Smart Agriculture Village Program: Effectiveness on Social, Technical and Economic Changes Among Goat Farmers in Bardiya, Nepal

Abstract

The study was done to explore the concept and effectiveness of smart agriculture village model program among goat farmers in Bardiya, Nepal from view point of agriculture sustainability. Primary data were collected using semi structured questionnaire with randomly selected 80 households from program implemented villages. Adoption index, scaling technique and before-after impact assessment tools were used for the data analysis. Before, goat farming was of traditional type with low productivity and very less earning in the study area. Study revealed that after the implementation of program, household income from goat farming found significantly increased by 31.41% in the study area. Farmers average annual income from goat raised to NRs. 50987 from NRs. 38800 in the study area. With the intervention of the program, average herd size was increased to 16.99 from 12.69, average numbers of doe increased from 5.23 to 7.09, average number of kids per kidding increased from 1.83 to 2.28, kid’s mortality and abortion rate found decreased. After the implementation of program general management obtained highest adoption index of 71.07 and 66.43 in Thakurbaba and Geruwa village respectively followed by health, housing, breeding and feeding practices. Occurrence of disease was found as the most challenging constraints in the study area with 0.80 index value followed by high kids’ mortality and expensive feed and forage. Among the surveyed household, 38.75% were satisfied and 36.25% were moderately satisfied with the implementation of program. Based on these findings, although the program model seems successful approach for sustainable community development, the study suggests possible interventions for breed and feed improvement measures and in-depth orientation and follow-up is compulsory before replications.