About Us
Welcome to the AADGN website!
"Sustainable and Thriving Goat Sector Serving The Needs of Society"
AADGN is a new grouping by and for all who are interested in dairy goats. The primary objective of AADGN is to serve all stakeholders including researchers, academicians, policy makers, farmers & investors and milk & other dairy processers working to promote dairy goat farming in Asia-Australasia and beyond.
We look forward to your active participation in our activities and support to enable AADGN to achieve its objective.
Asian-Australasian Dairy Goats Network (AADGN)
Over 90% of the world's 921 million goats are kept by farmers in the developing countries of which about 60% are in Asia. Goat farming is often associated with smallholders and subsistence farming systems but it contributes significantly to the nutrition and wellbeing of rural populations in many developing countries, especially in Asian and African continents. In recent years, the high price of goat's milk in several South-east Asian countries has attracted the traditional small farmers and investors into dairy goat farming. Due to lack of appropriate breeds, most new dairy goat farms in these countries are largely dependent on imported breeds to build their flocks and do not have access to proper technical support. Since dairy goat farming is more labour intensive and requires higher management skills than meat goat farming, many new dairy goat farms had to be closed. Thus, there is a need for a proper technical support covering various disciplines of dairy goat farming to assist the development of dairy goat industry in countries hoping to develop this high valued livestock farming to enhance profit and the social and economic status of the rural and peri-urban populations.
One hundred and forty participants from twenty countries of the First Asia Dairy Goat Conference (held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 9th to 12th April 2012) strongly supported the formation of the Asia-Australasian Diary Goat Network (AADGN).