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goat’s full economic potentials are yet to be
realized. The wide variability in the production
performance ( e.g., birth weight ranging from
1.7 kg to 3.16 kg; slaughter weight ranging
from 10 kg to 20 kg, etc.) and product quality
(e.g. meatiness) of goats in smallholder farms
is considered a major deterrent to its utilization
as reliable livelihood option for small farmers.
Major causes of these are the low
productivity of existing stocks and low adoption
of improved goat production technologies/
practices. Nevertheless, the experiences and
results of projects previously implemented in
various areas of the country as reported by
Alo (2003), Brown et al. (2003), Venturina et
al. (2003) and PCARRD (2003,2004b, 2005,
2006) have demonstrated that application
of improved packages of technology in
smallholder farms can effectively enhance the
production performance and thus, profitability
of goat production in smallholder farms.
Moreover, through the said projects,
modalities for effective and efficient adoption of
technology packages by smallholder farmers
have been developed and tested on-farm. The
aforesaid successes achieved by smallholder
farmers demonstrated the positive response
of goats in smallholder farms to improved
packages of production technologies. The
increased productivity (e.g., 98% improvement
in growth rate) of goats in these farms presents
smallholder goat production as one of the
potential livelihood options for rural farming
communities to flee from poverty.
This project is anchored on the
successes and learning in enhancing goat
production that were gained from completed
ILRI-IFAD TAG 443 and CASREN projects
and from a CGIAR-funded on-going project
now being implemented in Bambang, Nueva
Viscaya (PCARRD, 2005-2006). It hopes,
among others, to contribute in the attainment
of the technical targets, i.e., reduction of preweaning
mortality from 25% to 10% and
increase in slaughter weight from 15 kg to 30
kg by 2020, of the Industry Strategic Plan of the
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Pasture-Ruminant Cluster.
OBJECTIVES
The primary goal of the project is to contribute
to the Philippine government’s bid to alleviate
poverty in rural areas by transforming goat
raising from a subsistence type of farm activity
into a viable livestock-based rural enterprise.
Specifically, the project aims to:
1. Increase goat productivity by about
50% in the focal sites and improve the
profitability of goat production in this
areas;
2. Enhance market access of
smallholder goat producers by
improving the quality of their products
to match consumer preferences;
3. Enhance adoption of improved goat
production technologies by
smallholder rural farmers through
action learning strategies;
4. Develop a community-based selection
and breeding system that suits to
rural farmers’ resources and
capacities for a continual goat genetic
improvement and sustained supply of
high quality goats;
5. Determine the productive and
reproductive performance of improved
goat genotypes raised under
smallholder farm conditions; and
6. Determine the benefits and costs
accruing from the adoption of
improved production systems and
technologies.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Pre-implementation Meeting of project
implementers
Rural Enterprise Development Through Innovative ..............