Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday admitted that an acute shortage of feed and fodder is adversely impacting country’s milk production growth.
Pawar has asked the states to take up fodder cultivation on priority so that milk production can be increased significantly. ?We have asked the states to supply irrigation water to cultivation of green fodder. Till now, states? initiatives in increasing fodder production have not been up to the mark,? Pawar said. He said that to meet the growing demand for milk, incremental annual production will now have to rise annually to an average of 6 MT over the next 10-12 years as against the average increase of about 3.5 million tonne per year over the last decade.
?There is a need to develop public pastures, grazing land and village forest areas for growing high-yielding fodder varieties,? he observed.
For increasing milk production from the current level of 128 MT to 160 mt by 2020, 494 mt of dry fodder, 825 mt of green fodder and 54 mt OF concentrates will be required, the agriculture ministry note says.
As per the ministry’s assessment, the current production and availability of improved fodder seed is around 40,000 tonne against a requirement of 5.4 lakh tonne.
?There is a large gap between demand and supply of feed and fodder for the livestock in the country,? an official with agriculture ministry told FE. The figure compiled by Nabard Consultancy Service estimates the shortage of green fodder at 36%, dry fodder at 40% and feed concentrates at 57%.