Marketing of Small Ruminants

Small ruminants – goats and sheep – occupy a prominent place in livestock economy of India. They provide meat, milk, fiber and skins. Rearing of goats and sheep is an important source of employment and income for sizeable population -among them majority belong to poor and marginal farmers. Meat animals are transported from rural areas to urban centers for meat production involving, often, long distances. Periodical markets (weekly) play a key role in the transactions. System of meat animal marketing suffers from number of disadvantages such as long distance transportation of live animals, weight loss during transit, involvement of middlemen leading to lower value realization to the livestock owners. Further, urban systems of meat production are unable to meet the requirements quality meat and distribution. To ensure higher returns to farmers and clean meat for urban consumers - there is a need to assess and work out alternative models of production. Decentralized production and centralized marketing appears to be one such alternative which is discussed in this paper.