First Asia Dairy Goat Conference

The main conclusions and recommendations communicated by the organizers were:

• There is huge demand for goat milk in Asian countries.
• The sale price of goat milk is 2 to 4 times higher than that of cow’s milk in Asian countries.
• The goat milk processing industry is not well developed in Asia and there is a need to address this issue through public-private partnerships.
• R&D work on goat production has remained neglected and there is a need to generate new knowledge in the areas of nutrition, health, reproduction and genetic diversity and to collate and disseminate the already available information.
• The extension work and training of goat farmers should be given top priority.
• Development of sound and relevant policy options, institutional building and linking farmers to markets should be addressed, leading to both increase in goat milk production and processing of goat milk.
• South-South and North-South collaboration should be promoted in areas that lead to increase in goat milk production and processing.

The Conference proceedings will be available on FAO and UPM websites in the coming months.
The International Goat Association has shown its interest to be informed about the network that has been initiated in this First Asian Goat Conference.

More information on: www.fao.org/ag/againfo/home/en/news_archive/AGA_in_action/2012_Dairy_Goat_Productivity_in_Asia.html