Fodder Production and Grassland Management

Requirment vs.Availability

REQUIREMENT Vs AVAILABILITY

• It is understood that there is a huge gap between demand and supply of all kinds of feeds and fodders. If we examine the land resources available in the country for growing fodder and forage crops, it is estimated that the average cultivated area devoted to fodder production is only 2.5 % of the total area and the pasture and grazing land comprises only 3.6% of the total area.
• These resources are able to meet partly the forage requirements of the grazing animals only during the monsoon season. But for the remaining period of the year, the animals have straws of jowar (sorghum), bajra (cumbu), rice, ragi, wheat, barley etc., either in the form of a whole straw supplemented with some green fodder or a sole feed.
• Apart from this, the natural grasslands and the cultivable waste and fallow lands provide some grazing during the favourable growth periods in the monsoon season.
• With regard to the demand and supply of green fodder, dry fodder and concentrates in the Country, there exist varying reports. This is beacuase of the complex nature of the feed resources which are mutually interdependent and highly dynamic and unorganized. Also there is no specific methodology available to predict the demand and supply. National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP), Bangalore reports that the deficit is 38%, 45% and 44 % with regard to Green fodder, Dry fodder and Concentrates respectively.