activities that The Goat Trust undertakes to create jobs, promote entrepreneurship, expanding access to physical and financial resources and creating sustainable economy.

In order to realise sustainable economic development, required is the focus on deploying affordable, resilient and equitable infrastructure, increase access of cottage industries to financial services and markets and, innovating for maximizing efficiency. The Goat Trust is working to transform the goat value chain from source to sink. We are trying to usher in infrastructure development, institutional development, innovations and improved information exchange within the goat based value chain. We have through our efforts in all these years, developed infrastructure at the level of community as well as at central level. This includes a goat resource center and community livestock business center at the community level, while a Community Livestock technology and research center at the center. Besides, a large pool of trained community cadre has been created for facilitating resource mobilization at the local level for goat farming. Financing the goat based livelihood activity is facilitated through the Pashudhan bank. Communication is a key to informed decision making and The Goat Trust is working on making the information available to all stakeholders, especially the goat rearers through its online and offline platforms. Using various tools of AV aids, mobile telephony, takeaway pamphlets we create and disseminate information essential for production, maintenance, disease control, breeding, pricing and marketing of goats. We believe in participatory information exchange in order to bring in efficiency, transparency and information parity for the goat rearers, who, are the most marginalized members in the entire value chain.

A major form of discrimination prevalent in the goat based value chain is inequality of incomes and information. The Goat Trust has intervened in the form of providing reliable, timely and adequate information to the goat rearers to ensure equitable distribution of overall income from the value generated through goats and goat based products in the market. In the traditional value chain, the producer is less informed, less involved and hence less incentivized. The Goat Trust provides him/her with resources, both tangible as well as non-tangible, to increase value of produce and his participation in the entire process of income generation through value enhancement. The tangible resources include production support through feed, credit, breeding, health services efficient marketing through price determination, transportation, trading services and incremental capacity building through institutionalizing, liaising, training and skill enhancement services.

Economic development and sustainability, were once thought to be two opposite ends to meet at one time. Today, every development action or intervention is measured through sustainability lens. We at The Goat Trust firmly believe that every action/intervention should be productive as well as sustainable. A major part of this effort is in the direction of reduction of waste in goat based value chain and maximizing the product efficiency by developing innovative goat based new products at affordable prices for consumers. We are also looking at sustainable use of natural resources by appropriating scientifically backed feed and fodder technology for local goat production. In this line, locally available fodder is being promoted for goat production and locally available robust and productive goat breeds are being used for breeding purposes and progeny development