AI app to help goat farmers get fair price with weight estimates

Being developed by CIRG, app to ensure farmers get right price for goats during fesitivals like Eid

To ensure that goat farmers get the right price during festivals such as Eid, the Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG) is developing a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based image processing application that accurately measures the body weight of these animals. CIRG is a premier research institute of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), an autonomous organisation.

At present, goat markets in India are highly fragmented, unorganised, and unfavourable for small and marginal farmers as they are overwhelmingly dominated by traders.  These traders typically purchase goats based on their number (called “nug” in Hindi), with little or no attention given to quality, breed, body weight or growth potential of the animals. Black Bengal breed is the most common goat variety found in India. This variety accounts for almost 18 per cent of the total goat population. It is mostly found in West Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand. 

  The application being developed by the CIRG will enable accurate estimation of weight by capturing pictures of the goat from three different angles through a mobile app. After the photos are taken, the AI-based application will analyse the images and calculate the animal’s weight, promoting transparency and fair pricing. 

“India, according to the 2019 livestock census, has around 150-160 million goats, of which more than 80 per cent, that is around 120 million, is reared purely for slaughtering purposes, and Eid is the time when maximum number of goats get slaughtered,” Dr Manish Kumar Chatli, director, ICAR-CIRG, told Business Standard. He said of the 110-120 million goats that are slaughtered in India per year, almost 50-60 million are slau­ghtered during Eid festivities. 

According to some estimates, around ₹1 trillion worth of goats are bought and sold during Eid festivities twice a year. India has the world’s largest goat population. Pakistan and Bangladesh are second and third, respectively, in terms of goat population.

“During Eid, the main criteria for farmers to get a good price for their animals is their phenotypic characteristics. With the new AI-based application, the arbitrariness that results in lower-than-expected price will end, leading to more remuneration for farmers,” Chatli said. 

He said that the application is now going through the data validation stage, and should be out for public use in the next three-four months. 

In India, demand for goat meat is rising with each passing year, and in metro cities, the price fetched for a kilogram (kg) of goat meat is close to ₹1,000. In 2024, India exported around ₹640 crore of goat meat to the world. 

Existing goat breeds in India reach an average body weight of around 25 kg in 14-24 months after birth.