Goat raising can help alleviate poverty in rural areas by transforming this subsistence type of farm activity into a viable small animal business enterprise.

Funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the proponents of this development project entitled "Rural enterprise development through innovative goat production systems" hope that the project will contribute to the Philippine government's bid to alleviate poverty.

Also known as the RED project, this undertaking will be implemented until 2007. Specifically, the RED project aims to enhance production performance of goats by about 50 percent and improve the profitability of goat production in smallhold farms, enhance market access of smallhold goat producers by improving the quality of their products to match consumer preferences, determine the productive and reproductive performance of improved goat genotypes raised under smallhold farm conditions, encourage adoption of improved goat production technologies by smallhold rural farmers through action learning strategies, develop a community-based selection and breeding system that suits to rural farmers' resources and capacities for the production of high-quality goats, and encourage and initiate community-based goat genetic conservation activities.

Aside from enabling strategies, the RED project is into on-farm and on-station research and development (R&D). On-farm R&D will be conducted in farmers' fields where farmers themselves play an active role in decision making and implementation of project activities. Packages of technology options such as sustainable parasite control, feeds and feeding, housing and management, selection and breeding systems, animal health program, record keeping will be presented to the farmer-partners for adoption following a participatory approach.

On the other hand, on-station R&D, which will focus on genetic evaluation and breed selection and improvement and feeding strategies, will be implemented by researchers of the Small Ruminant Center - Central Luzon State University. The outputs of the on-station R&D will be made available to the project's farmer-partners and other goat raisers as inputs to their farming activities and as aid in decision making.

The RED project is a collaborative undertaking of the International Livestock Research Institute, Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Agricultural Research, and Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD). PCARRD spearheads the working group that implements the project. Other project partners are the local government units of the Nueva Vizcaya (provincial veterinarian) and the Municipality of Bambang (municipal agricultural officer, agricultural technologist for livestock, and the barangay captain of Abian).

Direct beneficiaries of the project are the farmer-partners who were selected as participants to the project. However, the community as a whole will also enjoy benefits derived from the project. Those who will be involved in activities (trading of inputs and products) that would result from an enhanced goat enterprise will also be considered beneficiaries of the project. Other goat producers who will source improved stocks and packages of technology and information will also benefit from the project's outputs. - Elaine F. Lanting, S&T Media Service.