Socio-economic Profile of Goat Rearing Farmers and Their Management Practices in Sylhet, Bangladesh

The study aimed to find out the socio- economic profile of goat rearing farmers and to investigate the ongoing goat management practices in Sylhet district. One hundred and fifty goat rearing farmers from three districts of Sylhet were randomly selected for the study. The study revealed that a large number of respondent goat rearing farmers were middle- aged (56.67%) having a primary level education (36.67%) with large family size (55.33%). Majority of the farmers (59.33%) were labour, and most of them (81.33%) were married. Two third of the farmers were in the landless group having maximum 0.02- acre land and normally started their goat- rearing business by taking a loan from NGOs (48%) or invested their own money (49.33%). Half of the goat houses were made of tin, and most of them were without Macha (a platform little above the floor). About one- third of the farmers (36%) followed free- range system by only grazing their goat natural fodder (72.00%) and provided wheat bran (59.33%) as a concentrate feed. Most importantly, they never supplied water to the goat house. Black Bengal goat is the most preferred breed in the area. Majority of the farmers (66%) have partial knowledge about diseases, and among them, only 18.67% farmers followed regular vaccination schedule. One- third of the farmers used anthelmintic regularly. Village veterinary doctors were the main source of technical support. Moreover, 87.33% farmers buried the dead body of goat and threw (56.67%) the goat placenta to the outside. In case of a breeding system, 96.67% farmers used natural breeding and 69.33 hired bucks for breeding purpose.