JAIPUR: This Bakri-Eid has brought gloomy news for the goat farmers of Rajasthan. There are large pockets of people who earn their livelihood by rearing livestock in the state. The receding water-table, lack of rainfall and other such factors have led the land farmers to explore other options of income of which goat farming is a big hit. But this time the demand has fallen almost by half and the goats are being sold at throwaway prices.
The Shekhawati region of Sikar, Tonk, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Sri Ganganagar sells goats to various states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Kashmir as well. Usually, the selling price of a goat shoots up 4 times ahead of Bakri-Eid. This time though, due to various reasons in different states, the demand has fallen almost 50 per cent.
Arman Ali has sold the same weight goats for just Rs 8,000 which was sold for Rs 20,000 last year.
"We have been raising these goats for the last one and a half years. The amount we are getting for them is even less than the food expenses we spent on them. A 30 kg goat is now being sold for Rs 12,000 which was Rs 25,000 last year," he added.
Another goat owner, Zakir is equally unhappy. “The prices of feed have also increased. We are losing a lot of money", he exclaimed.It is not just traders but most of the goat owners of the state have the same story to narrate.
Goat trader Abdul Latif says, "The extreme rainfall in Maharashtra and Gujarat has hindered transportation of these goats and then there is the Kashmir lockdown. All of these reasons have contributed to this doom."
He adds that even the local markets are not seeing high sales because of the slowing up of the economy and that people's buying capacity has decreased.
There are similar circumstances in Jodhpur as well. The Barkatullah stadium and Aakhaliya corner are the biggest markets in the city.
The goat farmers bring goats from Jaisalmer and Barmer as well as they have a high demand but even those are not getting sold.