A Comparative Study Of Management Practices Of Commercial And Subsistence Goat Farming Of Dhading, Nepal

Abstract

Goat farming is one of the most important subsectors of Nepalese Agriculture with the involvement of 75% of total population of Nepal. Goat production is prolific and well adopted by people of all caste, ethnic groups and all climatic zones. Poor feeding and husbandry practices have hindered the overall management and production of goat in Nepal. The study was carried out to access the comparison of husbandry practices practiced during goat production under subsistence and commercial goat farms. Total of 60 farms, 30 commercial and 30 subsistence farms were surveyed by convenience sampling and snowball sampling respectively using structured questionnaire in Benighat Rorang Rural Municipality of Dhading district during May 2019. In majority of subsistence farms (70%), the major source of income was agriculture except goat farms whereas most of the commercial farms (56%) goat rearing was the major source of income followed by agriculture except goat (44%).Majority of subsistence farms (70%) followed intensive system of rearing but commercial farms (81%) followed semi- intensive system of rearing. Both types of farms were not much successively forward in good management practices. Knowledge of housing system has been lacking in almost all the farmers. Separate housing for kids, male and female was seen highly significant in commercial farms. There is significant effect of availability of pasture in commercial production of goat. Only 20% of goat farmer involved in tours and trainings whereas there was almost negligible help from GOs and NGOs to the farmers. From this study, we may conclude that both commercial and subsistence goat farmers must be provided with skills enhancing programs so that they can upgrade themselves in better management and increased goat production.