Dairy goat: A potential candidate of the Dairy Science Park Peshawar, Pakistan

Pakistan has been blessed with rich livestock resources. Cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats are major food animals producing 46.4 billion kg milk and 3.1 billion kg meat, at a value of US$ 28.5 billion per annum. The population of the four species of animals showed respective growth of 141, 143, 61 and 269%, with goats recording the highest growth rate, reaching the present population of 158 million heads (Economic Survey, 2011) (Figure 1). The distribution of the goat population in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Northern Areas (+FATA), is 39.5, 21.7, 13.5, 22.4 and 2.8%, respectively. Goats and sheep contribute a significant share (19%) of meat produced in the country (Figure 2). The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Northern Province of Pakistan with its arid and hilly nature inhabits majority of the small ruminants. These animals are kept by the farmers on small scale under extensive farming system. Sheep and goats, being small-sized ruminants, are capable of integrating into the dissimilar socio-economic situations that is prevailing in Pakistan.