Banyusoca Village, Gunungkidul District, Java
This project will provide a women's farmer group "Gama Ngudi Lestari" in Banyu Soca village, Gunungkidul District, an area devastated by earthquakes in May 2006, with a goat-sharing scheme.
Each group member is provided initially with two female goats and a communally owned male goat for every ten females. Half of the offspring from the first two pregnancies are paid back by each recipient to help grow the community herd. These animals can then either be sold to provide for other essential items, or passed on to new group members entering the scheme.
Staff from the Department of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science at Gadjah Mada University, who have experience working on similar revolving-fund projects since 2001, will provide technical epxertise to group members on issues relating to animal husbandry, feed and health. Graduate and post graduate students from the University will also benefit from the ability to interact closely and exchange knowledge and information with group members.
This project was initiated in July 2007 with 34 households.
Srumbung Village, Pathuk District
This double-system goat rearing project works with the "Gama Tri Asih" women's group. The two systems that were adopted involve a short-term male goat fattening programme and a longer-term breeding programme run in parallel. In the short-term programme 2 young male goats are given to households for fattening and sold at the Idul Adha festival when the prices are at their highest. In the longer-term programme the same households are provided with 2 female goats and bred from for several years, in the same way the farmer group in Banyusoca Village are running their project. Thirty-two families are the initial beneficiaries of this project which was started in March 2008, but many more will benefit from the offspring of the long-term breeding programme that will be passed to other members of the community.
Sambeng Village
This project sought to develop rural communities through enhanced small ruminant and chicken production with the "Gama-Bakkti Manungaal" womens farmer group. However, during initial consultations the group expressed concerns about the potential of bird-flu to affect the chicken production system and the villagers decided to opt for a system combining goats with rabbits instead. The rabiit production system is intended to provide quick, short-term returns whilst the goats will provide longer-term security and income generation opportunities. Both rabbit and goat systems will adopt the revolving-fund principle. The project was initiated with 35 households in March 2008.
Sukorejo-Girikerto Village
The aim of this project is to introduce Etawah crossed goats to diversify and increase income. Prior to the project being implemented the main source of income for the villagers was from selling the fruit Salak Pondoh (Salacca zalacca), which is promoted for agro-tourism in Sleman regency. Salak Pondoh, or snake fruit, is a native species of palm tree and is popular with Indonesians, mainly due to the intensity of its aroma. In Sukerjo sub-village manure production is currently the most important agricultural output from keeping goats. The manure collected is processed to produce fertiliser, which farmers apply to land where the snake fruit are located. The contribution of goats to support farmer's income in Sukerjo is very important, but diversifying into milk meat and hide production would improve livelihoods. A programme to improve goat housing facilities has taken place to improve animal health. This project was initiated in April 2008 with 20 households.
In 2009 Brawijaya University implemented a project that will initially benefit 30 households by providing them with access to improved Boer goat semen for the artificial insemination of local breeds.
Turgo Purwobinangun Village
In 2011 a project will be initiated in a farmer group at Turgo Purwobinangun Village of Pakem district, Yogyakarta. The area was affected by the Merapi Mountain eruption in November 2010. The aim of the project is to increase goat number in order to add farmer income by selling kids. The project will implement a system of sharing and rolling goats. One farmer receives one mature goat. After two years, for each goat received the farmer has to return two goats. The first goat rolls to another farmer, while the second will be used to pay the expenses for the next rolling (monitoring, drugs, seed, material for extension services). Combining this system with research, practical work and extension services, hopefully can improve goat productivity and income of farmer in the village.
