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.
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At Foraminifera Market Research {www.foramfera.com}, we provide bespoke and up to date market research reports for start-ups and those already in business.
Our reports are designed to assist start-ups to understand the legal and financial requirements of starting the business, the market trends vis-a-vis demand and supply, competition, risk identification and mitigation strategies.
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