Seminar on “Strengthening Production and Marketing of Goats in Pakistan”

Goats were among the first farm animals to be domesticated. Research evidence shows that goats have been associated with human being for last 10,000 years. Goats were disseminated all over the world because of their greater adaptability under varied environmental conditions and their different nutritional regimes. In 2014 there were over one billion heads of goats in the world. Out of which 58.2 percent are in Asia, 36.2 percent in Africa, 3.5 percent in America and 1.7 percent in Europe. Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of goats in the world after China, India and Nigeria. The raising of goats has significant implications for the small farmers and landless households who also depend on the goats. In this regard, a seminar was organized by Dr. Waseem Ahmad on “Strengthening Production and Marketing of Goats in Pakistan” with the financial assistance of USAID funded U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security on March 1, 2017 at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. In the inaugural session Prof. Dr. Munir Ahmad welcomed the participants of the seminar and discussed the importance of goats. Prof. Dr. Usman Mustafa, Business Management Sciences, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics discussed the importance of marketing issues of goats. Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan made concluding remarks and he discussed the production and marketing issues of goats. He discussed various malpractices in the goat market and how commission agents and brokers exploit the producers at the market. The technical presentations were made by presenters from Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Nearly 35 million families in the rural areas are involved in raising goats with 3-4 goats per household. Livestock activity is a key livelihood and risk mitigation strategy for small and marginal farmers as well as poor landless households. It is an important productive asset and serves as an insurance mechanism for meeting household related crisis. Improvement in this sector will have significant impact on the living standards of people whose livelihood partly depend on rearing of goats. The seminar concluded with the remarks that production and marketing of goats are very important subsectors which have been neglected by the government. The producers should have information regarding the demand of various characteristics by the buyers and which characteristics of goat earn a premium price. Further the producers should have price information of various markets in order to get better prices for their goats.