Hyderabad: With an increased sheep population in the State, the State government has decided to set up sheep markets in Khammam, Peddapalli, Wanaparthy and other districts soon. The markets will be constructed with necessary facilities in about five acres land in order to facilitate the sheep breeders to buy and sell sheep.
Further, the government has decided to launch a special drive in Gajwel on August 6 to provide medicines to sheep and goat across the State. Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, who reviewed the implementation of second phase of sheep distribution scheme here on Saturday, directed the district Collectors concerned to identify lands for construction of sheep markets.
He stated that Telangana has topped the country in terms of sheep distribution as well as sheep population, and the government is now making efforts to improve the sheep business further by setting up the sheep markets. He said against 79.16 lakh sheep distributed during the first phase, they have produced about 1.3 crore lambs which in turn has been translated into a transaction of Rs 7,800 crore and produced around 93,000 tonnes of meat.
He said about Rs 5,000 crore were spent for first phase of sheep distribution and another Rs 6,000 crore have been allocated for second phase of the scheme. As Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has increased the unit price from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 1.75 lakh considering the increased expenses, the Minister wanted the officials to ensure that there was no room for error in implementing the scheme.
The officials were asked to take measures for growing fodder in vacant lands belonging to the Animal Husbandry Department and other places as well as encourage farmers to grow fodder by providing seeds at subsidised prices. Animal Husbandry Secretary Anitha Rajendra, Telangana State Sheep and Goat Development Cooperative Federation managing director Ramchander, Animal Husbandry Director Laxmareddy, Telangana State Livestock Development Agency CEO Manjuvani and others participated.
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