Dairying is emerging as one of the viable ventures in agriculture. But the escalating cost of production has affected its sustainability. Scarcity of fodder and increase in price of cattle feed contribute to the steep hike in cost of milk production.
With a view to making dairying profitable, the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University has now formed a ‘fodder crop development army’ to produce quality fodder grass at a reasonable price. The army will ensure sufficient manpower to grow quality green fodder across the State.
“Since feed price forms three-fourth of the cost of production of milk, availability of green fodder will reduce the cost of milk production considerably. Quality fodder grass will improve the quality and quantity of milk, thereby increasing the revenue of farmers,” says K.M. Shyam Mohan, course coordinatior, KAU.
Shortage of quality fodder grass is considered as the reason for the decreasing number of cattle in the State. This has prompted the university to come up with such an initiative.
Kerala, which suffers up to 65% scarcity of cattle feed, mostly depends on neighbouring States for it. Recently, there has been a quantum jump in the price of feed. Though there are a variety of fodder grasses available, only a few farmers cultivate them. Most of them depend on paddy straw, which is costly and has poor nutrient content. Result: farmers have to give more cattle feed to improve milk production, says Mr. Mohan.
A batch of 30 people, 20 women and 10 men, have completed training with a stipend of ₹5,000 for one year under the programme conducted under the Directorate of Entrepreneurship of the KVASU. They were given practical training in various aspects of grass cultivation — such as preparing land, sowing of seed or planting of stems, irrigation, manuring, harvesting, and preserving them.
The data bank of trained people will be shared with the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development department. Farmers can utilise their expertise. There are plans to make available fodder grass at milk societies so that the farmers can buy it from there, say KVASU sources.
