The Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Board has developed a new, low-cost cattle feeding material, Wanda, from maize cobs and would train farmers interested in producing it.

The maize cobs meal, PLDDB officials claim, is suitable for all kinds of domestic animals and is far cheaper than other meals currently in use. Wanda carries all required nutritional values including protein and one kg of it can give animals 4,000 calories. Trial production cost of maize cobs meal came to just Rs7 per kg against an average of Rs30 per kg for other mixed meals for animals.

Even if farmers produce Wanda at a little higher cost at their own places, even then the average cost should not exceed Rs10 per kg, officials say.

Enough availability of maize cobs, by an official estimate 6m tonnes, offers huge potential for production of maize cobs meal. Initially, only Punjab-based farmers will be encouraged to feed their animals on this meal but, later on, it could be made available across the country.

Maize cobs, some varieties of corn and dry and green stalks of maize are used as animal feeding materials along with wheat straw, wheat and rice bran, oilseed cakes, alfalfa, forages and grasses, hay of food crops, shrubs, tree leaves, molasses and the pulp of fruits and vegetables etc.

Sometimes each item is used alone and sometimes a combination of two or more items are made to produce animals’ feeding materials. In addition, animal grazing in rangelands of Balochistan, hilly forests of KP and open grazing fields of Sindh and Punjab are quite common.

However, quite often a part of the total requirement of animals’ nourishment is not met, affecting health of livestock specially owned by small farmers.

The area, production and the per acre yield of fodder crops have been declining since FY07

On the other hand, livestock population is growing, creating additional feed demand that outweighs supplies. According to Ministry of National Food Security and Research, population of cattle including cows and calves rose from just below 30m in FY6 to an estimated 39.7m in FY14. Total estimated number of buffalos also surged from 27m to 34.6m and that of goats from 54m to 66.6m.

However, we don’t see a matching, or even nominal increase in production of forage and fodder crops which reflects lack of efforts on the part of the government as well as the farmers’ community.

Latest stats available with the Ministry of National Food Security and Research show that that the area, production and the per hectare yield of fodder crops have been declining since FY07..

Overall output of fodder crops fell from 5.66m tonnes in FY07 to 4.58m tonnes in FY13; their per-hectare tumbled from 22.6 tonnes to 21.7 tonnes and the total area under cultivation contracted from 2.5m hectares to 2.1m hectares.

Officials, however, say that a gradual increase in the production of cereals (wheat, rice, maize, jowar, bajra and barley) in the last few years hold promise for animal feed industry. Hay of most of the cereal crops — their straw, bran and wastages — all are used as animal feed. But using them as ingredients of total ration meal and manufacturing of total mixed ration (TMR) in an organised manner requires government’s support as well as private sector investment.

Back in 2006, the government had invited the private sector to set up fodder production and trading companies and SMEDA had produced a detailed pre-feasibility study as well. But farmers say that the idea of involving companies in building an integrated fodder supply chain could not materialise adding that, by and large, animals feed manufacturing business remains centered in the informal sector. They say that during last few years, dozens of new animal feed trading companies have come up and some of them are doing good business both in Sindh and Punjab. But they don’t enter fodder production business which remains scattered in the hands of individual farmers.

Some years ago, a UAE-based company had shown interest in growing Alfalfa for fodder and had also acquired more than 3,000 acres of land in Balochistan for this purpose. But the status of the project remains unclear. Farmers say instead of leasing land to foreigners for fodder cultivation, provincial authorities should arrange supply of certified seeds of high-yield fodder varieties to them. Low-yield varieties are of little monetary benefit and farmers who grew them are now switching over to other crops.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business March 16th , 2015

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