Current status of dairy goat farming in Pakistan

摘要

Goats are an important part of small ruminant farming system in Pakistan which are raised for meat,milk,fibre and skins.Goat farming has a great scope in tropical and sub-tropical environment of Pakistan,and has several advantages for the farmers.There are about 34 goat breeds in the country with a total population of 68.4 million heads,and many of these breeds have the potential to serve as meat as well as dairy type animals.Goats produce about 2.0％of the total milk (52,632 thousand tonnes) produced annually in Pakistan.The popular dairy type goat breeds in Pakistan are Beetal,Dera Din Panah (DDP),Nachi,Kamori,Kacchan,Pateri and Damani.Their milk production potential ranges from1.2 litre per day in Damani to 2.0 litre per day in Beetal.There are 6.8 million farmers involved in goat farming in Pakistan.Majority of these farmers are landless or have limited land resources.There are four main systems of production for small ruminants; namely nomadic,transhumant,household and sedentary in various regions of the country,and flock size varies in different production system.The paper discusses different feeding,health and management practices being adopted by these dairy goat farmers in Pakistan and trends and issues relating to the dairy goat farming.