Goat Farming for the Economic Upliftment of Resource Poor Farmers of Maharashtra

Survey of farmer was done to record the farmer's profile, livestock production system, socio - economic condition in pre constructed preforms for the selection of farmers. Survey revealed that average annual income of farmers at the beginning of intervention at Traimbakeshwar and Ambegaon taluka was Rs. 25,270/- and Rs. 26,530/-respectively. So, based on survey, 14 SC and 20 ST, altogether 34 resource poor farmers were selected randomly. Necessary training was imparted to the farmers on goat farming. Farmers were given one unit of adult Osmanabadi goat i.e. one male and four female goats, 200 kg pelleted goat feed, 2 kg mineral mixture, feeder, waterer and turpolin sheet. Goats were maintained in semi intensive system of management. Farmers renovated the existing goat shed with low cost locally available materials. Farmers were feeding maize, marvel grass, guinea grass, hybrid napier etc. as green fodder. Supplied pelleted feed was also provided @ 100 g twice daily to each goat. Routine deworming and vaccination was done. Animals were monitored regularly. The data on performance, mortality, disposal of goats were collected. Average weight of male and female adult Osmanabadi goats was recorded to be 23.470 ± 0.872 kg and 25.216 ± 0.691 kg respectively. Average birth weight was recorded to be 2.580 ± 0.234 kg. Average daily gain of kids was recorded to be 108.45 ± 10.21 g / day. So, far 48 kids were born from 27 kiddings and average kidding per cent was triplet 7.41 %, twinning 62.96 % and single 29.63 %.