Impact of adoption of climatic resilient practices in goat farming in Kuttanad region of Kerala

One hundred and eighty goat farmers, majority being women, in Muttar and Thalavady villages of Kuttanad region of Kerala were trained on scientific and climate resilient practices in goat rearing during the year 2013–15 under the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project. Out of these, 36 farmers were provided the materials and technical support for fabrication of climate resilient goat sheds with raised platform to overcome the seasonal water-logging prevalent in the below mean sea level region. A study was conducted during 2018–19 to find out the impact of adoption of these practices. The respondents’ profile indicated that 47.2 per cent farmers were above 50 yr of age and 86.1 per cent were women whereas 91.7 per cent of the units were managed with family labour. It was found that farmers started rearing improved breeds of goat (75%) and changed to balanced feeding (86.1%) from conventional feeding practices. Majority of the farmers bred their animals by Artificial Insemination methods (66.7%) and could identify the heat symptoms (80.6%), started selling the animals directly (66.7%), started selling the milk (63.9%) and manure (44.4%). Mortality was reduced from 40% to 0% in the adopted units compared to the conventional practice. Sixty-eight such units were replicated by farmers themselves through horizontal spread of the technologies and practices in the district, reflecting on the impact of the interventions.