An investigation was undertaken to assess the socio-economic status of the 140 goat farmers of the three districts namely Surguja, Surajpur and Balrampur districts of the Northern hills of Chhattisgarh. The present investigation revealed that goat farmers were mainly from the male domain (58.57%) whereas, only (41.42%) were female and (62.85%) majority of the goat farmers belong to the middle age group followed by the old (20.00%) and young (17.15%) age groups. About 97.14% of the household head were married and of the goat farmers had a joint family. Nearly, 60.71% of goat farmers possess medium-sized families (5-8 members), followed by 21.43% having large families and 17.86 % having small families. More than half of the goat farmers belong to the Schedule Tribe category, followed by Other Backward Class, Schedule Caste and General category. The frock size ranged from 5 to 37 numbers. Goat farming was mainly dominated by small and marginal farmers. Agriculture is the primary occupation in the studied area. The majority of the goat farmers were illiterate and that goat farmers of the Northern hills of Chhattisgarh were not received any type of training, loan, and benefits from the government scheme regarding goat farming.

Highlights

• Investigation focused on the analysis of the socio-economic status of local goat farmers of the northern hills of Chhattisgarh.
• Evidence has shown that the majority of goat farmers belonged to small and marginal categories.