Despite having favorable environmental and geophysical conditions for sheep rearing and a huge market for meat and meat products, Jammu and Kashmir imports on an average 14729899 heads of small ruminant annually for slaughter from the deserts of Rajasthan to make up the deficit. This results in an annual loss around 40 crores. The importation of sheep and goat for slaughter presented an increasing trend over the years from 2002-03. Further, considering the projected human population, production, consumption behavior and import of small ruminant (goat and sheep) in the J&K, there is a deficit of 257.57 to 710.88 lakh kg. The gap between supply and demand is expected to get widened in future. The paper reviews the prospects of filling this deficit indigenously. The present article is primarily devoted to exploring some complex dynamics of Kashmir mutton industry and contextualize mutton production and its augmentation for envisaging future strategies.
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