The livelihoods of landless and near-landless resource-poor livestock keepers are extremely precarious even without these losses; they are unable to grow all of their own food, and the cost of purchasing food uses up or exceeds the family's income, thereby placing them in greater debt.
Identifying the causes of these losses from the goat herd, and developing appropriate strategies to reduce them, should help reduce the vulnerability of the very poor, and begin to improve their food security. It may also allow them to send some of their children to school, so that their livelihood choices may be extended.
Supplementing goat diets with energy (in the form of ground maize) improved doe fertility and increased the potential income of the goat flock. IIt was also observed that maize supplementation reduced the incidence of disease in the wet season, and there was again a tendency for the potential income from the goat flock to be increased.
The supply of dietary energy is clearly a key constraint to goat production by resource-poor livestock keepers in this area, but finding an ffordable means of overcoming this constraint can be a challenge.
Providing supplementary energy (in this case in the form of maize) at key times in the goats’ life cycle is probably the best means of maximising returns on such an investment. The strategic use of supplementary maize (or another energy source) in the does’ diet at times of peak requirements (late pregnancy and early lactation) is affordable by many of the participating farmers, as they have adopted the technology, albeit with some modifications. The effect of this strategic supplementation is a measurable increase in the contribution that the goat flock makes to the livelihood of the household. The level of adoption by one community (Birendra Bazaar) was lower because maize was not available there. Further work needs to be done to identify alternative sources of supplementary energy in these situations, and to communicate the effectiveness of this technology to target institutions working with very poor and landless livestock keepers in Nepal and elsewhere.
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