NATIONAL COORDINATED FODDER PROGRAMME

NARC, Islamabad

INTRODUCTION
Regular supply of adequate and nutritious fodder is essential for the promotion and development of livestock. In Pakistan mainly two types of livestock production practices are prevailing i.e. (i) rural household where animals are closely integrated with the rural subsistence economy using grown fodder which comprise of all crops that are used as cut and carry livestock feed (ii) large herds (mostly small ruminants) kept in rangelands where livestock feed include all vegetation grazed and browsed by livestock, with particular reference to rainfed flat lands, hill lands and rangelands. More than half of animal feed is coming from fodders and crop residues, 1/3rd from grazing of rangelands, wastelands, canal bank, road sides and the rest is from crops and their by products (Table 1). Fodder production is the major limiting factor for livestock production in our country. In terms of Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN) we are short by about 28.62 million tons and in terms of Digestible Protein (DP) about 1.76 million tons.

Table 1 Contribution of Different Sources to Feed Livestock in Pakistan.

Major fodder crops grown during winter include berseem, lucerne, vetch, oats, barley and mustard; while during summer these comprise maize, sorghum, millet and cowpeas. These crops cover 16 to 19% of the total cropped area in the country. The area with minor fluctuations decreased from 2.6 million hectares in 1976-77 to 2.45 million hectares in 2005-06 (Table 2). However, total production in the corresponding years increased from 45.10 million tones to 55.47 million tones. Similarly, yield per unit area also increased from 17.4 t/ha to 22.7 t/ha (i.e. about 30% increase) as a result of the concerted Research and Development (R & D) efforts made by the fodder research scientists through the development of improved production technologies. The problem of green fodder shortage occurred during May-June and December-January have been recently solved by growing multi cut fodder crops like S.S. hybrids, lucerne, Mixtures of cereals & legumes and Mottgrass.

Availability of improved seed of fodder crops is one of the major limiting factor in fodder crops production in the country. It is estimated that only 5 to 10 percent area of fodder crops is grown with improved seed. Considering the subject of improved seed production, it involves a number of interlinked systems; agro-climatic conditions, specific crop adaptation to environment, socio-economic and political factors including prices and marketing, crop management and production. Unfortunately, there is neither private nor government sector involved in the seed business of fodder crops as it is in case of wheat, cotton, vegetables etc. Only 10% fodder seed is produced locally. The requirement is fulfilled either by importing seed from other countries and by purchasing from the under standard non-certified seed, or produced by the farmers without any consideration of seed production guidelines. There is great potential of domestic fodder crops seed production. Recently a number of private seed companies have entered in fodder seed production in the country. For example Jullundar Seed Company based at Arifwala; Younas Seed Corporation and Green Gold Faisalabad are involved in domestic fodder crops seed production.

Table 2 Area and Production and Average yield of Fodder Crops in Pakistan.

Table 3 Crop-Wise and Province-Wise Area and Production of Various Fodder Crops in Pakistan (2005-06)

Area in hectares
Production in tons

Fodder Crops	Punjab		Sindh		NWFP		Balochistan		Pakistan
	Area	Production	Area	Production	Area	Production	Area	Production	Area	Production
Sorghum	618900	8033400	59379	916954	15531	313364	10032	242529	703842	9506247
Guar	80300	872400	16031	161959	0	0	167	3384	96498	1037743
Maize	202400	2518000	10959	153895	29413	550173	1266	33663	247025	3298151
Millet	50000	622085	15128	180350	2426	29821	226	4214	67780	836470
Moth	0	0	0	0	956	18383	120	1798	1076	20181
Other Summer	51200	637015	16868	194489	1282	21210	9060	186000	72339	934875
Total	1002800	12682900	118365	1607647	49608	932951	20871	471588	1191644	15695086
Berseem	783600	25150700	92987	4562515	17322	509464	4670	131677	898579	30354356
Oats	99500	2762533	0	0	0	0	0	0	99500	2762533
Lucerne	91400	2463500	46317	1050229	0	0	7267	464872	144984	3978601
Shaftal	0	0	449	5193	28681	754746	333	8716	29463	768655
Brassica	0	0	3835	56746	645	24059	0	0	4480	80805
Barley	0	0	0	0	2634	44521	0	0	2634	44521
Other Winter	49800	1381267	7550	110246	10411	75459	9059	220047	73683	1691554
Total	1024300	31758000	151138	5784929	59693	1408249	21329	825312	1256460	39776490
Grand Total	2027100	44440900	269503	7392576	109301	2341200	42200	1296900	2448104	55471576

The crop-wise and province-wise area and production of fodder crops in Pakistan for the year 2005-06 are shown in Table 3. The Punjab province puts 2.03 million hectare area under fodder crop (83% of Pakistan) and produces 44.44 million tons of green fodder (80% of Pakistan).

