ABSTRACT
Many rural development projects are based on objectives related to improving human nutrition and family incomes among target groups. Small farms in the tropics often produce inadequate amounts of high quality protein foodstuffs needed for good health, especially for children and pregnant women. Milk is a good source of this needed protein. Although many farms do not have the land resource base to provide sufficient feed for a lactating cow, they may support several lactating goats. Several goats (3 to 5) in place of a cow would have several advantages: loss of an individual animal has less impact on family welfare than loss of a cow; initial investment per animal is low; mating does to kid in different seasons allows a small, but consistent daily supply of milk throughout the year; litters of two or three kids at 7 to 8 month intervals markedly increases offtake of slaughter stock for family consumption or sale to provide needed income.
