Abstract :
The justification for improving dairy goats and increased milk production in Asia is driven by
several important factors, e.g. the demand for higher priced goat milk, compared to dairy
cow milk; specific benefits of goat milk in human nutrition and food security; the need
for more animal protein and genetic diversity. The world goat population of approximately
921 million includes 570 breeds. In the developing countries, there exist over 30 potentially
important indigenous “improver breeds”, 15 of which are in Asia. “Improver breeds” being
defined as potentially important breeds, capable of making a special genetic contribution
– having above average levels of performance potential to enhance productivity, or being
specially adapted to particular harsh environments. Asia has the largest world population
of goats of about 60% (556 million, followed by Africa with 311 million). India (35.2%), China
(29.3%) and Pakistan (12.0%), together maintain 77% of the world population and 42% of all
goat breed types. Asia then has a 26% goat breed share in global terms, equivalent to 146
indigenous breeds- of which only 13 are dairy breeds, or 9% of all breeds being classifiable.
Many of the “improver breeds” are underutilised, are less well known and have variable
milk yields – emphasising the need for the assessment of their potential. Globally, goat
milk production is only 2.2% of the total milk production, of which 58% is produced in
Asia. The informal marketing of milk is very common, but recently there has been a trend
towards the commercial sale in urban areas at two to three times a higher price. Currently
development strategies to overcome major constraints are (i) generation of numbers of
appropriate breeds, (ii) clear production objectives, (iii) improved utilisation of the total
available feeds, and (iv) linking production to post-production and consumption systems. In
cognisance of the importance and potential in developing dairy goats, discussions at the first
Asia Dairy goat conference resulted in consensus to form the Asia Dairy Goat Conference
