Grazing the Deccani into Twilight Kanna K. Siripurapu1, Durgalaxmi Venkataswamy2, Sushma Iyengar3, and Sabyasachi Das4 1 Revitalizing Rainfed Agriculture Network, 2 Blue Lotus, 3 Sahjeevan, and 4Watershed Support Services and Activity Network. Email:
[email protected]
Introduction Indigenous sheep are an integral part of the agro-ecological systems of India, and contribute greatly to the agrarian economy especially in the rainfed regions of the sub-continent. They, play an important role in the livelihood of not only the indigenous pastoralist communities but also of a large proportion of small and marginal farmers and landless. India is internationally renowned for its indigenous cattle and ovine diversity, however more than 50% of indigenous sheep breeds are under serious threat. In addition, characterization of the indigenous sheep breeds was done more than half a century ago. The surveys conducted in majority of the regions/breeds are far from complete and information on recent estimates are unavailable (Bhatia and Arora, 2005). Adding to the already grim picture is the serious threat of genetic erosion and contamination from intermixing of nearby breeds, introduction of exotic breeds, crossbreeding and artificial insemination programmes of the government and changes in farming, land-tenure system have led to the decline in purebred population and dilution of genetic merit. (Bhatia and Arora, 2005). The Indigenous Deccani Sheep Breed The Deccani sheep breed has existed in the Deccan Plateau region (including Telangana state) for centuries. The name had been derived from its geographic distribution over the Deccan Plateau region. The dual purpose Deccani in southern - peninsular are not only important numerically but also the largest contributors to carpet wool and meat production in the country (Bhatia and Arora, 2005). The relatively small and hardy breed is very well adapted to the poor semi-arid/rainfed pastoralist conditions. The animals are hardy and capable of walking long distances during migration (Bhatia and Arora, 2005). The breed could be an admixture of the woolly types of Rajasthan and the hairy types of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (Yadav, A.K., et al, 2017).
The breed is known for its low-grade coarse fleece and shred twice a year. The first shearing is done when the animal is six months old. Annually, the breed yields about 500 – 700 gms, relatively low grade wool, mostly used by the indigenous Kuruma communities for manufacturing rough blankets, known locally as gongadi (Patil, 2009). According to the local pastoralist communities, the breed comes in six different coats: Nalla (black), Barrigi (reddish brown/beige), Neeli (ash/gray), Kassera (light ash/gray), Jalla (white-black), and Tella (white), (Patil, 2009). The breed is maintained in large flocks and traditionally the Kuruma community had been rearing and conserving the Deccani sheep breed, through selective breeding, true to the breed type. There had been many reports on the declining population of Deccani sheep in the Indian state of Telangana (Ramdas, 2015, The World Bank et al, n.d., Sudhakar, 2017, Amareswari, et al, 2017, Janyala, 2017, Mithun, 2018). The reports have been pointing at the National Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) initiative, a part of the Telangana state welfare programme aimed at increasing meat production through participation of the indigenous Golla and Kuruma communities. A small study was conducted in four districts of Telangana with an objective to capture the other narratives, especially of the indigenous shepherds and traditional weavers to gain more clarity over the issue. About the Study and Study Area A study on the socio-cultural and economic aspects of pastoral communities of the Deccan region was conducted by Sahjeevan and Center for Pastoralism based in Ahmadabad and New Delhi respectively, with the field support of Watershed Support Services and Activity
