Raji Joshi
Herding Good Times
Munni Devi is still astonished at the turn her life has taken. At times she wonders if it’s all real. Till recently at fifty years, she was an unskilled labourer earning a pittance in daily wages. The money was never enough to keep her and her family afloat. Feeding the family, meeting medical expenses, her children’s needs, repairs to the shanty she called ‘home’, so on and so forth required more money than what she could muster doing hard labour every day of the year. Day in and day out she struggled to make both ends meet.
Things took a dramatic turn for the better when Munni joined ‘The Goat Trust’. Munni Devi now earns a cool Rs.20,000 to 30,000 a month in commission for the 20 to 30 goats that are sold.
The Goat Trust (www.thegoattrust.org) works in 16 Indian states to develop low-cost technology for goat rearing, livestock financial services and transparent & efficient livestock trading. The organization has completed around 15,000 Artificial Insemination (AI) in goats and has produced over 11,000 pure bred goat kids around Lucknow.
PashuBajar is the first organized goat market which works on standard transparent system of live body weight pricing equation. This has been developed through field action research and has traded over 15,000 goats in six states making the trade acceptable to producer as well as traders. 50 such village level goat trading centers have been established by women entrepreneurs around Lucknow.
Apart from selling goats, Munni Devi also promotes Artificial Insemination (AI) for small herd goat farmers. She facilitates doorstep AI service to provide high quality buck semen at affordable costs. In the last six months she has achieved 65 AI in her village and has earned incentives.
The goat breeding and marketing center is now a flagship program, that can be established by any organization in any village that has a high density of goats. For that, the organization needs to invest up to Rs. 10.5 lakhs and they can generate upto16.5 lakhs in 12 to 18 months.
The Goat Trust has transformed many under privileged women’s lives, giving them financial stability, security and above all, a sense of dignity.
For details, you may visit our website or write to us: nnbreeds@gmail.com