Goat Bank

1. Project Title: Goat Bank
Category:
• Agriculture & Rural Development
• Social Entrepreneurship
About this Project:
In India, 78% of the farmers are ‘small and marginal’, who own less than two hectares of land.
These small and marginal farmers practise subsistence farming for their livelihoods. As per the
59
th
round NSSO data, a farmer’s net income from cultivation is a meager Rs. 969 per month and
nearly half (48.6%) of the farmer households are indebted. This shows that Indian farmers lead
only a ‘hand-to-mouth’ existence through subsistence farming.
Post the green revolution years, mono-cropping and market driven farming gained momentum
among Indian farmers. As per the Development Report “A bitter harvest: Farmers Suicide in
India”, by Asian Studies Department – University of North Carolina, post green revolution,
farmers suffer from indebtedness because of shrinking markets, stagnating crop yields and
increase in production costs. The report also states that between 1993 and 2003, as many as 1
lakh indebted Indian farmers took their own lives. This is a testimony to the agrarian distress
Indian farmers face today.
So, be it subsistence agriculture or market driven mono-cropping system it has only led to
distress in the agrarian community. The fate of the farmers remains unchanged.
One thing that has always come to the rescue of farmers during periods of distress is ‘livestock’.
As per fifth and final report (2006) by National Commission on Farmers, Ministry of
Agriculture, 70 million rural households in India own livestock and 70% of the species are
owned by small holders. The number of livestock they own range between 1 and 10 in each of
these households. These livestock provide immediate cash in times of distress, the numbers they
rear is limited as it is seen as an add-on in subsistence farming. Though this helped farmers to
come out of crises, the livestock continued to be susceptible to disease risk and inbreeding
.

2. One of the ways to come out of subsistence agriculture and the debt ridden farming is by setting
up livestock related micro-enterprises. Many farmers attempted setting-up this as a
microenterprise but success is limited and patchy due to the following reasons:
a) Unavailability of good quality breeds – breeds available in the spot market is marked by
inbreeding. Good quality breeds available through institutions and other means prove expensive
and the numbers (required for microenterprise) are not available in a timely manner.
b) Access to finance – Access to formal sources of finance for farmers is a challenge as they are
considered un-bankable. Only 27% of farmers have access to formal institutional lending (As per
the Final Report by Committee of Financial Inclusion, NABARD).
c) Ineffective Extension services – Extension services are not available at door step and not
attempted in micro-enterprise scale.
We propose to solve the above mentioned problems through our following services:
• Breeding and supplying scientifically bred goats to small and marginal farmers at
competitive prices.
• Provide financial services by tying up with individual investors through crowd-funding
networks (Kiva, Milaap, Rang De).
• Offer training, feed management and veterinary services to the farmers through our in
house team on a paid basis.
• Offer market linkages in the form of “Buy-Back option” at competitive prices for the
goats reared and linking them to processors.
To summarize, our services will help farmers to set-up, run and scale-up micro-enterprises, thus,
promoting rural entrepreneurship among rural poor to achieve self-sufficiency.
Who will this help Rise?
• Small and Marginal Farmers who own 1/2 acre to 5 acres of land
• Farm labourers who lease 1/2 acre to 5 acres of land

3. How will this help them to Rise?
Our services will help the small and marginal farmers in the following ways:
• Scientifically bred goat supplied by us to the farmers will enable them to address the need
of good quality parent stock for goat rearing. This will ensure that the farmers get good
returns through better feed conversions. Income of farmers adopting goat rearing micro-
enterprise will increase by five times in 18 months as compared to the farmers who
practice subsistence agriculture. Increase in income will also lead to improvement in their
standard of living.
• The veterinary, insurance and feed management services provided by us will help them
mitigate the operational risks associated with goat rearing.
• The training and capacity building services provided by us will help them developing
skill sets to setup and run an enterprise.
• Easy access to financial services through crowd funding will help them avoid falling prey
to unscrupulous local money lenders.
• The micro-enterprise will also make the farmers self-sufficient and bankable.
What do I have already?
Team: 2 member team with experience in investing and incubating start-up social enterprises in
India.
(A.B. Chakravarthy is a B.Tech (Horticulture) graduate with Masters in Information &
Communication Technology in Agriculture and Rural Development (ICT-ARD), DA-IICT
Gandhi Nagar.
Ashish Thekkekara is a Management Graduate from the Indian Institute of Forest Management,
Bhopal. )
Infrasturcture: The team is in the process of piloting the project at Chockanathapuram village
in Theni District, Tamilnadu. The team has started a captive cultivation of fodder species on 5
acres of land. Establishment of scientific breeding center is underway.

4. Project Task:
S. No. Project Task Timeline
1 Establishment of goat breeding center Feb, 12 – J uly, 12
2
Create awareness among farmers to take goat
microenterprise
July, 12 – Sep, 12
3
Selection of 2 small and marginal farmers and piloting by
setting up 2 micro-enterprises.
Sep, 12 – Dec, 12
4
Tying up with crowd funding agencies and livestock
insurance companies.
Sep, 12
5 Tying up with partners for market linkage Sep, 12

What do I need?
Volunteer:
S. No. Required No.s Work Description
1. 2
Volunteer to raise awareness among farmers to take up goat
microenterprise.
Volunteer to convince individual investors and crowd funding
networks to invest in goat microenterprise.

Expertise:
S. No. Expertise Expertise Description
1. Veterinarian
for selection and breeding goats, vaccination, training to
farmers and to standardize good rearing practice
2. Agronomist
for planning fodder cultivation and optimizing the feed for
cross-bred goats

5. Equipments:
S. No. Equipment
1. Chaffer/Fodder cutter
2. Weighing machine
3. Feed mill
4. Feeding trough
5. Water trough
6. Castrator
7. Branding instrument
Funding:
Rs. 30 lakhs
Tag Your Project: Agriculture, Agrarian Crisis, Rural Development, Villages, Small and
Marginal Farmers, Goat Rearing, Scientific Breeding, Entrepreneurship, Social
Entrepreneurship, Micro-enterprise, Income, Poor, Farmers, Credit, Finance, Microfinance,
Farming, Animal Husbandry, Access to Finance, Training, Capacity Building, Crowd funding,
Investor, Urban, Middle income, Innovation, Green, Technology, Social Impact.