Network and Revitalizing Rainfed Agriculture Network, during July – September, 2018. The pilot study was conducted at four villages of Chennapur, Sivampet Mandal, Medak district, Gangapur, Naranyankhed mandal of Sangareddy district and Adilabad district of Telangana and Parla and Salkapuram village, of Kalluru mandal of Kurnool district, of Andhra Pradesh. The resource persons have been selected based on the purposeful sampling technique. Around 60 persons (mostly sheep rearers and traditional weavers) of the indigenous Kuruma 1. Adilabad community have been involved in the study. 2. Medak 3. Mahbubnagar Data (predominantly qualitative) was 4. Kurnool collected through focus group interviews and personal interviews, using open ended questions. The study has also involved a visit to the livestock market of Pebbar, of Mahbubnagar district of Telangana, one of the largest livestock markets in the state. The visit involves personal observations and interaction with sheep rearers and traders for data collection. The Vanishing Deccani Sheep Breed The indigenous Deccani sheep breed had been under serious threat from multiple factors, such as shortage of labour, shrinking commons, restrictions on access to customary grazing lands inside the forests, change in lifestyle and aspirations of the pastoralist communities, etc, have been adding to worsen the situation. In addition, the collapse of woolen market across the sub-continent has added to owes of the breed and the shepherds, compelling them to abandon dual purpose breed like Deccani and gravitate towards rearing non-wool-hairy breeds and predominantly meat production. Telangana state ranks 6th in the country in meat production and the state government had been pushing meat industry involving the indigenous pastoralist communities like Gollas and Kurumas. As part of the state welfare programs, the government of Telangana had been distributing 84 lakh sheep to 4 lakh shepherds belonging to the Kurma and Golla, communities. The INRs 5000 crores worth program, will distribute a unit of 21 animals (20 ewes + 1 breeding ram) to each beneficiary household on a 75% subsidy. Each unit costs INRs 1.25 lakhs, including logistics and insurance and beneficiaries should be members of the local sheep cooperatives (Govt. of Telangana, 2017, Ramdas, 2015). The state under the National Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) initiative, has already sanctioned INR 398.88
crore to eight districts for promoting sheep breeds suitable for meat production (Mithun, 2018). Under the above special package for shepherd communities’ programme, the Telangana government had been distributing the Nellore sheep, a non-native, fast growing, relatively tall, meat producing reddish brown hairy coated breed on a massive scale (Ramdas, 2015, The World Bank et al, n.d., Sudhakar, 2017, Amareswari, et al, 2017, Janyala, 2017, Mithun, 2018). As a result of this intervention the already declining population of Deccani sheep breed had been decreased by 90 percent in districts like Medak (Mithun, (2018). The left 10 percent population is under serious threat from cross breeding with the non-native hairy coated Nellore and Ongole breeds. Cross breeding of Deccani with Nellore and Ongole breeds has already resulted in production of hybrids without wool. Thanks to the synergic effect of all the above mentioned factors that the once widely available local delicacy, the Deccani sheep meat is currently off the menu (Mahender, 2018). Our observations of the declining Deccani sheep in the present study area also corroborates to findings and reports of Ramdas, (2015), The World Bank et al, (n.d.), Sudhakar, (2017), Amareswari, et al, (2017), Janyala, (2017), and Mithun, (2018). Narratives of the Shepherds Local shepherds do not find any advantage of Nellore breed over Deccani in terms of weight and meat production, moreover, they prefer Deccani over Nellore (Sudhakar, 2017). The local breeders and traders even use the metaphor of indigenous chicken and crossbreed broiler chicken to compare the meat quality of Deccani and Nellore. One breeder/trader at Pebbar market says that: “Deccani is just like our indigenous chicken, tasty and pricey and Nellore is just like the crossbreed broiler chicken, bulks up quickly but tasteless.” Despite their preference of Deccani over Nellore, local shepherds are still gravitated towards rearing Nellore breed mainly for the following reasons: labour shortage, absence of shearers, collapse of local fleece market, and lack of buyers. Traditionally