Muzaffarpur, Bihar: In Bihar’s floodplains, every year, families brace for what the monsoon might bring: rain or ruin. With no other option but agriculture, farmers are increasingly hedging their risks by taking up goat rearing. It is not a replacement for farming, but a backup, a way to survive climate shocks and build financial stability.
Ravi Rajan Kumar (23) from Jhapaha village near Muzaffarpur explained: “Our family has been farming for over 50 years, but it’s becoming harder to sustain a living from it as the weather has been very unpredictable.”
In 2022, the floodwaters submerged Kumar’s three bighas of land. “In that very instant we lost Rs 30,000 worth of crops, and the total damage was much higher,” he said.
Bihar’s monsoon has become increasingly erratic, marked by a dangerous combination of prolonged dry spells and sudden, intense flooding. This twin crisis has made agriculture, still the mainstay of most rural livelihoods, deeply precarious. A lack of rainfall weakens crops during the growing season, while floods submerge farmlands and destroy harvests. Waterlogging can prevent sowing for months, cutting off any chance of income recovery.
The damage in recent years shows how severe the crisis has become. In 2022, due to repeated droughts and inadequate irrigation, 62% of farmers who cultivated paddy were uncertain about continuing with the crop the following year. Meanwhile, 27% of wheat farmers had already shifted to other crops.
Bihar recorded a 19% monsoon deficit between June and September 2024, its third consecutive year of poor rains. That year, June alone saw a deficit of 52%, with just 78.4 mm of rainfall against a normal of 163.3 mm. Nineteen of the state’s 38 districts experienced shortfalls ranging from 20% to 53%, leaving kharif crops stunted and soil moisture too low to support rabi cultivation.
Even in dry years, floods have not spared the state. In late September 2024, nearly 28.71 lakh people across 450 villages in northern Bihar were affected after intense rainfall in Nepal and the release of nearly 600,000 cusecs of water from the Birpur and Valmiki Nagar barrages into the Kosi, Gandak, and Bagmati rivers. Official data show that 0.24 million hectares of standing crops, mostly paddy, were impacted with over 91,000 hectares suffering more than 33% crop loss.
The trend has continued into this year. Between June 1 and July 25, 2025, 16 out of Bihar’s 38 districts recorded a rainfall deficit ranging from 23% to 98%. Four districts received no rainfall at all. Statewide, Bihar saw a 46% monsoon shortfall during this period: receiving only 189.4 mm of rain against a normal of 349.1 mm.
For many families like Kumar’s, repeated crop failures have made it clear that farming alone is no longer dependable.
For Kumar, the turning point came in early 2023 when his neighbour Babita Kumari (38), a Board Director of Mesha Mahila Bakripalak Producer Company, introduced him to goat farming.
“We’d seen Babita managing her goats so well for years,” Ravi recalled. “She explained deworming and vaccinations, and how that reduces the risk of young goats dying. That gave us the confidence to try.” The family started with five goats, investing about Rs 15,000.
The returns came quickly. Around the Qurbani festival, they sold three goats for Rs 25,000, earning a profit of Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 in just six to seven months. While modest compared to their Rs 30,000 loss, it provided a much-needed financial cushion. It wasn’t about recovering all losses at once, but establishing a reliable alternative income that traditional farming no longer guaranteed. That initial profit was modest due to purchase and early costs. However, once two female goats gave birth to four kids, the equation changed. With only routine expenses like deworming and vaccinations, around Rs 400 a year per goat, their returns improved substantially.
Safety net
“Goats mostly eat local vegetation and require very little special fodder. The costs are low, and you can sell them when you need cash, for health emergencies, weddings, or school fees,” Ritu Devi (32) of Araria district explained.
In 2024, heavy rains destroyed Devi’s family’s peanut crop on their five katha farmland (5 katha is approximately equal to 6,805 sq ft), causing a Rs 15,000 loss. “But we recovered that money through goat rearing,” she added
Her family currently has 13 goats, and they, on average, sell 5-6 male goats each year for approximately Rs 40,000.
In Bihar, Black Bengal male goats, especially khassi (castrated) ones, fetch higher prices due to their superior meat quality. People say that castration enhances muscle and fat development, yielding more tender, desirable meat.
Gulab Ansari, a mutton seller in Muzaffarpur, said buyers come from as far as Tamil Nadu and Nepal to purchase Bihar’s native Black Bengal goats. “The meat is better, more flavourful,” he said.
During festivals like Qurbani, demand surges, with buyers competing for larger, healthier goats that meet religious sacrifice standards, allowing for lucrative sales if timed well.
“With goats, there are no absolute losses,” Devi said. “Even if a goat dies, you can sell it to the butcher. And demand is always there.”
Goat rearing was especially crucial for Kumar last year.
“When the flood came, everything else stopped, the fields, the markets. But the goats gave us some breathing room,” Kumar said.
Now, Kumar’s family plans to expand their herd to at least 10–12 goats. 'They’re our cushion,' Kumar said. “You can’t always depend on the land anymore.”
