Marketing pattern and constraints of traditional goat farming in Punjab

The present study was conducted in three districts of Punjab state having maximum goat population namely Bathinda, Fazilka and Muktsar during the year 2018–19 with sample size of 32 traditional goat farmers. A majority of the farmers (84.38 per cent) had access to market information and the main source of information was friends, social media and farmer's fairs. Category wise, large goat farmers have more access to information from social media and friends than small and medium category goat farmers. Marketed surplus of milk was found to be 69.08 per cent and it was as high as 86.29 per cent in large category. The milk was mainly sold through milk vendors and the dependence on milk vendors was more in the case of medium category farmers and small category farmers prefer direct sale to consumer. The mode ofpayment by buyer was totally by cash (100%) and was regularly sold as it is perishable in nature and can not be stored. A majority (77.16%) of the farmers used to get the payment within a month. Regarding sale of live goats, majority of the traditional goat farmers (52.97%) sold goats on live weight basis. The mode ofpayment by buyer was totally by cash. A majority of the farmers (47.52%) sold goats on six monthly interval. All the farmers used to get the immediate payments. Fluctuating prices of goat milk was the most important marketing followed by lack ofproper market, less price of goat milk, distant market, fluctuating prices of goat meat/live animals.