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Fodder shortage forces govt to start collecting data on its production

With most parts of the country facing acute fodder shortage due to shrinking availability of agricultural land, the government has decided to include data on fodder production as part of its overall generation of data on various crop production.

With most parts of the country facing acute fodder shortage due to shrinking availability of agricultural land, the government has decided to include data on fodder production as part of its overall generation of data on various crop production.

Although it would take years before actual data on fodder crop starts flowing annually, senior official with the animal husbandry department said that to bridge the gap between demand and supply and fodder, the data on production would be handy.

?We have requested the agriculture department to include data collection on fodder as part of its overall collection of information on agricultural crop production,? GC Pati, secretary, department of animal husbandry told FE.

At present agriculture department collects data on kharif and rabi crop production from the states for arriving at overall crop production.

Besides the department of animal husbandry under ministry of agriculture has decided to push for popularising techniques including prolong preservation of fodder in the silage, conservation of crop residue and creation of fodder bank at the village levels.

?There is a large’ gap between demand and supply of feed and fodder for the livestock in the country. Through improvement in farm practices which led to better yield, we are keen to bridge the fodder gap to a large extent,? Pati said.

The problem is compounded by lack of availability of data on shortage. The figure compiled by Nabard Consultancy Service estimates the shortage of green fodder (36%), dry fodder (40%) and feed concentrates (57%).

“The shortage of dry fodder, green fodder and concentrate is as high as 40% and fodder which is being cultivated in only about 4% of the agricultural land is ‘not adequate to meet the requirement of fodder in the country,” an agriculture ministry assessment had stated.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had directed the animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries department to make modifications in various schemes to impart greater focus on fodder production.

For increasing milk production from the current level of 128 million tonne to 160 mt by 2020, 494 mt of dry fodder, 825 mt of green fodder and 54 mt concentrates will be required, the agriculture ministry note says.

The scenario appears alarming in case of availability of quality fodder seeds since as per the estimates of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), about 40,000 tonne of fodder seeds are produced against a demand of about 5.4 lakh tonne annually.

India with only 2.29% of the global land area, maintains about 11% of the world livestocks population. According to ministry of agriculture, the area under fodder cultivation is estimated to be about 4% of the gross cropped area which has remained static for the last four decades.

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First published on: 08-08-2013 at 01:05 IST
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