SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITION AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCES OF THE GOAT REARED BY RURAL WOMEN IN THE FENI SADAR UPZILA, FENI

Abstract

The study was conducted to observe the socio-economic conditions of rural goat rearing women and reproductive traits of goats. The study area selected was Feni Sadar Upazila, Feni , and survey was performed during 15th February 2018 to 14th March, 2018. A total of goat 30 farmers were selected randomly for the study. The data reported that about 36.67% of farmers were landless, 30 %, 13.33 % & 20.00 % were small and marginal, medium sized and large farmers, respectively. The data showed that most of the goat farmers were poor, illiterate & had a high number of family members. From the study, it was observed that yearly goat rearing cost were Tk.2600, whereas yearly return of goat rearing was Tk.3250. On the other hand, cost benefit ratio of goat farming was 1.25 considering one lactation period. The result clearly indicated that goat farming was profitable. The average age at puberty, age at first kidding, kidding interval, litter size, post partum heat period, service per conception and gestation period of Black Bengal goat were 190 day, 345 day; 175 day, 1.15; 35.5day, 1.99, 142 day, respectively. The data also further showed that average age at puberty, age at first kidding, kidding interval, litter size, post partum heat period, service per conception and gestation period of Crossbred goat were 200,360; 250, 2.5, 115.75 ; 1.5, 146 days, respectively. From the survey work, it is assumed that the reproductive performances of Black Bengal goat (BBG) seems to be better than Crossbred goat (CBG). On the other hand, productive performances like higher birth weight, maximum body weight gain, high milk yield, longer lactation period were favorable for CBG. Additionally, the study indicated some important problems of goat rearing, some recommendations from these limitations were made for enhancing the growth and development of goat farming in Bangladesh.