Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Panel mooted for woollen sector development

By M. Soundariya Preetha

COIMBATORE Sept. 3. The Regional Office of the Textile Commissioner, Coimbatore, has suggested the setting up of a State-level committee to recommend measures for development of the "decentralised wool and woollen'' sector.

The Director and officer-in-charge of the office, Nagesh M. Mugadur, told The Hindu here on Monday that in a recent communication to the Secretary (Handlooms, Handicrafts and Textiles), Tamil Nadu, A. Elangovan, he had suggested early convening of a meeting of representatives from various departments of the State and Central Governments, non-governmental organisations and potential entrepreneurs.

The possibility of setting up a State-level committee for the development of the wool and woollen sector and a field-level committee to go into details of its present situation could be discussed then.

The sheep population in the State was estimated to be about 52 lakhs with Dharmapuri, Erode and Thiruvannamalai districts having the maximum.

While it was estimated to have been about 56 lakhs in 1994, it came down to about 52 lakhs in 1997.

The raw wool production also slumped from about 7 lakh kg in 1995-96 to 6.3 lakh kg in 2000-2001.

Mr. Mugadur pointed out that there was a huge potential to be tapped in the wool and woollen sector in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. An expert committee appointed in Karnataka had suggested measures for the development of this sector there.

He said he had also suggested to some potential entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu that they take up sheep rearing and wool production under the wasteland development programme.

Some of the wasteland areas were near forests and sheep rearing could be undertaken there.

The entrepreneurs could take up integrated programmes on this land, including assistance for animal health care, training in animal development and marketing and machinery for wool processing.

This would also help to develop woollen carpet production.

Though there were very few such units, they could be developed further and even blended carpets produced at a later stage.

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