Surinder Sud: And now, feed security

India neglects fodder production - which may eventually impact food availability

Food security is getting attention, but feed security for India’s huge livestock population is being unduly neglected. This apathy can prove costly since it can tacitly impinge on food security. Going by the current trend, the demand for livestock-based food products is expected to double in the next 10 years. Without adequate fodder and feed to sustain animal productivity, food availability may come under strain. Though the quantity of agricultural by-products that can be fed to animals is steadily increasing, much of it is in the form of dry straw, which is low in nutrition. The availability of relatively nutritious green fodder and concentrated grain-based feed, on the other hand, is not rising adequately. Grazing lands are also shrinking. Moreover, the vegetative cover of most of the pastures has severely degraded for lack of care.

 

The country has been divided into 55 micro-regions from the viewpoint of fodder availability. As many as 43 such zones are fodder-deficient, according to Dr K A Singh, director of the Jhansi-based Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI). However, surplus supplies in one region cannot be used to offset the deficit in the other, since it is uneconomical to transport fodder over long distances because it is too bulky. The solution, therefore, lies in promoting fodder production in fodder-scarce areas. The IGFRI has generated a good deal of technology to achieve this objective. However, the policy support to put the technology into practice is missing.

The feed and fodder sector also suffers from paucity of investment. The 11th plan’s allocation for developing food and fodder resources is a case in point. Of the Rs 4,903 crore allotted for the broad animal husbandry and dairy sector, only a meagre Rs 141.4 crore, or 2.88 per cent, has been earmarked for feed and fodder development.

In the past, traditional institutions were in place to look after grasslands and common lands used for grazing. Such institutions have ceased to exist because most of the lands that they maintained have been taken over by the government.

Converting wastelands into pastures can help expand pastures and other grazing tracts. This can be done using modern silvipastoral technology. This includes planting suitable fast-growing grasses along with fodder trees, which provide leaves and twigs as nutritious forage. Such silvipastures can enhance the overall productivity of wastelands up to 2.5 times. Fodder scientists believe that even if half of the country’s wastelands are transformed into silvipastures, the fodder deficit can be tackled. In fact, land available along railway tracks and roads can also serve as grazing grounds.

There is, however, a need for a proper animal grazing policy to ensure that pastures and grazing lands are exploited sustainably. Though a draft grazing and livestock policy was formulated way back in 1994, it was seldom implemented the way it should have been.

Involvement of local people in managing grasslands and other grazing areas may also help. Such an approach has been tried with considerable success in the case of forests under the system of joint forest management. Local communities can regulate grazing to avoid any permanent damage to these lands.

Also, cultivated fodder crops are gradually being pushed to marginal and low-fertility lands, since these cannot compete economically with the alternative crops that can generate higher profits. The IGFRI is, however, striving to develop improved varieties of these crops to grow more fodder across every unit of land.

Several good varieties of berseem, a nutritious leguminous fodder crop that also fixes atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, are now available for cultivation in different parts of the country.

Thus, there is no dearth of options to ensure fodder security for the country’s animal wealth. But suitable strategies are needed to tap the available potential to increase fodder and feed supplies.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to meet the growing demand for protein-rich livestock-based foods.

surinder.sud@gmail.com