Economic introspection of traditional goat rearing by ahirs of valsad district in South Gujarat
Ahir community is known for goat rearing as their sole occupation sustaining on waste lands of Valsad district in South Gujarat since centuries. The present study introspected economic aspects of traditional goat rearing by Ahirs under field conditions. Data were collected using pre-structured questionnaire from all the 38 goat farmers in randomly selected villages at fortnight intervals from April 2010 to March 2011. The overall mean herd size of 30.32±1.83 was maintained by these farmers.The mean litter size of 1.42 and average buck to doe ratio of 1: 22 in herds were recorded. Income due to population increase, sale of animals, milk and manure contributed 10.84, 35.86, 49.20 and 4.10% respectively whereas purchase of animals, medicine, labour and other miscellaneous items contributed 5.3, 6.64, 67.50 and 20.56% share in total expenditure. Overall benefit: cost ratio of 2.45:1 was reported by the goat farmers.