Assessment the Goat Value Chain in Mid Hills of Nepal

Abstract

Goat value chain development and analysis is a recently introduced activity for enabling goat production activities to link to the market network. In Nepal, goat production is repeatedly reported rather traditional than commercial. The production volume of goat is the main drawback of goat value chain development in Nepal. Despite the visible market opportunities in the meat sub-sectors, the country has been unable to take advantage of the situation for various reasons. Some of the reasons include production constraints compounded by farmers' socioeconomic and institutional issues and their relationship with the market as a driving force. The study was conducted in six districts (Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan, Pyuthan, Gulmi and Argakhachi) using participatory value chain analysis tools as well as households survey. Total 120 goat producer households survey was done in six districts whereas 30 goat collectors, 30 wholesalers’/regional traders and 30 butchers/retailers surveyed were done. Total sample size of this value chain study of goat sub-sector was 300. It was understood that goat production system in the study area was traditional and the main drawback of value chain is the smaller production volume of goat. When market situation analyzed, it was learnt that there was no systematic marketing system attained by the farmers due to smaller production volume, though the goats contributed almost half of the livestock heads per household (6-8 heads/HH). Mainly the local breeds of goat (Khari) were reared by the farmers with some sorts of crossbreeding with improved breeds such as Jamunapari in Salyan and Rukum. Moreover, the prolificacy of goat was found poor than the average of the Khari goat, where twinning was only 50% as responded by the farmers. Likewise, the grazing system was also of traditional and goats were managed under sedentary system (semi-intensive by almost 60% farmers) and frequent feeding of concentrates in small amount was customary. The natural and traditional grazing habitats such as community forests and pasturelands were used extensively. Almost 40% of the respondents were positive to raise goats in a flock size of 15-25 in a given set of circumstances of support from the agencies, obviously larger flocks might require heavy investments for a level of family income. Later the cost of production and the existing marketing system of goat subsector was analyzed and found that the farmer’s profit is dominated by the profit of the t wholesalers and butchers, even though the profit share of farmers was almost one third of the production cost (250 NPR/kg live weight). Total market margin for live weight per kg goat was found about NRP 193 from study area to national market hubs. The market margin/profit gained by the farmers was almost 41%, 20% for local collectors, 60% for regional goat traders/wholesalers and 17% to the regional/national butchers/retailers. There is a need to follow a more integrated approach by investigating challenges and opportunities from production to consumption along a value chain, while also addressing policy and institutional aspects affecting goat production.