Goats: Challenges for Increased Productivity and Improved Livelihoods
- 1 December 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Outlook on Agriculture
- Vol. 28 (4), 215-226
- https://doi.org/10.1177/003072709902800404
Abstract
In animal production systems, the value of a species increases in relation to its adaptation, capacity to make socioeconomic contributions, capacity to fill market opportunities, and potential for increasing productivity. In the case of goats, their role and potential contribution to increased productivity are impeded by controversy about their destructive habits, poor understanding of their attributes, functional values, and links to the poverty focus, which together have not helped their contribution to improving natural resource management. Research and development efforts that can significantly improve productivity from goats can simultaneously enhance the livelihoods of the poor. Resource allocation by national programmes and donor agencies to research and development projects on these animals is generally poor. In the search for efficiency in the improved use of the available animal genetic resources, more enlightened thinking is necessary about the role that goats could play. This must be backed by more resources and the use of interdisciplinary systems in priority agroecological zones to increase their productivity, and by so doing, this will enhance the livelihoods of the poor, and protect the environment.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mixed Animal Type Grazing Research under Temperate and Semi-Arid ConditionsOutlook on Agriculture, 1999
- Résistance génétique des petits ruminants aux helminthes en AfriqueINRAE Productions Animales, 1997
- Improving Goat Production in the TropicsPublished by Practical Action Publishing ,1996
- The Role of Alley Farming in African Livestock ProductionOutlook on Agriculture, 1994
- Vleisbees‐ en boerbokprestasies in die droë gras‐bosgemeenskappe van die oos‐kaapProceedings of the Annual Congresses of the Grassland Society of Southern Africa, 1981