Concluding synthesis and the future for sustainable goat production

The paper presents an analysis and conclusions of the 9th International Conference on Goats in Mexico. It highlights a very successful conference, the types and extent of subject matter areas that were addressed and their trends. Continuing emphasis on research along disciplinary lines is apparent, in comparison to the more applied links with development issues. It is suggested that future international conferences on goats should give more attention to development aspects concerned with increasing productivity. Emerging issues in the future and looming concerns were identified which emphasise the need for collective efforts to promote the potential future contribution of goats. Policy elements are also important and include: (i) policy through advocacy (i.e., education and empowerment); (ii) gender; investment in research and development (R&D); (iii) direct government action; and (iv) through law (i.e., microcredits and NGO participation). The overriding challenge is to define policies that can improve the livelihoods of small farmers and the landless who own goats, foster greater institutional involvement and investments in target agro-ecosystems, promote increased adaptive research and development involving productivity, enhancing technology application, and vigorous scale up production and post-production systems, linkages and market access. The resolution of these constitutes the challenges for the immediate future.