Karnal farmer is making a profit from goats
Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, December 15
At a time when people are considering agriculture and livestock rearing as low remunerative, Radhay Rana, a small farmer of Bada Gaon village in the district, is earning good returns from the breeding of indigenous goats.
On an average, he sells around 350 goats of indigenous breeds –Barbari and Beetal — in a year and earns lakhs of rupees. Besides, he sells goat milk whenever it is in surplus quantity. As per scientists, goat milk is rich in calcium and phosphorus and is on par with cow or buffalo milk. Goat milk is believed to have a smoothening effect on intestines.
Now, he is focusing on making value-added products from goat milk with the help of NDRI scientists.
Rana, a graduate from Dyal Singh College, had started his Raghav Goat Farm in 2011. Earlier, he faced several difficulties as people considered goat farming a low status. “Goat farming was never a choice of livelihood for farmers of Haryana as they focused on mainstream agriculture and cattle, buffalo rearing. I started goat rearing with the help of CIRG Makhdoom in Mathura. Earlier, I faced several challenges as people did not like this profession. I could not even get information regarding medical facility and other practices,” said Rana.
He said scientists of the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) and the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR) helped him a lot and motivated him to continue with the passion. As per NBAGR scientists, both breeds have good milk and meat potential. At present, there are 2.94 lakh Barbari and 3.80 lakh Beetal goats in the country.
“I have been selling my goat throughout the country. Previously, I got demand from Middle East countries,” he added.
Dr AK Singh, Principal Scientist of the NDRI, appreciated the efforts of a small farmer and said he had encouraged him to prepare value-added dairy products like cheese, yogurt by using goat milk. “We have imparted training to Radhay for making value-added products of the goat milk,” he said.
“India is the largest producer of milk, with an estimated annual production of 176 million tonnes (MT). The majority of milk is contributed by buffalo and cows and share of minor species like goat, sheep and camel is only five per cent of the total milk production. India has the second-highest goat population in the world, which is around 14.6 per cent, after China (17.3 per cent),” he said, adding that small ruminants like goat and sheep contribute significantly towards the livelihood of small and marginal farmers in rainfed, mountainous and arid regions of the world.
