IMPROVING NUTRITIVE VALUE AND DIGESTIBILITY OF MAIZE STOVER-A REVIEW
RAJAN KATOCH, APOORVA, ANKUR TRIPATHI AND SURBHI SOOD
Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Crop Improvement
CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishwavidyalaya,
Palampur-176 062 (H. P.), India
*(e-mail : rajankatoch@yahoo.com)
(Received : 15 December 2017; Accepted : 28 December 2017)
SUMMARY
Agricultural crop residues constitute an essential part of ruminant diets, especially during scarcity of green fodder. Maize stover is one of the most abundant crop residues available throughout the world which has good nutritive value as compared to other crop by-products. The rumen microbial utilization of maize stover is restricted by the presence of lignin, which limits the amount of total digestible energy available to ruminants. For utilization of maize stover as cattle feed, complete or partial degradation of lignocellulosic complex is therefore required. An array of treatments and feeding methods has been developed to overcome effects of lignin in order to bring improvement in digestive value of maize stover. Among various pretreatment strategies, chemical and biological treatments have significant impact on feeding value of maize stover. Biological pretreatment offers several advantages over physical and chemical processes with mild reaction conditions, low capital cost, avoidance of toxic chemicals and high product yields. The present manuscript reviewed the efficacy of different pretreatment strategies for improving the nutritive quality of lignin rich biomasses of maize stover.
Key words: Maize stover, nutritive quality, delignification, chemical treatment, biological treatment