shearers used to visit the flocks to shear the fleece and paid INR 5/- to the shepherd in return for fleece. But currently things have changed and rearers have to pay INR 10 – 20/- to the shearer for shearing once. The sheep should be sheared twice and spending INR 20 – 40/- over each animal is not considered economical by the rearers. Further, local sheep rearers do not find any use of the fleece, it is often discarded on the road side or dumped into the waterbodies. Local rearers are not familiar with operating the traditional shear used for fleecing, and shortage of labour is adding to the problem, even if they would like to do it themselves. Almost all the shepherds at the Pebbar market has referred to the late Beespalli, a local fleece entrepreneur of Chagapur village. He used to buy fleece from the rearers and sold it to local
wool weavers. However, everything has collapsed after he passed away and there had been no other buyer since his demise. As a result of lack local production and supply of wool the number of traditional (gongadi) weavers has decreased by 90 – 95 % at Chennapur, Sivampet Mandal, Medak district, Gangapur, Bijilipur, Saipet, Dakur, Talelmeh and Vangadal of Naranyankhed and Regadu mandals of Sangareddy district of Telangana and Parla and Salkapuram village, of Kalluru mandal of Kurnool district, of Andhra Pradesh. The Need for Conservation of Indigenous Sheep Genetic Resources The molecular genetic studies on Nellore and Deccani sheep conducted by Amareswari, et al (2017) suggests that there is a high degree of genetic variation within the breeds and these two breeds differ significantly in phenotype and performance. The study further suggests that existing variations hold scope for further improvement of these breeds and calls for enhanced efforts to preserve the purity of these breeds in the present context of crossbreeding of these two breeds, in the native tract of Deccani sheep (Amareswari, et al 2017). Bhatia and Arora, (2005) points that conservation of sheep genetic resources, is not only a national but also an international issue, therefore, immediate measures should be taken to for a combined effort of conservation of sheep diversity and self-reliance. References Amareswari, P., M. G. Prakash, B. Ekambaram, M. Mahendar and Ch. H. Krishna, 2017. Molecular genetic studies on Nellore and Deccani sheep using microsatellite markers. Indian J. Anim. Res., Print ISSN: 0367-6722 / Online ISSN: 0976-0555. Bhatia, S. and Arora, A. 2005. Biodiversity and Conservation of Indian Sheep Genetic Resources - An Overview. Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 10: 1387-1402. Janyala, S. 2017. Telanagana’s Flagship Scheme a Tale of Sheep that Kept Coming Back. The Indian Express. Accessed online: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/telanganas-flagship-scheme-a-tale-ofsheep-that-kept-coming-back/ Mahender, A 2018. Deccani Sheep Off the Menu. The Hans India. Accessed online: http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Khammam-Tab/2018-06-14/Deccanisheep-meat-is-off-the-menu/389181 Mithun, MK . 2018. Telangana government’s sheep scheme pushing ‘Gongadi’ weavers to brink? Indian Express. 07th January 2018. Mallick, A. 2017. Reviving the Ba Ba Black Sheep of Telangana: The Yarn of the Gongadi Blanket. The News Minute, 7’ January, 2017.
Patil, G. 2009. Gongadi – The woolen blanket of Telangana. Anthra, Andhra Pradesh, India. Ramdas, S., 2015. Sheep and Shepherds: A lost opportunity? Food Sovereignty Alliance. Wordpress. Sudhakar, K. 2017. A Study on Temporal Changes of Deccani Sheep Rearing in Mahabubnagar District of Telangana State. Thesis submitted to P.V. Narsimha Rao Telangana Veterinary University, Rajendranagar, Telanagana. The World Bank, SERP, Commissioner, Rural Development, Gov. of Andhra Pradesh, (n.d.). Reviving Deccani Sheep Breed for Climate Resilience – Processes Emerging from the Experience of Andhra Pradesh Drought Adaptation Initiative (APDAI). Commissioner, Rural Development and Watershed Support Services and Activity Network (WASSAN), Secunderabad, Telangana, India. Yadav, A.K., et al, 2017. Characteristic Features of Registered Indigenous Sheep Breeds of India: A Review. Int. J. Pure App. Biosci. 5 (2): 332-353.
