Enhancing Farmer Awareness: Investigating the Knowledge Gaps in Goat Breeding Practices and Inbreeding Concerns
Abstract
The farming of goats is essential to the global agricultural sector since it supplies a variety of communities with dairy products. There is a notable lack of knowledge among farmers about the best ways to raise goats and the dangers of inbreeding. The purpose of this investigation was to examine farmers' understanding of goat breeding strategies and their knowledge of the issues surrounding inbreeding. In India, information was gathered about the farmers' level of education, the breed of goats they kept, the size of their herd, the goat breeding method they used, the age at which the goats went into heat and the size of the litter. Goat farmers' educational levels were assessed at the elementary, secondary and higher levels for a total of 269 farmers. Goat herd size per home was 7.64±0.20, but Black Bengal doe litter size was 2.67±0.06. The raising of goats in the investigation area was dominated by individuals with an elementary education. Black Bengal goats were kept by the majority of farmers, as opposed to Jamunapari and Crossbred goats. Goats with more females than males in each household were more numerous. In the examined area, black Bengal doe populations were abundant. The majority of farmers stated that a goat was 7 months old at first heat yet several others said they were 9 months old and some discovered that their goats were 1 year old at first heat. Farmers had little knowledge of the body weight ratio between the bucks and does and the genetic merit of bucks. Every farmer employed the natural mating technique; several were indifferent to the breeding system, while nearly 10% permitted close mating when their does were inseminated, which can have contributed to an inbreeding depression in the goat population.
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