Abstract
A study was carried out to analyze the constraints in the small scale backyard goat farming in Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu. The data for the study was collected from 60 backyard goat farmers’ by simple random sampling method. Backyard goat farming is largely carried out by the resource poor households for support purposes because of their low initial investment. Though the goat farmers earn profit from the goat farming they face lots of problems in day to day farming activities which reduces their income. Constraints in the various categories of goat farming were analyzed using Likert scale. Lack of knowledge about balanced feeding, non-availability of green fodder, non-availability of improved breeding bucks, higher mortality rate in kids, exploitation by middlemen, lack of willingness in youths to take up the goat farming, lack of scientific knowledge in rearing goats, attack of goats / kids by predators were perceived as major constraints in backyard goat farming. The factors influencing the intensity of constraints were analyzed by multiple linear regression. Among the eight demographic and farm related variables taken as explanatory variables, five variables viz., educational status, occupation, distance from the veterinary hospital, distance from the market and experience in the goat farming were found to be associated with the constraint score in a significant manner and other variables were statistically non-significant.

Key words: Backyard Goat Farming, Multiple Linear Regression, Constraints, Goat