The Goat Gamble

Abstract

"It has been a slow and steady shift over decades. Forced by declining returns from farming in ecologically fragile areas, small farmers have been taking to goat rearing. Today, goats ensure income to five million households in India. It is now bonanza time, with demand for goat meat projected to shoot up. India will have to almost double its goat population in 10 years. Government is encouraging goat rearing. But no one considered one question: where will the goats graze? Over the past 50 years land available for grazing has shrunk by half and forests are reportedly overgrazed. If India does not secure its pastures, goats might turn from an asset to a liability."