With aim to double production, HP goes in for wool revolution with Oz merino sheep
SHIMLA: In a new initiative, the Himachal Pradesh government has launched Rs 8.5 crore community-based structured breeding programme to achieve genetic improvement of ‘Pahadi’ sheep indigenous to the region through crossbreeding with Australian Merino sheep. Australian Merino sheep are known to have the softest and finest wool used for apparels.
The state government has recently imported 240 Australian Merino Sheep ( 40 males and 200 females ) with total cost of around Rs 6 crore for breed improvement by importing exotic sheep under the National Livestock Mission (NLM) so that superior exotic germplasm could be infused to achieve the target of 3,000 tonnes wool production by next five years. The state has recorded total wool production around 1482.244 tonnes during the year 2020-21. The Chamba district is top wool producing district with annual production of around 425.012 tonnes while Kullu and Shimla recorded 249.661 tonnes and 196.474 tonnes respectively during the year 2020-2021.
“State-run State Cooperative Wool Procurement and Marketing Federation Ltd (Woolfed) has a modernized plant for wool scouring in Banuri, Palampur where around Around 11,500 kg wool was processed in the year 20202021,” said Minister for animal husbandry Virender Kanwar.
The average wool production in Himachal is about 1599 grams per sheep every year. The state has two popular breeds of sheep namely Rampur Bushahri and Gaddi breed that are popular for producing high-quality carpet wool. The Rampur Bushahri sheep breed is reared in Shimla while Gaddi sheep breed in reared in district in Chamba, Kangra,
Kullu, Kinnaur and Lahaul & Spiti. The state has 7,91,345 sheep which produce coarse carpet quality wool at present.
“The breeding programme will improve the quality of the wool and wool of 21-22 microns suitable for apparel production shall be produced which will be at par with world’s best premium quality fabrics produced in Australia, New Zealand,” said Kanwar.
Himachal Pradesh is the sixth largest producer of wool in the country contributing 4 per cent to the country’s total wool production.