NIAB project to upscale goat production

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad-based National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) said on Wednesday that it has taken up a project to upscale subsistence-level goat production to a viable and profitable model that will increase incomes and thereby reduce poverty and enhance food security, while simultaneously preserving the community and national resource systems.

The project is being implemented in Yadgir district of Karnataka with extramural funding from the Department of Biotechnology under NITI Aayog’s aspirational districts programme. Researchers and other personnel from the institute will demonstrate the various biotechnological interventions that can be used for advanced goat farming in rural areas.

The project envisages setting up of village level self-help groups of small scale goat farmers to introduce technological interventions for better management practices to enhance earning. It will seek to transfer knowledge on economical methods to make feed stocks from locally available dry fodder.  

The institute will also facilitate transfer of genes from breeds like Black Bengal, which produce abundant offspring, and use of selection procedures for improved breeding practices.