Rameshwar Singh Pande
Samarth- Nepal Market Development Programme, Nepal
Title: Negative supply of quality fodder- A threat for competitive dairy market growth: A critical assessment
Biography
Biography: Rameshwar Singh Pande
Abstract
A significant achievement made in commercialized livestock production, however, competitive and sustainable production due to short supply of quality fodder still a challenge. Majority of commercial dairy producers rely on straw with higher doses of grain by-products which are neither healthier nor cost efficient. For the development of sustainable and competitive strategy; updated assessment of feed balance to address the crosscutting issues of dairy sector are important. The assessment reveals the overall demand of feeds is 30.2 m. mt DM and supply is only 18.3 m mt DM. Thus, the deficit of DM is -11.9 m mt DM. The supply of crop residues exceeds the demand by 0.8 m mt DM, but the deficit of green fodder is (-) 10.6 m mt DM. Significant deficit of green fodder seriously affects on health conditions and productivity. Such a negative supply of feed and fodder has compelled the commercialized dairy producers to look for easily available ration i.e. straw and grain by-products. But such conventional feeding practices have resulted into higher feeding cost. Based on this assumption, about 125,000 ha to support dairy producers either agricultural or community land under intensive fodder cultivation is needed. For this, the government and potential international organizations should come forward to address such a crisis for the sustainability and competitive dairy market growth.