Socio-economic status of Pantja goat rearers of Uttarakhand

Abstract

A benchmark survey was conducted to collect the baseline information from the Pantja goat rearers regarding various breeding management practices with special reference to Pantja goats under field condition of Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital districts of Tarai region of the Uttarakhand during a period of two year (April 2015 to March 2017). Majority (90.39%) of goat rearers belonged to Hindu religion, 55.97% of respondents lived in nuclear family with 53.64% having a family size of more than 5 members. Overall literacy rate was 64.96%. Majority of the farmers rearing Pantja goats were from Scheduled castes (43.88%) and 82.95% belonged to the middle age group. Majority of the goat keepers (47.91%) followed animal husbandry as a primary profession and 73.80% were landless. Among the total livestock maintained by the goat keepers’, maximum (81.69%) were goats, 10.84% cattle and 7.47% were buffaloes. The majority of households (71.97%) earned a total income of more than `50,000 followed by 26.36% households with total income between `20,001–50,000, 1.55% with a total income between `10,000–20,000 and only 0.16% with less than `10,000 per annum.