Srinagar: Mutton-happy Kashmir is all set to smile its way through the wazwan with scientists transplanting 900 embryos of an African sheep variety.
A first of its kind of big-scale experiment just to solve Kashmir's meat shortage problem.
Nine hundred embryos of the Dorper variety of sheep are being frozen and transported all the way from South Africa.
A team of Canadian and British scientists are transplanting them to start a production of high mutton yielding sheep in Jammu and Kashmir. This is an experiment which hopes to meet the annual mutton shortage of 250 lakh kilos.
Emryologist and surgeon, UK John Dawson “It's the first time in India. We are carrying it in a large scale.”
Kashmir is famous for its wazwan, which has over 36 non-vegetarian dishes and the region also has the highest per capita consumption of mutton in the country.
That is why annual mutton demand crosses over 560 lakh kilos, while the state's own production is just around 290 lakh kilograms, a gap which this experiment not only hopes to bridge but also promises to even reduce costs.
Director, sheep husbandary, J&K HS Raina says, “Intially for us it going to be a costly affair but once it starts it will bring down costs.”
With the embroyo transplant done, the production will still take over five more months and till then the wazwan party will well have to wait
(With in puts from Moneeza Naqvi)
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