Indian Forage Scenario – Region Wise Availability and Deficit

In India, rapid urbanisation, changing food habit and higher purchasing power have increased the demand for animal based food products.Proper feeding strategies using green nutritious fodderis key to increase livestock production and productivity in economical and sustainable way.Three major sources of fodder are crop residues, cultivated fodder from arable land (irrigated and rainfed) and fodder from common property resources like forests, permanent pastures, grazing lands, cultivated wasteland, fallow lands etc. Based on the livestock census, we estimated the green and dry fodder availability vis-a-vis demand and emerging deficit/surplus situation. The state wise livestock population for Cattle, Buffaloes, Goat, Sheep, Yak and Mithun were taken into account and the requirement for green, dry forage and animal feed concentrate was worked out considering factors like age, milking or non-milking state, gender, working nature, feeding practices etc. The availability of green forages was estimated based on cultivated area under forage, cropping intensity, productivity etc., green fodder from fallow land, wasteland, forest fringe areas, social forestry, pasture land. For dry fodder, availability of crop residue for fodder was calculated based on the major utilizable cereals, pulses and oilseed crops, harvest index, production, and utilization pattern. Availability of dry forages from forest, wasteland, fallow land and cultivated field after harvest available for grazing were considered. On all India basis, there is an overall deficit of nearly 11 % in green fodder availability and 23 % in dry fodder availability. To meet the deficit scenario various strategies are proposed which includea national programme in mission mode for accelerating production; grassland and grazing policy; rejuvenation of degraded pastures; targeted research and extension programme; entrepreneurship in commercial venture of fodder production and utilization