Inventory of Important Fodder Plants of Ladakh Himalaya

In Ladakh, livestock rearing is a major activity in the livelihoods of the population and contributes greatly to income generation in the region and therefore alleviating poverty. In agro-pastoral animal husbandry systems of Leh, Khaltsey, and Nubra blocks and limited areas in Nyoma and Durbok, villagers live in settled communities and practice sedentary agriculture, but they also keep relatively large herds of livestock to augment income and meet dietary and fibre subsistence needs (Ahmed, 2002). Due to prolonged and extreme cold winter, the agriculture season is very short which starts from May and ends by September depending upon different altitudes. The major constraint to livestock production is winter season feed shortage. The annual growth rate of livestock is limited by forage quality and quantity especially in the winter season. The flora of cold desert Ladakh comes under alpine and high alpine zone, which is situated between 2700m to 6000m. The high altitude flora is mainly dominated by dwarf bushes or shrubs (Singh, 2009). In most parts of the region, the livestock feed on alpine pastures and are to be stall fed for the remaining almost seven months as the land is covered with thick layers of snow. This necessitates production and storage of large quantities of fodder. Accordingly in single cropped areas, the farmers put more area under fodder crops than the cereal crops and further substantiate it with all kinds of grasses and edible plant material collected from areas beyond farmlands. The use of grasses, legumes and other browse trees and shrubs as supplementary feed is therefore seen as a panacea in bridging this nutritional gap for livestock production in the region (Jadhav et al., 2009). While some information is available on the flora of Ladakh, this cannot be called satisfactory and final; as these include all kinds of plants, which may or may not be suitable as forage and fodder. Overall, lack of data and inventory on forage plant species is a hindrance to planning and formulation of schemes. Through this study, efforts have been made to document the available fodder plants for suitable future use