Housing and Management System Practiced by Tribal Farmers in Rajasthan

The aim of the study was to assess the floor, feeding and watering space(s) and other housing management practice of goats followed by farmers in Rajasthan. A total of 120 tribal goat farmers were selected from 12 villages from 6 blocks in 3 tribal dominated districts viz., Banswara, Dungarpur and Udaipur. Ten farmers from each village were selected purposively based on the number of goats. The selected goat farmers were grouped into three categories based on flock size as small (<25 goats, N= 60), medium (26-50 goats, N = 36) and large (>50 goats, N = 24). The floor space and other housing practices at the farmer’s flocks were recorded in-situ. The average flock size for small, medium and large categories of the farmer was 22.63± 0.210, 33.72± 1.05 and 58.54 ±1.28 respectively. The overall proportion of milking goats, dry goats, goatlings, kids and bucks were 12.52 ± 0.31 (32.63%), 8.62 ± 0.30 (22.50%), 6.64 ± 0.27 (17.33%), 9.52 ± 0.29 (24.85%) and 0.79 ± 0.06 respectively. Across flock size categories most of the large farmers and a sizable majority of medium and small farmers (75, 66.67 and 60 per cent respectively) housed their goat in one shed, whereas rest of the farmers in all three categories housed their goats in different sheds. It was observed that a huge majority of farmers (82.50%) did not have separate managers for the feeding of goats. The available managers were made of either mud (11.6%) or cement concrete (5.8%). The roof in case of a large majority of farmers across flock size categories was made of thatch (61.67%) followed by iron sheet (21.66%) and asbestos sheets (16.67%). There was no major variation in the type of roofing material among the three flock size categories of goat farmers. The average floor space available for milking goats, dry goats, goatlings, kids and breeding bucks were 1.68 ± 0.02, 1.58± 0.06, 0.97± 0.07, 0.50± 0.05 and 2.79± 0.39 sq meter respectively. The average floor space was significant (p<0.05) higher in small flock size category of farmers followed by medium and large farmers among milking goats, dry goats and goatlings. Overall floor space available for milking goats, dry goats, goatlings, kids and breeding bucks were 1.68 ± 0.02, 1.58± 0.06, 0.97± 0.07, 0.50± 0.05 and 2.79± 0.39 respectively. It was concluded that housing practices were mostly traditional without much regard to scientific recommendations. However, these management practices, in general, were better in the case of small farmers as compared to medium and large farmers.