Alleviating the fodder shortage and enhancing its nutritional value would, thus, lead to a substantial spurt in livestock output. The notable point is that the gains from other interventions, including breed improvement and efficient livestock husbandry, cannot be realised fully unless the animals are fed properly. Improved nutrition can, in fact, boost the productivity of even ordinary animals.
The current fodder deficit is as severe as 35 per cent in green forage, 44 per cent in concentrated feeds, nearly 11 per cent in dry crop residues and about 10 per cent in other feedstuff, according to the Jhansi-based Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI). A survey based on remote sensing techniques and field observations conducted by the institute has indicated a woeful decline in the major grasslands, adversely hitting their animal-carrying capacity. The surveyed areas include the Kutch-Saurashtra region, Bundelkhand tract, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir.
These factors have, predictably, jacked up the prices of both fodder and feed to levels that are hard to afford for the animal owners, most of whom are landless or tiny farmers. Today, feed alone accounts for 60 to 70 per cent of the production cost of milk, meat and other items. Yet, due attention is not being paid to either augmenting the availability of animal feed or reducing its cost. Little is also being done to arrest the steady shrinkage of natural pastures and common grazing grounds or to maintain their vegetative cover. Nor is sufficient emphasis being laid on promoting the cultivation of fodder crops by including them in the cropping sequences. Less than 5 per cent of the country's farmland is devoted to fodder farming though the livestock sector's contribution to the farm sector's total gross domestic product (GDP) is now higher than that of cereals. Sadly, only a tiny fraction of the total animal husbandry budget goes to fodder development.
Seeds are the most critical factor in expanding acreage under fodder crops and raising their yields. The facilities for producing good quality seeds are pitiful. Neither public sector nor private seed companies are interested in producing fodder crop seeds. Over 200 high-yielding varieties of fodder crops, grasses and other types of forage, including the leguminous plant species capable of enriching rangelands with nitrogen, have been developed by IGFRI and other research centres, but their seeds are not available to farmers. Even the breeder seeds, produced by the research centres for further multiplication into certified seed for sale to farmers, are not being picked up by the seed companies in full measure. As a result, hardly 15 to 20 per cent of the seed demand for forage crops is being met.
The case is similar for technologies evolved for preservation, volume reduction and nutrition enhancement of the available fodder. Many of these techniques are meant to preserve surplus green vegetation during the monsoon for use during the lean months. The recommended utilisation of unconventional materials as animal feed, such as cactus and azolla, too, is not making any headway. Moreover, the strategies formulated by fodder experts for protecting and restoring the vegetative cover of the pastures are not finding many takers.
Unless this apathy towards the fodder sector gives way to the much-needed priority, there is little hope for raising the livestock productivity or stepping up supplies of animal products to tame their prices.
surinder.sud@gmail.com