GOAT industry may be lacking the appropriate support from the government, a researcher said.
In her lecture during the Knowledge x Change Inaugural Series at the University of the Philippines Mindanao, researcher and university assistant professor Jedi Ebarle-Bangcaya said most of the goat farmers are not very knowledgeable on the technical aspects of goat-raising. Some of them just learn through the entire process of raising.
Bangcaya said goat farmers should be given the proper incentives as a means of support for the industry, on top of the technical training and marketing know-hows to improve their knowledge on the industry.
As the common breed of goats in the country is the native breed, she said in order to further improve goat-raising, the quality of the breeding stocks should be improved as well.
Because some goat farmers have very limited and exploratory knowledge on goat-raising, they are sometimes not informed of the illnesses and the proper vitamins that the goats should be taking. With this, Bangcaya said the government should give assistance on health management for the farmers.
She also mentioned that the National Dairy Authority (NDA) targets to shift main dairy source from cow to goat as the latter offers more nutritious and easier to digest milk. Aside from that, she also said goat milk is known to be good to the skin thus the emergence of goat soaps and creams.
According to Bangcaya the efforts of the farmers will be more intensified with the assistance of the government.
