Global food security

for centuries all over this subcontinent. The Malabari goat is known as the poor man’s cow because it has high milk production of up to two litres per day (averaging 1.2 to 1.5 litres of milk per day) and usually produces two offspring twice a year. They are also raised for meat, growing to an average of 30 to 35 kg. Other productive breeds, such as chirogi and charoli, are also kept. Most of the farmers in the area are rearing goats in the back yards to earn subsidiary income. The fodder includes jackfruit tree leaves and other leaves and grass. However, in and around the villages, these animals graze on various herbs and shrubs as seasons permit. Most of the poor agricultural labourers and farmers own three to five head per family while some of the more affluent are engaging agrilabourers to care for flocks of 100 to 500 head. Regarding health care, most of the farmers regularly deworm the kids and adult goats. Both Tamilnadu and Kerala government animal husbandry departments provide anthelmintics through their respective dispensaries. Sporadic incidents of unawareness or negligence may occur, but in general the goats are given good care. Vaccinations against foot-and-mouth disease, pleuropneumonia and tracheitis are given in endemic areas. Periodic, seasonal animal health care camps and campaigns are routinely conducted by the government and NGOs. The government of Tamilnadu has implemented a goat rearing programme as a priority for the past 15 years and supplies five goats to every eligible beneficiary, based on levels of poverty, to ensure sustainable income as well as sustainable food security. Currently, the government of Kerala is also committed to this programme in the Malabar region. Deep-litter or intensive confinement rearing systems are being adopted by some goat keepers, but we are discouraging this for health, welfare and behavioural reasons. These established initiatives need to be recognised if philanthropic efforts to ostensibly improve livestock productivity and food security, as proposed by Sargison and others (2017), are not to be redundant or self-serving by those who have not had deeper immersion into the communities and cultures they aspire to help. The most urgent livestock health and welfare issue needing to be addressed in this bioregion, along with its adverse environmental and wildlife impacts, involves so called ‘scrub’ cattle that are kept primarily for their manure (Fox 1999, Fox and Krantz 2016). They range freely during the day, often in protected wildlife zones, and are corralled at night for manure collection, which is exported out of the area, an illegal yet long conducted practice.