Fodder Production and Grassland Management

GRAZING RESOURCES

Grazing resources (in million hectares) available for production of Fodder/pasture in Tamil Nadu and India (2006)

	INDIA	TAMILNADU
Total geographical area	328.7	13.00
Forest	67.4	2.14
Cultivable waste land	16.9	0.34
Pasture and grazing land	12.1	0.12
Fodder crops	8.3	0.17
Tree crops and grooves	3.5	0.23

• From the above table it is evident that only 2.5 % of the country's cropped area is under fodder crops. The fodder production from the meagre 8.3 m.ha. area apart from 12.1 m.ha of pasture land do not meet the requirements to feed the Indian livestock population of 482 millions.
• The situation is no different in Tamil Nadu where the number of livestock stands at 25 millions which depend on fodder from 0.17 m.ha and pasture from 0.12 m.ha.
• Such an inadequate production of fodders lead to the cause of malnutrition of the Indian livestock. To overcome the constraints, all the possible ways should be exploited to increase production of nutritive fodders.