NATURAL RESOURCES, ORGANIZATION AND TECHNOLOGY LINKAGES: Case of Wool-based Industry

An importance resource which the state of Rajasthan is endowed with is raw wool produced in the sheep husbandry sector. Being interwoven with the texture of the arid, semi-arid and humid parts of the state, raw wool production could become a vital route to development through forward linkages with the processing sector. The study takes a close look at both the wool-producing and the wool-processing sectors, and has found that both are bogged down by a variety of conflicts. It also probes the emerging scenarios which are detrimental to the optimization of intersectoral linkages between raw wool production and processing. Then, how the gains are distributed in the context of intersectoral linkages between wool producers, middlemen, traders, processors and exporters is analyzed. The organizational and technological aspects of both the wool-producing and the wool-processing sectors are probed, and their development potential identified. Strategies for revitalizing the wool economy are also suggested.