Current status, challenges and the way forward for dairy goat production in Asia - conference summary of dairy goats in Asia

Abstract

Asia hosts more than half of the world's 1 billion goats and is also where domestication of wild goats began. Goats, including dairy goats, are adapted to a wide variety of harsh environments and thus play key roles as providers of nutrition, food security and socio-economic status to their human owners in many low-income Asian countries. In many countries in Southeast and East Asia, medium and large scale commercial dairy goat farming can be profitable enterprises because of the high price of goat milk, and good demand due to its health and medicinal properties. In some Asian countries, dairy goats play important roles in non-commercial activities, including use as educational animals in elementary schools in Japan and show animals in Indonesia. Dairy goat farmers in Asia are faced with numerous challenges, such as a shortage of high producing animals adapted to the local environment, lack of quality feeds during a prolonged dry season, many diseases and difficulty getting their product to market, however, the increasing demand for goat milk in the newly developed and developed economies in Asia provides an optimistic future for dairy goat production in this region.

Keywords: Asia; Asian-Australasian Dairy Goat Network; Dairy Goat; Goat Milk; Milk Price.

Figure 1

Goat population in the different regions (% of world population) in 2017.

Figure 2

(a) A typical Nadoshini goats (courtesy of Mr. Seyed Mehdi Hoseini); (b) Nomadic goat farming in western Iran (courtesy of Mr. Seyed Mehdi Hoseini).

Figure 3

(a) Beetal doe (courtesy of Dr A. K. Thiruvenkadan), (b) A herd of Jamunapari goats (courtesy of Dr A. K. Thiruvenkadan).

Figure 4

(a) A typical female Beetal goat in Pakistan (courtesy of Dr. Fatah Ullah Khan); (b) Woman milking her goats in Punjab (courtesy of Dr. Fatah Ullah Khan).

Figure 5

One of the newly established dairy goat operations in Yangling, China which combines (a) production, (b) processing and (c) marketing of its products.

Figure 6

(a) A typical goat farm in Japan (courtesy of Dr. Shinichi Kobayashi); (b) Goats for educational purposes in Japan (courtesy of Mr. Akio Imai).

Figure 7

Dairy goat (a) conference and (b) workshop to transfer technologies to farmers and industry (courtesy of Dr. Hsia Liang Chou).

Figure 8

An annual event on Etawah goat contest in Central Jaya (courtesy of Dr. Dewi Astuti).

Figure 9

(a) Shami goats raised on slatted floor in Malaysia (courtesy of Dr. S. Shanmugavelu); (b) Saanen goats raised in a closed house with evaporative cooling in Malaysia (courtesy of Mr. Ivan Ho).

Figure 10

(a) Soap and shampoo products from goat milk (courtesy of Dr Sangsak Nakavisut); (b) Cosmetic products from goat milk (courtesy of Dr Sangsak Nakavisut).

Figure 11

(a) Bach Thao doe with a Saanen x Bach Thao kid (courtesy of Dr. Do Thi Thanh Van); (b) A typical Bach Thao Buck (courtesy of Dr Nguyen Van Thu).