Track 2-1-2: Forage Conservation, Value Addition and Balanced Nutrition
Description
Thar is one of the most heavily populated desert areas in the world and the main occupations of the people living here are agriculture and livestock production. Agriculture is not a dependable proposition in this area due to erratic rains and occurrence of frequent droughts. A large number of farmers in Thar Desert depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. Animal husbandry, trees and grasses, intercropped with vegetables or fruit trees, is the most viable farming system for arid, drought-prone regions (Anonymous, 2012a,b). Further, livestock sector is expected to emerge as an engine of agricultural growth in the 12th plan and beyond, in view of rapid growth for the demand of animal food products. Achieving growth rate of 5-6 %, however, would require addressing challenges of shortage of feed and fodder (Anonymous, 2012a,b). According to the ministry of agriculture assessment, there is a large gap between demand and supply of feed and fodder for the livestock in the country. The shortage of dry fodder, green fodder and concentrate is as high as 40% (Pawar, 2012). The problem is compounded by the lack of reliable data regarding fodder availability. The scenario appears alarming in case of availability of quality fodder. With the existing shortages of fodder, it would be difficult for India to achieve the target of 160 MT of milk production by 2020. For increasing milk production from the current level of 40 MT to 160 MT by 2020, 494 MT of dry fodder, 825 MT of green fodder and 54 MT concentrates will be required (Das, 2012). There are several crop products potentially used after enriching their quality for animal feeding, but are being wasted. All such bye-products needs to be ensiled and suitable mechanism for their enrichment and ensiling need to be developed. Keeping this in view efforts were made to ensile the dry fodder after enriching their quality by modified process.
Included in
Non-Conventional Silage for Arid Region
Thar is one of the most heavily populated desert areas in the world and the main occupations of the people living here are agriculture and livestock production. Agriculture is not a dependable proposition in this area due to erratic rains and occurrence of frequent droughts. A large number of farmers in Thar Desert depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. Animal husbandry, trees and grasses, intercropped with vegetables or fruit trees, is the most viable farming system for arid, drought-prone regions (Anonymous, 2012a,b). Further, livestock sector is expected to emerge as an engine of agricultural growth in the 12th plan and beyond, in view of rapid growth for the demand of animal food products. Achieving growth rate of 5-6 %, however, would require addressing challenges of shortage of feed and fodder (Anonymous, 2012a,b). According to the ministry of agriculture assessment, there is a large gap between demand and supply of feed and fodder for the livestock in the country. The shortage of dry fodder, green fodder and concentrate is as high as 40% (Pawar, 2012). The problem is compounded by the lack of reliable data regarding fodder availability. The scenario appears alarming in case of availability of quality fodder. With the existing shortages of fodder, it would be difficult for India to achieve the target of 160 MT of milk production by 2020. For increasing milk production from the current level of 40 MT to 160 MT by 2020, 494 MT of dry fodder, 825 MT of green fodder and 54 MT concentrates will be required (Das, 2012). There are several crop products potentially used after enriching their quality for animal feeding, but are being wasted. All such bye-products needs to be ensiled and suitable mechanism for their enrichment and ensiling need to be developed. Keeping this in view efforts were made to ensile the dry fodder after enriching their quality by modified process.
