Promotion of Wool/Pelt Processing and Marketing (HADP Project 27)

What is HADP Project 27?

Promotion of Wool/Pelt Processing and Marketing is Project 27 of the all-round Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) of the Agriculture Production Department, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, implemented through the Sheep Husbandry Departments of the Jammu and Kashmir divisions in collaboration with SKUAST-Kashmir, SKUAST-Jammu, the Department of Handloom and Handicrafts, urban local bodies and municipalities.

Jammu and Kashmir shears a large volume of wool every year and generates pelt as a by-product of its mutton trade, yet most of both leaves the Union Territory raw or is simply wasted. Grading, baling, cold storage for pelt and preliminary processing for wool barely exist at the district level, so growers sell at whatever the local trader offers.

Project 27 does not put cash in an individual grower's hand. Instead it builds the collective infrastructure: FPOs, mobile shearing and baling units, common facilitation centres, integrated mandis and a revived Wool Board, that lets a grower aggregate and sell better. Understanding this distinction is the single most important thing before applying.

Who is eligible under HADP Project 27?

Benefits flow to:

• Forty FPOs, at 2 per district, constituted by the Sheep Husbandry Departments of Jammu and Kashmir divisions during the initial two years of the project.
• Common facilitation centres at district or regional level, formed on a cluster basis by the Sheep Husbandry Department, the Department of Handloom and Handicrafts and urban local bodies or municipalities.
• Sheep growers, shearers and pelt harvesters who become members of those FPOs, and who attend the awareness and capacity building programmes.
• SKUAST-Kashmir and SKUAST-Jammu, for research and development, and for survey-based identification of constraints and gaps.

You cannot apply, and are not eligible for a cash subsidy under Project 27, if:

• You are an individual sheep grower seeking a personal payment for wool. There is no individual per-kilogram or per-animal incentive in this project. Individual sheep and goat unit subsidy sits under HADP Project 24, which pays 50 per cent on a 50-animal unit, and that is the correct scheme for a grower seeking direct assistance.
• You are a private entrepreneur setting up a primary wool or pelt processing unit. The guidelines are explicit: private entrepreneurs shall be facilitated without any financial assistance, and such establishments shall be supported as per the provisions of the Industrial Development Schemes instead. SKUAST-Kashmir, SKUAST-Jammu and the Agriculture Production Department provide technical and mentorship guidance where necessary.
• You are outside an FPO. The mobile shearing and baling units and the Rs 5 lakh strengthening grant go to FPOs, not to unaffiliated individuals.

What does HADP Project 27 provide?

The capacity building programmes are designed to create a common platform of knowledge, technical support and marketing, and to connect harvesters, farmers and entrepreneurs with organisations including banking institutions, NABARD and the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, so that entrepreneurship and startups in wool and pelt increase.

How to take part in HADP Project 27

1. Approach the District Sheep Husbandry Officer of your district and ask whether the two FPOs allotted to the district have been constituted, and whether membership is open.
2. Enrol as a member of the wool and pelt FPO with your Aadhaar, flock details and bank account. The Sheep Husbandry Department aggregates growers into these FPOs, so enrolment is the practical entry point for an individual.
3. Attend the awareness and capacity building programme for your division. Forty wool programmes and forty pelt programmes are run in each division, and these are also where NABARD, banks and EDI linkages are offered.
4. Book the mobile shearing and bailing unit through your FPO when the shearing season opens. Thirty such units, each costing Rs 40 lakh, are supplied to FPOs at no cost to them under the capex budget.
5. Use the common facilitation centre for your cluster for cold storage and preliminary pelt processing, or for spinning, weaving, knitting and felting of wool.
6. Sell through the integrated mandi once wool trade activities are integrated into the existing agricultural mandis, which the Sheep Husbandry Departments are doing in consultation with the Agriculture Production Department.

Research and development under Project 27

Research and development interventions are provided by SKUAST-Kashmir and SKUAST-Jammu in collaboration with the Sheep Husbandry Departments of both divisions. For diversification and development of value-added woollen products, extensive R&D is carried out at the two universities. For fur-based R&D, an integrated cluster at the industrial area, Lassipora is to be upgraded along with testing facilities under SKUAST-Kashmir.

For advanced value-added products, SKUAST-Kashmir works with ICAR-CSWRI Avikanagar, the Central Leather Research Institute in Tamil Nadu, the Department of Handloom and Handicrafts Kashmir, the Craft Development Institute and the National Institute of Fashion Technology Kashmir. Technologies developed are disseminated through the Sheep Husbandry Departments, Handloom and Handicrafts, and entrepreneurs.

A survey-based identification of constraints and gaps related to wool and pelt processing is conducted by the two universities, and suitable working modules are identified for implementation from its findings.

Monitoring

Project activities are monitored by designated officers — the Director Research, SKUAST-Kashmir and the Director Research, SKUAST-Jammu, along with the Director Sheep Husbandry Kashmir and the Director Sheep Husbandry Jammu, who verify overall progress as and when required.

Common misunderstandings

• "I can claim Rs 5 lakh for my flock." No. The Rs 5 lakh is per FPO, paid to the FPO, for strengthening it as an institution.
• "I can buy a shearing machine with 50 per cent subsidy." Not under Project

27. Mobile shearing and baling units are bought by the Department and given to FPOs; machine shearing as a service is one of the facilities a Project 24 FPO's Common Facilitation Centre extends to growers.

• "I want a subsidy to open a wool spinning unit." Private processing units are routed to the Industrial Development Schemes, not to Project 27.

Help and grievance redressal

• District Sheep Husbandry Officer of your district, for FPO membership and access to shearing and facilitation services
• Director, Sheep Husbandry Department, Jammu / Kashmir, for project-level queries and grievances
• Director Research, SKUAST-Kashmir and SKUAST-Jammu, for R&D and training
• Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department, Jammu: 0191-2505201, email devagri-jk@jk.gov.in
• Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department, Kashmir: 0194-2310265
• HADP portal: hadp.jk.gov.in

Joining an FPO under Project 27 is free, and no agent can obtain a mobile shearing unit or a facilitation centre for you.