June 15, 2007

India's livestock may suffer on fodder shortage

Declining area under grasslands and an increasing shift of crop residues for fuel and industrial uses is creating an acute scarcity of fodder supply for India's livestock.

According to the latest Economic Survey, livestock-- India's heart of rural economy-- accounts for nearly 5 percent of the country's gross domestic product

M.M. Roy, senior scientist at the Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, an autonomous body of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, said many villagers are choosing to use crop residues such as wheat and rice straw for fuel wood instead of diverting it into fodder.

The researchers' estimates indicate that the supply of green fodder in 2003-when statistics were last released-stands at 389.81 million tonnes while the demand was 1025 million tonnes, posting a staggering 61.96 percent deficit. The scarcity could impact the health of farm animals and consequently, overall production of meat, eggs and dairy, they said.