Empowering Small Ruminant Livelihoods: Simplifying Technologies, Transforming Lives

Demystify and enhance access to content appropriate farm technologies, adopt sustainable farm management principles, create and nurture pro poor service delivery models, build institutions and help such institutions to incubate and grow a poor friendly marketing systems to make small livestock farming a reliable dignified complementary livelihood source for millions of rural & peri urban women in developing countries.

Our Vision

We envision a non exploitative society with equity and equality where hard working farming communities especially farm women gets due economic and social return and are able to live life with dignity and confidence.

Goal & Purpose

The Goat Trust (www.thegoattrust.org) is registered as Trust Act (in 2008) to promote small livestock (Goat/sheep/ Backyard birds rearing) based livelihood through demystifying production technology, build institutions and promote standard of marketing and linkage across the globe. It is mandated to grow as a resource organization to work on development of pro poor small livestock farming systems, technologies and market development through collaboration and networking with various stakeholders

Our Believes

The Goat Trust: 18 years of Building India's First Hybrid Social Enterprise for Smallholder Goat Farmers

The Historical Context: Why The Goat Trust (TGT) was Needed

Founded in 2008, The Goat Trust (TGT) began with a simple but ignored truth: “Goats are the ATM of the poor, but the poor are invisible to the livestock economy.”

While dairy and poultry had cooperatives, technology, and markets, 33 million goat-rearing households in India – mostly women, landless, and with <5th class education – were left to fate. No breed improvement, no health services, no price transparency.

TGT chose to work only with goats, but on the whole value chain – from breeding to biryani. This “single animal, full chain” focus allowed depth, scale, and proof that poor women can run a profitable livestock business.

What Makes TGT Unique: 10 Foundational Beliefs & our project Design Principles

Inclusiveness: Reaching the Unreached First

TGT's model was reverse-engineered for the most excluded: women goat farmers with 2-5 goats, <1 acre land and low literacy.

Result in 18 years: 6,00,000+ families reached across 14 Indian States. 78% beneficiaries are women. 62% SC/ST/OBC.

Uniqueness: Most livestock projects start with "progressive farmers". TGT started at the bottom and proved viability, forcing the sector to rethink "who is client".

2. Low-Cost Pro-Poor Tech + High-End Science: "Jugaad to Lab" Spectrum

TGT believes farmers are innovators, not recipients. So we promote two tracks together:

Demystification Model: A professional vet team trains local women as Pashu Sakhi & AI Technician. Technology is unpacked, translated and handed over.

Result: With heat synchronization up to 92% AI conception, Normal 47%, 1,200+ women services providers earning INR 6,000/- to 15,000/- per month.

3. Equal Focus on Market as on Production: "Price before Breed"

Goat farmers lose 30-40% in sale due to "andaza se bika". TGT introduced India's first Live Wight Pricing for Goats through Village & Cluster Livestock Trade Centers (VLTC/CLTC).

Value Chain Innovations:

Goat Milk: CapriCo Foods-India's first pasteurized goat milk brand.

Dung & Urine: Bhumibal brand organic inputs-Jeevamrit, Soap, Agarbatti

Meat: ROUMASH brand-Transparent cut-based pricing + festival aggregation

Impact: Farmer Price realization up from INR 280/- per Kg to INR 450/- per kg live weight in TGT clusters.

4. Single Animal, Whole Chain Approach = Scale

By refusing to diversify into multiple Livestock, TGT build deep SoPs for every node: breeding, feeding, health, insurance, credit, marketing. This allows a block to become viable at 5,000 does.

Replication > Pilots

5. Local Partners as Leaders, Not Sub-Contractors

TGT works in 8 agro-climatic zones with Gram Panchayats, FPOs and Small NGOs as lead implementers. TGT transfers both + brand, partner owns community trust.

6. Audio-Visuals & Local Language: Extension for the Non-Literate

Literacy barrier was the biggest adoption block. TGT's USP: 70+ Videos in 11 dialects, pictorial flipbooks, wall paintings and now Digital Livestock Farmer School (DLFS)-a mobile-based, self-paced learning platform.

Result: A non-literate women learns AI heat signs in 22 minutes. DLFS now has 42,000+ registered learners.

7. Institution Building: From SHG to Multi-State Cooperative

To get scale, brand and licenses, TGT federated farmers into Pashudhan Farmers Producer Company and now a Multi-State Cooperative. This gives: FSSAI for milk, APEDA for export and bargaining power for bulk input.

Vision: Farmers own the brand, TGT facilitates the tech. Both Win.

8. Digital as Accelerator, Not Replacement

Televet Call Centre for 9AM-7PM vet advice, DLFS app for learning and MIS for tracking 6 lakh families. Digital Reduces cost/served from INR 380/- to INR 42/- per year, enabling scale without losing touch.

9. Diversified Partnerships without Value Dilution

TGT has worked with SRLM, NABARD, 22 CSRs and 9 State Governments.

Non-negotiable: No "factory CSR" where photo-op > impact.

TGT walked out of 3 large CSR projects where appeasement was the goal. This protected community trust.

10. Hybrid Model: For-Profit + Non-Profit under for the Mission

TGT understood early: Only Grants can't buy markets and promoter needs to be entrepreneur to promote entrepreneurship by having gone through process.

TGT by design spins off and its senior professionals are mandated to spin off and start complimentary enterprises to provide much needed market support to community and sustain themselves on market basis while keeping values intact to have profits shared with farmers.

So, Ex-TGTtians incubated 5 for-Profit Enterprises while keeping the Trust not-for-profit:

a. CapriCo Foods Pvt. Ltd.-Goat Milk & Products

b. VetHerba-Herbal Livestock Medicines

c. TGT Global Development Services Pvt. Ltd.-Capacity Building & Consultancy

d. Bhumibal-Dung-Urine organic brand

e. Pashubajaar-Livestock Trading

In Retrospect, Our Organizational Model Emphasizes:

"Skin in the game" model: TGT companies buy back from farmers at assured price + profit sharing. This makes TGT India's first hybrid social enterprise in livestock where charity and business strengthen each other.
Building Capable Youths through Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship & Social Change Fellowship to induct youth who build micro-enterprises in the chain-AI Technician, DLFS Facilitator , VLTC Manager-ensuring succession and scale without grant addiction.
Recognizing and Awarding Change-Makers: TGT has established Bhishma Award for Grassroot Changemakers an unique award for grassroot workers.