Reorienting priorities
Agriculture and allied sectors are being given priority by the government and various projects have been approved in the recent past.
One of the projects approved recently by the J&K government is to achieve self reliance in the mutton sector.
Self-Sustenance in mutton production’ is one among the 29 projects, which were approved by the Jammu and Kashmir administration after being recommended by the UT Level Apex Committee for holistic development of Agriculture and allied sectors in UT of J&K. The prestigious committee is headed by Dr Mangala Rai, Former DG ICAR and has other luminaries in the field of Agriculture, Planning, Statistics & Administration like Ashok Dalwai, CEO NRAA, Dr. P. K Joshi, Secretary, NAAS, Dr. Prabhat Kumar, Horticulture Commissioner MOA & FW, Dr. H. S Gupta, Former Director, IARI, Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, APD besides Vice Chancellors of the twin Agriculture Universities of the UT.
The expected output from the project included import of 2700 high genetic merit/elite sheep and goats, increased lambing percentage from 80 to 120 and considerable reduction in marketable age for sheep and goats (40-50 kg in 6 months). The germplasm of the elite animals will be propagated through artificial insemination and embryo transfer techniques to intensify genetic conversion. The project aims to double the farm income through early weight gain, improved carcass yield and production and reduce lamb mortality. Effective health cover is expected to prevent production losses by 20-30% and provide consumers with safe and quality meat.
