The potential of goats for African farmers

Farmers and pastoralists across Africa increasingly use goats for survival and to boost their incomes. However, there are many barriers to making more use of goats. So far governments have paid little attention to this issue.

People in Africa have been keeping goats for thousands of years and keeping goats is deeply embedded in African culture. Nowadays, the increased frequency of droughts and environmental degradation has encouraged more pastoralists to keep goats, while small mixed farms prefer goats to cattle, due to the decline in government veterinary services. There are even a few commercial farms providing goat meat for urban markets.

Research from FARM-Africa, UK, highlights the social and economic role goats play in Africa. The author suggests how keeping goats could be developed to help poor rural people and argues that goats should be central to poverty alleviation programmes.

The importance of goats lies in the unique characteristics they possess, which are particularly suited to the experience of many rural farmers, especially in difficult times. These include:

• Goats are highly suitable in times of crisis, being easy to transport, relatively tolerant to drought and reproducing quickly. During the war in Rwanda, many goats were walked to safe areas.
• Goats are cheap to buy and they are often the only asset possessed by a poor family. They can also be sold for basic necessities during crises; FARM-Africa’s goat programme in Ethiopia successfully helped women and their families to survive.
• Households can boost incomes by intensifying goat production, using new systems to supply dairy or meat markets, especially if crop farming fails.

Despite the considerable potential of goats in efforts to reduce poverty, there has been little government support to solve the many problems facing pastoralists and farmers. These include access to improved breeding stock, appropriate credit and insurance services, development of new domestic and regional markets, marketing infrastructure, and technical knowledge. The author suggests that as part of a `poverty-focused livestock revolution’, policymakers invest in goat development by improving:

• available services, perhaps community-managed where government services are scarce, such as feeding, veterinary, and milk processing services
• breeding programmes, for example crossbred dairy goats provided through ‘buck stations’ where females are brought to mates
• the provision of credit to acquire goats or new breeds of goats, with less formal credit to poorer farmers through non-governmental organisations
• livestock banks where farmers jointly keep a group of goats and pay back loans together
• processing and marketing goat products to add value for markets, for example processing milk into higher value cheese and yoghurt
• farmer participation and representation through organisations such as the Meru Goat Breeder’s Association in Kenya
• government investment in rural infrastructure and agricultural research, along with supportive legislation that could, for example, open up markets or allow the safe import of breeding goats.

Source(s):
‘Goats: Unlocking Their Potential for Africa’s Farmers’, Working Paper Series No. 2, FARM-Africa: UK, by Christie Peacock, 2005 (PDF) Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 8 September 2006

Further Information:
Christie Peacock
FARM-Africa
Research, Policy and Communications Department
9-10 Southampton Place
London, WCIA 2EA
UK

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7430 0440
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7430 0460
Contact the contributor: info@farmafrica.org.uk

FARM-Africa, UK

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