Sheep

Sheep breeding is a traditional livelihood strategy that is well adapted to the local ecological conditions of drought-prone western India. Besides being the main source of income for the majority of pastoral communities, it also plays an important role in sustaining agricultural yields through the production of manure, and it contributes to the conservation of agricultural biodiversity.

The Raika/Rebari and the Bharwads are among the pastoral nomadic castes dependent on sheep breeding. These communities are either landless or have only very small land holdings. In order to support their flocks, sheep pastoralists engage in various degrees of nomadism, with the extent of migration dependent on herd sizes and yearly variations in rainfall.

Until about the mid-1990s, sheep husbandry was a fairly attractive economic option. But in recent years, wool prices have crashed. Because of the availability of chemical fertilizer and droughts, there is also now less demand for sheep dung.

Support for sheep breeding

LPPs is currently involved in the project, “Securing Pastoral Livelihoods in Rajasthan through Support for Sustainable Sheep Production”, funded by Misereor (2003-2005). The goals of the project are to:

• Support pastoral communities in adapting to the changing macro-economic context
• Improve negotiating capacity of pastoralists with the state, and
• Nudge the animal husbandry establishment, including the government and universities to adopt more farmer/pastoralist-led approaches towards livestock development.

On the ground, the project is trying to remove constraints with respect to disease control, breeding, marketing, and grazing.

More information

	The black sheep of Rajasthan by Ellen Geerlings Seedling, October 2004. pp 11-16. Click here for a summary. Download full text 385 kb, 6 pages
	Sheep husbandry and ethnoveterinary knowledge of Raika sheep pastoralists in Rajasthan, India by Ellen Geerlings, 2001 Download full text.