Authors : K.C. Raghavan and T.V. Raja
Abstract: A study was undertaken to assess the socioeconomic status of the goat farmers of the Malabar region of Kerala. The study was conducted at three centers of the All India Coordinated Research Project for the improvement of Malabari goat viz. Thanur, Vadakara and Thalassery. Information were collected through personal enquiry and questionnaire developed at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Kerala from a total of 2146 randomly selected goat farmers consisting of 685, 587 and 874 farmers from Thanur, Vadakara and Thalassery centers, respectively. The results revealed that majority are marginal farmers with a land holding of <50 cents. Nearly 92% of the heads of the families were educated and 15% of them had high school level education and above. The average monthly income of the majority of the goat farmers was 501-2000 rupees and the average income from agriculture and animal husbandry was 248.60 and 198.23 rupees, respectively. Majority of the farmers (55.73%) had a tiled house with concrete flooring. Females are mainly engaged in goat rearing. Majority of the farmers (66%) listen to the radio/television programmes and equal number of them access to training classes and almost all of them are interested to learn more if classes are arranged.
K.C. Raghavan and T.V. Raja, 2012. Analysis on the Socio-Economic Status of the Goat Farmers of Malabar Region of Kerala. Veterinary Research, 5: 74-76.