STATUS AND PROFITABILITY OF FODDER CROPS IN MADHYA PRADESH
HARIOM SHARMA AND RAVI SINGH CHOUHAN
Agro-Economic Research Centre
for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,
J.N.K.V.V., Jabalpur (M.P.) 482004
SUMMARY
Madhya Pradesh is basically an agricultural state where about 70 per cent of its peoples live in villages. Their livelihood is dependent mainly on agriculture and animal husbandry. Though, state has a huge livestock population of over 4162.96 millions, besides poultry, yet the production of milk and other livestock products is the lowest in India. The state, highly deficient in various cattle products, though state has about one-fourth of the total cattle population of India. As against the minimum nutritional requirement of 201 g/head/day of milk set by the nutritionists, 100 g/head/day is the availability per head in the state. One of the main reasons for the low productivity of livestock is malnutrition and the low genetic potential of the animals. In fact, the economic viability of livestock husbandry depends on sources of feed and fodder as feeding cost constitutes about 65 – 70% of the total cost of livestock farming. (Sharma H. O. and Raghuwanshi N. K. 2011) The feed given to cattle comprises dry fodder, green fodder and concentrates of which dry fodder forms the major share. The adequate supply of feed and fodder is a critical factor affecting performance of animals. This fact is adequately supported by the figures of availability, vis-a-vis the requirement of green-fodder crops, crop residues and concentrates, which shows that there is a huge gap of between demand and supply of all kinds of these feeds and fodders in the state.
Key words: Profitability, status, fodder crops, livestock productivity, economic viability.