Exploring Goat-rearing as a Livelihood Activity in Abu Road

Ensuring timely vaccinations for goats against deadly diseases and encouraging the use of better practices in rearing them has had a noticeable impact on the health and longevity of the animals thereby increasing the willingness of the villagers to consider goat-rearing as a viable, primary, income-generating activity

Background

P RADAN started its operations in Abu Road in 2009. Abu Road lies in the foothills of Mt. Abu, the famous tourist destination in Rajasthan. Abu Road block in Sirohi district is situated at the southernmost tip of Rajasthan. It is surrounded by Gujarat in the south and west. To its east lies Udaipur. Abu Road is well connected to Udaipur and Palanpur through the national highway (NH 14) and is a major railway station on the Delhi-Ahmedabad route.

Abu Road is divided into two geographical regions–bhakhar (the hilly area) and bitror (the plains). Table 1 shows the distribution of the land, according to different categories. The demographic profile of the block shows that there is a huge concentration of below the poverty line (BPL) and schedule tribe (ST) families in the area. Table 2 shows the caste-wise and the poverty-line wise distribution of households in the 25 gram panchayats of Abu Road, according to the 2001 Census.