Research into goats

Published: 06 August, 2007

FAO and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are researching the genes of black Bengal dwarf goats, a key leather livestock in Bangladesh, to improve breeding techniques and the species' health. They are a key and distinctive element of the countries estimated 30 million goat population that produces 20 million sq ft of skins annually.

With growing arable farming reducing fallow land available for goats, the two agencies plan 'to build up the capacity of national agricultural research systems' into the species, whose skins 'are of excellent quality and fetch high prices.'