CSWRI Annual Report 2019

Abstract

Sheep husbandry is one of the important source of income and livelihood among the farmers in the state of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttrakhand. As per the latest livestock census, sheep population has increased from 65.06 million to 74.26 million, contributing 678.0 million kg of mutton, 40.4 million kg of wool and employment to nearly 6 million people. There is growing demand of mutton and wool in the country. Wool production figure is almost constant over the last one decade. The existing woolen and carpet industries require 100.0 million kg of wool annually. To meet the demand, the country is importing 80-90 million kg of wool from Australia, New Zealand and other countries. The demand of mutton is rising rapidly in the country. Although import of mutton is almost negligible but constant efforts are required to fulfill the domestic requirement. With the shrinking of grazing lands and deterioration of quality of existing pasture in the country, alternative system of sheep farming from subsistence (low input- low output) to commercial (high input - high output) is need of hours for doubling of income of farmers from sheep husbandry by 2022. Institute has undertaken research to focus on more production from less number of sheep under intensive production to meet the demand of mutton in the country. The institute is working on introgression of FecB gene to increase twins/triplets, accelerated lambing system to harvest three lambs in two years instead of two lambs in two years, higher body weights at slaughter age, feed conversion efficiency and meat yield, diversified use of coarse wool in composites, organic manure, handicrafts, quilts etc. The value addition of meat and milk is also explored to increase income of farmers along with availability of diversified food items of better quality for consumers in urban areas. Application of planned flock health programme enables to contain losses in flocks at farm as well as field by limiting the mortality and morbidity within normal range. Institute is extending training, demonstration and skill development of farmers in large scale to upgrade their knowledge in sheep farming. Farmers are being benefited from the various scheme like Tribal sub plan, Schedule caste sub plan, Farmer FIRST, Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav, Sansad Adarsh Gramin Yojna etc. For benefits of industries, entrepreneurs and farmers, Agri-business Incubator Centre (ABIC) has been established in the institute with the support of ICAR. CSWRI has bagged the prestigious Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi 2017-18 award for Avipunj magazine (Hindi). CSWRI's research outputs have been documented in 51 peer reviewed articles, 64 presentations in seminars and symposia, 13 technical manuals, 55 book chapters and technical articles and 2 books during the year. I am sincerely thankful to Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE and DG, ICAR and Dr. B.N. Tripathi, DDG (Animal Science) ICAR for their support in terms of guidance and resources. I am thankful to Dr. V.K. Saxena, ADG (AP&B), Dr. Vineet Bhasin, Principal Scientist, ICAR, New Delhi for their overwhelming support and coordination. I also sincerely thank Prof (Dr.) M.L. Madan, Chairman, QRT and his team for very pertinent and useful suggestions and recommendations for the benefit of institute. We are grateful to Dr. Prabhakar Rao, Chairman, RAC and other members of committee for reveiwing the ongoing projects and constructive guidance for improvement. I congratulate the staff members of ICAR - CSWRI for their sincere efforts and hope that in the coming years several new technologies would further increase the wool and mutton production and improve income and livelihood of farmers. I also congratulate Dr. A.K. Shinde, In-charge, PME and the Editorial Board (Dr. C.P. Swarnkar, Dr. S.J. Pandian, Dr. L.R. Gurjar, Dr. Vinod Kadam, Dr. Arvind Soni, Dr. A.S. Mahla and Mr. J.P. Meena) for their hard work and timely publishing this Annual Report