The country is the largest exporter of Sheep & Goat meat to the world. The country has exported 8,695.97 MT of sheep & goat meat to the world for the worth of Rs. 447.58 Crores/ 60.04 USD Millions during the year 2021-22.

In terms of total meat production, India ranks 5th globally with the production of 8.60 million tonnes of meat in 2019-20. In 2020-21, meat production has increased to 8.80 million tonnes (BAHS, 2021). The Indian meat industry has exhibited steady growth in terms of meat production in the last decade as illustrated in figure 1. However, the annual growth rate has not been seen following any particular trend.

Efficacy of different concentrate to roughage ratio on growth performance ofOsmanabadi kids in Marathwada region

Due to lack of knowledge, 70 per cent farmers in category I had difficultyin identifying pure breed animals. Difficulty in getting good qualitybreeding animals was a major constraint. The best animals (particularlymales) from the traditional flocks were sold for slaughtering to traders/butchers. That resulted in scarcity of good quality breeding animals.The absence of organized efforts for breed improvement of goats hasbeen compounding this problem. Since large goat flocks of differentbreeds under commercial production are only few, the entrepreneurshad to select the breeding animals from the available traditional flocksmostly through middlemen. Therefore it takes a long time to establish agood flock.

High mortality in goats due to PPR, diarrhoea, pneumonia, tetanus, etc.in the beginning of the project, was a major concern of the farmers. Itresulted even in closure of a number of farms in the beginning.

In the absence of proper standards and specially-designed vehicles fortransporting the live goats, the officials in collision with police harassthe farmers under the pretence of welfare of the animals duringtransportation of the breeding stock from long distances

Though commercial goat farming under intensive and semi-intensivesystems of management has been picking up for the past couple of years,only less than one per cent of goat population in the country has come undersuch production system.

The value of died adult goats alone accounted for 11.38 percent of the total fixed cost.

The estimated costs and returns from goat farming, given in Table 10,revealed that unlike the traditional flocks, where fixed cost was 10-15 percent of the total cost, the fixed cost and variable cost in commercial goatfarming constituted 35.36 per cent and 64.64 per cent of the total cost

On overall farms, the estimated losses due to diseasesin goats were 23.22 per cent of net returns and 5.21 per cent of grossreturns.

On many occasions, farmers couldnot use vaccines due to their non-availability.

The minimum numberof breeding goats in a commercial unit should be 50 to make it a self-sustainingunit that can provide livelihood to at least one household.

The size of initial flock of goats for the new entrepreneurs was observedto be an important factor for the success of a commercial goat-farmingproject.

Seventy-five per cen

Interestingly, thepeople having major income from business and salaried jobs (33 % of thetotal farmers) had taken up commercial goat farming as their subsidiaryoccupation.

All these commercial farmers were welleducated and had a good access to technical and market information. Thesize of operational landholding of commercial farmers in all the categorieswas found large, from 26.0 acres to 78.5 acres.

The kid mortality was estimated to range from 5.64 per cent incategory III to 12.28 per cent in category I.

Feed was observed highly scarce in Rajasthan, particularly during thesummer seasons it became very costly (Rs 4-5 per kg of dry fodder), makingthe goat production under intensive system unsustainable.

The major initial investment was found on the purchase of breedingstock and construction of sheds and structures, which accounted for 47 percent and 48 per cent of the total capital investment, respectively.

Unlike traditional flocks, the expenditure on feed and fodder was themajor component of the cost of goat rearing on commercial farms and itaccounted for 59 per cent of the total variable cost.

namely, fibre goats (e.g., Angora, Cashmere), dairy goats (e.g., Saanen, Toggenburg, Nubian) and meat goats (e.g., Boer, Spanish).

For marketing purposes however, goat meat has been divided into two distinct classes; these being Capretto, which is obtained from milk-fed, suckling kids with a carcass weight of 6 to 12 kg and pink flesh, and Chevon, which is from older goats with a carcass weight of 16 to 22 kg.