Regency gives goats to low-income folks

YOGYAKARTA: The Sleman regency administration has found a unique way to help eradicate poverty and improve people's welfare in the regency: by distributing goats to the people.

Under the plan, the regency allocated Rp 6 billion (roughly US$646,000) from its budget to buy over 20,000 goats for a revolving goat "fund". The goats are distributed to farmers, who must "pay" back the regency with a healthy goat in two years.

"Within two years, the farmers will return the goats and those will be distributed again to the needy," Sleman regent Ibnu Subiyanto told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"The efforts will also help crop farmers, who can use the goat excrement as organic fertilizer," he said. -- JP