Aatpaadi in Sangli district of Maharashtra is a drought prone tehsil. Water scarcity in the area has driven the farmers here to search for various techniques of farming. Eighty-six year old Narayan Deshpande, is one such farmer, who has been campaigning for enclosed farming of goats since 1976. He has even earned the title of 'Bakari Pundit' from Central Goat Research Institute. Now his son Prasad is following his footsteps to take the task forward and train the farmers.
Hailing from traditional farming family, Shri Deshpande turned to goat farming while facing the worst drought of 1976. He enjoys watching the habits of animals. Soon he realised that the goats roaming free in farms, grazing lands and Government forest lands, might be accelerating deforestation. As the goats have the habit of eating everything green, they eat up freshly growing saplings, seeding sprouts, grass blades and pods, stopping the growth of new forest saplings and even the grass resulting in exceeding the impact of drought. Observing this, he started keeping his goats in enclosed premises, which produced good results. The loss of grass and fresh saplings stopped.
Encouraged over it, he has started campaigning for enclosed goat farming. He has also done various experiments on the goat food and care. He started an NGO, Krishi Parivar Kalyan Sanstha for this objective. He has also written a book on enclosed goat farming. Two years ago, Rambhau Mhalagi Prabodhini felicitated him with Antyodaya Puraskar.
Prasad told Organiser that they have only Oosmanabadi breed of goats as it is the most suitable and sustainable variety in their region. He said there are plenty of regional varieties of goat breeds throughout the country, but only 17 or 18 breeds are documented till now. He expressed regrets that there has been very less research on this very common friend of farmers in India.
—Rajesh Prabhu Salgaonkar
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