ANIMAL PRODUCTION THROUGH WOMEN’S GROUP — GOAT — SHARING SCHEME

Abstract

This paper is focused on development of animal production through w0men’s
group applying the goat-sharing scheme, a university based livestock development
project to enhance small ruminant production in a rural community. The women groups were set up at Kwarasan, Gombang and Wonolagi villages in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia. The members of the group consist of 30 to 35 women. The objectives of the scheme were to alleviate farmer’s poverty, to increase goat population at the village and to increase motivation of farmer in goat management. A physical benefit to the members involved in the goat~sharing scheme is the ownerships of the kids. The number of kids kept by the participants depends on the number of kids born from the first two pregnancies. Afterwhich the participants also owns the original female goat and all subsequent offspring. By 2004, the goat-sharing scheme had been running for over five years for Kwarasan, and three years for Gombang and Wonolagi. The majority of the female goat allocated within the scheme had already in the third to fourth (Gombang and Wonolagi) or the fived to six (Kwarasan) pregnancies. The other benefit of the goat-sharing scheme is production of manure, which is a very useful by products of goat keeping. It was rare for any of the members to sell goat faeces for cash because the manure has more valuable as a fertilizer for crops. At the time being, the total number of goats from three villages are 1200 heads. When the compost produced was applied to marginal land, there were around 75 ha of marginal land being improved per year by utilization of the organic fertilizer. The programmed of animal production through goat-sharing scheme, are able to give rural women access to resources, information, and enable them to the increase goat productivity, which therefore benefiting their families financial security.