On a recent trip to CRED Partner FIAM in India, one of the projects that I visited was the goat farm, or should I say goat sub-farm. FIAM currently own over 400 goats and have been gradually building this number over the years. The goats are all traditional breed, and spread between 7 farming families who are given a small salary for looking after a group of the goats in an organic and humane way. The prime age for selling a goat is between 1 and 2 years old, and the prime time for selling a goat is wedding season, because the main use of goats in India is for meat rather than for milk. So, selling goats at times of celebration is the way to go, and by having the goats split across 7 locations, not only is there less pressure for a big piece of grazing land, but there is also an increased reach out to families who are celebrating in some way. The goat project is primarily seen as an income generation scheme for FIAM, and their aim is to increase to 1000 goats in total which will provide an ongoing level of income to support some of their other programmes.
