Assessment of management practices followed by small ruminant farmers in Uttar Pradesh

A total of 120 goat and sheep owners from 14 villages of Chaka block of Allahabad district were interviewed during January to May 2016 using semi-structured questionnaire to assess the housing, care and management practices followed by them. The socioeconomic characteristics of farmers revealed that 50.8 and 49.2% of the respondents were males and females, respectively. The educational status of the respondents revealed that 75% of them were illiterate. Majority of the farmers belonged to the age group of >30 yrs. Breeds of the goats preferred were Jamunapari, Barbari and crossbred. Majority of goat farmer (83.5%) had a small flock size (<10) while 40.7% of sheep farmers had a flock size >30. Semi-intensive system was in practice by majority of goat flocks in contrast to extensive system for sheep flocks. It was concluded that there is a great necessity to create awareness among the farmers to adopt improved scientific goat and sheep rearing practices.