Nigeria, with a population of about 165 million is grossly underprovided with essential food component,
protein. For example, data from the FOS, CBN, and FAO
indicates that from cattle, less than 2kg of beef is
available to an average Nigerian per year and just
mere 4kg of eggs per annum is available to each
Nigerian.
In fact, milk production has been nose diving or at best
has remained constant since 1994.This scenario is
compounded more so when the volume of egg supply
is very low, being 10.56g per person per day as
compared with the usual recommendation that an egg
should be consumed by an adult per day. This
recommendation would imply a crate of 30 eggs per
month.
This story also holds for other meat products including,
goat. To ameliorate this problem of low-level of protein
intake, there is the need for concerted effort, among
the various stakeholders to bring about the massive
production of protein based food items at competitive
costs so that they would be affordable to the general
masses. Aside from the other necessary economic
reforms, massive investment goat farming is one way of
resolving the problem.
Goat is a multi functional animal and has a significant
role in the economy and nutrition of landless, small
and marginal farmers in the whole country. Goat
rearing is practiced by a large section of population in
rural areas.
Goats can easily survive in even adverse and harsh
environment in low fertility lands, where no crops can
be grown.
In agricultural societies in Nigeria, goats are kept as a
source of additional income and as an insurance
against disaster. Goats are also used in ceremonial
feastings and for the payment of social dues.
In addition to this, goat has religious and ritualistic
importance in many societies.
The advantages of goat rearing are:
• Goat Farming requires low initial Investment.
• There are less Housing requirements and
Managerial Problems with goats, due to their small
body size and docile nature.
• Goats are very friendly animals and enjoy being
with the people.
• Goats are prolific breeders and achieve sexual
maturity at the age of 10-12 months. Gestation period
in goats is short and at the age of 16-17 months it
starts giving milk. Twinning is very common and
triplets and quadruplets are rare.
• In drought prone areas, risk of goat farming is very
much less as compared to other livestock species.
• Unlike large animals in commercial farm
conditions, both male and female goats have equal
value.
• Goats are ideal for mixed species grazing. The
animal can thrive well on wide variety of thorny
bushes, weeds, crop residues, agricultural by-products
unsuitable for human consumption.
• Under proper management, goats can improve and
maintain grazing land and reduce bush encroachment
(biological control) without causing harm to the
environment.
• No religious taboo against goat slaughter and meat
consumption prevalent in the country.
• Slaughter and dressing operation and meat disposal
can be carried without much environmental problems.
• The goat meat is more lean (low cholesterol) and
relatively good for people who prefer low energy diet
especially in summer and sometimes goat meat
(chevron) is preferred over mutton because of its
"chew ability".
• Goat milk is easy to digest than cow milk because of
small fat globules and is naturally homogenized. Goat
milk is said to play a role in improving appetite and
digestive efficiency. Goat milk is non allergic as
compared to cow milk and it has anti-fungal and anti
bacterial properties and can be used for treating
diseases of fungal origin.
• Goats are 2.5 times more economical than sheep on
free range grazing under semi arid conditions.
• Goat creates employment to the rural poor besides
effectively utilizing unpaid family labor. There is ample
scope for establishing cottage industries based on goat
meat and milk products and value addition to skin and
fiber.
• Goat is termed as walking refrigerator for the
storage of milk and can be milked number of times in a
day.
As is illustrated above, the product of this unit will
enjoy very good market. Hence on the commercial
ground, by taking into account the various aspects of
Animal Husband industry, marketing of these products
will never be a problem for the next several years to
come; moreover, there is a good growing demand for
these products.
The marketable products of goat farming include the
fattened kids, manure, and culled animals. Marketing
avenues for the above products are slaughter houses
and individual meat consuming customers and
agriculture farms. Therefore availability of either
slaughtering facilities or traders who will purchase live
animals should be ensured to convert the fatteners into
wholesome meat and meat products. Further, demand
for manure from nearby agriculture farms must also be
ensured.
De Edge Farms
No comments:
Post a Comment