Women rearing financial freedom
For many rural families and women in particular, goat rearing is becoming an essential part of coping with climate change. “Many women are starting to rear goats alongside traditional farming to create a more reliable income source,” said Anup Kumar, Assistant Programme Officer at the Aga Khan Foundation. “Climate adaptation isn’t just about big infrastructure projects or policy changes. It’s about small, organic shifts. Rural communities are finding their own ways to cope with climate shocks by diversifying income sources.”
In Bihar, this shift is notably gendered. “It’s mostly women who are taking up goat rearing,” Anup Kumar explained. “They’ve traditionally cared for small animals, so it fits naturally into their daily routines. But now, it’s also giving them more say in financial decisions.”
Take Afsana Khatoon from Bochaha block in Muzaffarpur district as an example. After losing her husband in 2012, she returned to her parents' home, helping her brothers with farming. As input costs climbed and agricultural returns became uncertain, Khatoon and her family sought other income sources. “We had seen other families in our village with a few goats, so we bought two in 2014 and two more the next year,” Khatoon said. Their early attempts were rough; a couple of goats died from disease, and they hesitated to expand. “We didn’t really know how to care for them properly. At that time, goat rearing still felt like a gamble.”
In 2018, Khatoon joined Project Mesha, an initiative by the Aga Khan Foundation, supported by the Gates Foundation, that trains women in scientific goat rearing practices. Through the programme, she learned how to identify and manage diseases, deworm goats, and follow a vaccination schedule. She also received a weighing machine. “This helped me fetch a better price from the butcher. I could now negotiate based on the actual weight and market rate, not just guesswork,” Khatoon said.
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Today, she manages a herd of 10 goats. “Goats have become like an ATM for us. Whenever we need money for food, school fees, or medical emergencies, we can sell one immediately,” she said.
In August 2024, her daughter suddenly fell ill. “We didn’t have enough savings, but we had goats. I sold one for Rs 3,000, and it helped us get through the tough time without taking a loan.” Khatoon’s family now focuses on raising khassi, which fetch higher prices during festivals like Holi and Qurbani. “Looking ahead, my family and I are saving to establish a full-fledged goat farm.”
Towards entrepreneurship
This new financial autonomy is also shifting how women are viewed in their communities. “In many areas, we now see families supporting women when they start something of their own,” said Himanshu Sharma (IAS), Chief Executive Officer of the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (JEEViKA), the Government of Bihar’s flagship initiative for women’s empowerment and poverty reduction. JEEViKA plays a key role in scaling up goat rearing in Bihar, having distributed nearly one lakh goats to 33,000 families so far.
To formalise the sector, JEEViKA helped establish two dedicated Farmer-Producer Companies (FPCs) for women goat rearers: Mesha Mahila Bakripalak Producer Company (backed by the Aga Khan Foundation) and Seemanchal Jeevika Goat Producer Company (supported by Microsave). “We’re now preparing to launch three more such companies this year,” Sharma added.
He credits the growing popularity of goat rearing to structured support and increasing community trust. “Earlier, few raised goats due to high mortality, middlemen eating profits, and an unorganised structure,” he explained. “But thanks to regular deworming, vaccination drives, and transparency brought in through tools like weighing machines for pashu sakhis, mortality is down and incomes are up. The entire value chain has become more reliable.” Both Khatoon (Mesha FPC) and Devi (Seemanchal FPC) are members of these companies.
These FPCs operate on a cooperative model. Members buy shares, pooling resources and animals while sharing ownership and voting rights. At the panchayat and block level, goats are collected from members at a pre-agreed rate, then sold to butchers, restaurant chains, or farm owners at a higher live weight price. The profit margin, typically 10-15%, supports operations and pays dividends or patronage bonuses to shareholders proportionate to their sales. FPCs also facilitate access to essential inputs like vaccines, herbal medicines, feed mixtures, and low-cost tools, helping individual rearers avoid overcharging by private agents or unreliable middlemen.
The boards of these companies are composed primarily of women like Khatoon and Kumari, elected to the Mesha FPC board. Operational staff, such as accountants or the CEO, are hired as needed.
Rohit Sengupta, CEO of the Seemanchal Jeevika Goat Producer Company, shared, “We have almost 20,000 women shareholders in 17 blocks across Araria, Purnea, and Katihar. Most are from poor families, with only about 10% owning farmland. They can’t afford cattle or buffalo, but goats are manageable.”
He added, “One goat can have four babies a year, which can be sold within 10-12 months. We sell on live weight, and money reaches these families exactly when it’s needed.”
Sengupta reported the company earned Rs 4.88 crore in gross sales and Rs 54 lakh in net profit last year, expanding into 39 blocks since June 2025.
Bump in the road ahead
Challenges still remain. Access to veterinary care is limited, and disease outbreaks, especially during the monsoon, can wipe out entire herds. “Training helps, but the support system needs to be stronger,” Khatoon stressed. Women goat rearers in the villages said that often, the nearest trained vet is located in another block, and getting timely help can be difficult.
Market linkages are another hurdle. Rearers say middlemen continue to dominate the trade and take a significant share of the profits. With limited bargaining power and little information on live weight prices, many women feel shortchanged when selling their goats.
However, Khatoon added: “Goats won’t make us rich, but they help me and my children survive.” [101Reporters/VS]
This article is republished from 101 Reporters under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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