State of Art and Research Priorities in Leather Industry in India

India had a very strong base for the potential supply of raw material for its leather industry. This was reflected in the absolute numbers in the livestock population statistics of India. However, in the planning exercises yearly capital outlay for the research and development programmes for the animal husbandry sector as a whole was very meagre. This was despite the fact that livestock sector in 1984-85 contributed about 30 per cent of the total money value output from agriculture and livestock sector to the Gross Domestic Product. Presumably, as a consequence, the ratio of livestock population with human population showed considerable decline between 1951 and 1982. Also there were no improvements in the quantitative as well as qualitative aspects in the availability of hides and skins for utilization in the leather industry. Over the years, major proportion of hides and skins continued to be available from fallen animals. Authors believe that above situation might be responsible for uncontrollable qualitative aspects of hides and skins, market imperfections in the primary and finished products and lack of sustained export demand for leather products. This paper attempts to identify some of the major areas of concerns in the developmental planning processes for the leather industry and emphasizes the need for comprehensive research by adopting a systems approach. According to the authors, research areas should include i) governmental policy framework, ii) structural characteristics of various sub-systems such as, a) raw material supply, b) raw material marketing, c) technological, and d) finished products. Finally the authors have proposed methodological approach of the research study to answer some pertinent questions relative to future growth potential of the leather industry in India.