Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges & Opportunities
during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Methodology
Demonstration of establishment of improved fodder varieties, area specific mineral mixture,
urea molasses blocks and backyard poultry rearing as an additional source of income
generation were demonstrated to the farmers of NICRA adopted villages.
Results
Improved Fodder Varieties
The correct amount and proportion of dry fodder, green fodder, and nutrients should be
included in the animals’ balanced diet. Animals get the nutritional components they need for
physical growth and milk production from green grass in general. As rainfall is chief constraint
in Ananthapuramu district, even the dry fodder availability from crop residues is less due to
less yield of majority of rainfed agriculture crops in this area. Hence, farmers are made aware
of the perennial multicut fodder varieties (Super Napier &fodder sorghum) with high protein
and crude fibre availability in the improved fodder varieties (Kabirizi et al., 2003). Farmers
were distributed with Super Napier fodder slips &fodder sorghum seed from 2018 to 2021,
green fodder was made available to animals through-out the year with an average yield of 167
t/ha of fodder and thereby increasing the productive performance over that of locally available
fodder with an average yield of 118 t/ha.
Regional Specific Mineral Mixture
Minerals are required by dairy animals for their metabolic functions, growth, milk production,
reproduction and health. Animal cannot synthesize minerals inside its body and usually feeds
and fodders fed to the dairy animals do not provide all the minerals in the required quantity
(Sahoo et al., 2017). Therefore, animal should be supplemented with adequate amount of good
quality mineral mixture in their ration. Level of minerals in feeds and fodder varies from region
to region, thus mineral availability to the animal also varies. So, it is necessary to produce
region specific mineral mixture accordingly. Area specific mineral mixture of 2kg each was
supplied to 30 farmers every year from 2018-2021 in NICRA adopted villages, monitored the
% increase in milk yield, fat and SNF% for a period of 60 days interval. The mean average
milk yield, SNF% & Fat% recorded in the treatment group supplied with RSMM was 3.57
l/day, 8.35% & 3.5% over the control group fed without supplementation of RSMM with
recorded parameters of 2.90 l/day, 7.8% & 2.9%, respectively.
Urea Molasses Mineral Blocks
The principal forages used in India for livestock feeding are low in nitrogen, minerals and
vitamins resulting in low productivity. To overcome this strategic nutrient supplementation is
essential in this scenario to improve the use of poor-quality roughage. The Urea Molasses
Mineral Block (UMMB) was developed at NDDB and supplementation of UMMB can show
Ecosystem based approaches for climate change adaptation, ecosystem services, integrated farming system
models, Land degradation neutrality
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