Introduction

INTRODUCTION

  • Presently the Indian farmers are giving much importance to cultivation of grain and commercial crops. The cultivation of crops has become the major enterprise of the farmers where as other enterprises such as dairy/poultry/fishery/piggery/goatery etc. are considered as secondary enterprise.
  • This is because of the reason that marginal and small farmers depend on farming for their livelihood and hence produce rice or wheat, being the important staple food crops.
  • However this is not the case with the big farmers who are having a larger livestock business. Majority of the farmers do not pay much attention to feed his livestock with green forages.
  • The farmer is feeding his livestock with agricultural by products obtained from his farm, like paddy straw, Jowar, Bajra, Maize stover etc., which are having poor feeding value.
  • As such the livestock are being fed with poor quality roughages, the yield potentiality of the livestock going down year after year. There is sufficient low cost technology available to feed the livestock of the farmer and improve the yield potentiality. Intercropping and backyard cultivation are important ones.
  • For increased fodder production from the available land resources, the cropping has to be intensified in terms of either space or time or both.
Last modified: Tuesday, 2 August 2011, 5:08 AM