Development of improved fodder production Technology
The National Cooperative Research Program on Fodder at NARC has developed various packages of technologies for improving fodder production per unit area (Table 4).

Table 4 Package of Improved Production Technology for Better Fodder Yield.

Varietal Development under NCFRP
High yielding good quality varieties/hybrids of different fodder crops have been developed by various institutes from the germplasm supplied by Fodder Research Program, NARC (Table 5). Further research work is in progress for release of varieties of oats, berseem, vetch, sorghum and millet. Similarly at NARC in Fodder Research Programme evaluation of germplasm of oats (168 lines), vetch (19 lines), sorghum (150 lines) and millet (134 lines) is in progress. These lines of fodder germplasm have great variation in maturity, morphological characteristics, growth habit etc. Therefore, it is expected that in future a number of varieties will be evolved from exploiting the genetic potential of this germplasm through National Coordinated Fodder Research Programme for various ecologies of the country. Furthermore, the existing germplasm of these crops provides source for desired characters for plant breeders to improve their breeding programmes.

Table 5 Fodder Crops Varieties Developed under National Coordinated Fodder Research Programme.

Year-Round Green Fodder Availability
The National Coordinated Research Programme on Fodder at NARC has developed year-round green fodder availability calendar for irrigated areas which is presented in the following table.

Table 6. Year-round Green Fodder Availability Calendar for Irrigated Areas.

NOTE: Multi-cut improved varieties of fodder crops like, S. S. hybrid, Mottgrass, Lucerne, Oats and Berseem have been 
identified and promoted for general cultivation to cover fodder deficit periods.

Names, Addresses and Contact Numbers of the Principal Investigators of Fodder Cooperating Units

Name & Designation	Official Address	Phone #	Mobile #	Fax #	E-mail Address
Sartaj Khan, National Coordinator (Fodder)	National Agricultural Research Centre, Park Road, Islamabad	051-9255038	0333-5220764	051-9255034	sartaj_khan56@yahoo.com
Dr. Akhtar Ali, Director/ PI (Fodder)	Fodder Research Institute, PO Box # 43, Sargodha	048-3711741 048-3712653	0300-8703891	048-3713080	frisgd43@hotmail.com
Dr. Hafeez. A. Sadaqat Associate Professor/ PI (Fodder)	Department. of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad	041-9201281 041-9200161-69 Ext. 2927	0321-6603167	041-9201083 Attention to Dr. Hafeez  A. Sadaqat (PBG)	drhafeezsadaqat@yahoo.com
Dr. Ahmad Bakhsh, Director/ PI (Fodder)	Agricultural Research Institute. Dera Ismail Khan	0966-740090	Residence: 0966-740246	0966-740415 Atten: Mr. Bashir H. Shahani (Millet Botanist)	Nil
Atta Ullah, Agronomist/ PI (Fodder)	Agricultural Research Institute, Sariab, Quetta	081-9211197 081-2850130	0345-8339851
Khuda Bux Abbassi, Agronomist / PI (Fodder)	Agricultural Research Institute, Tandojam, Hyderabad	022-2766473	0300-3798436	022-2765504 Atten: Mr. Khuda Bux Abbassi (Agronomist)
Dr. Hidayat-ur- Rehman Prof. & Chairman (PBG)/ PI (Fodder)	NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar	091-9216892	0333-9122022	091-9216520 Atten: Dr. Hidayat (PBG)	hidayat82@brain.net.pk

Scientific Staff in Fodder Research Programme at NARC

Name	Designation	Qualification/ Discipline
Mr. Sartaj Khan	SSO/Coordinator (Fodder)	M. Agric. Sc. (Australia) / Agronomy
Mr. Ashiq Hussain	Senior Scientific Officer	M. Sc. (Hons.) Agri. / (PBG)
Mr. M. Shafiq Zahid	Senior Scientific Officer	M. Sc. (Hons.) Agri./Agronomy
Mr. Allah Bakhsh	Scientific Officer	M. Sc. (Hons.) Agri. / (PBG)
Mr. Muhammad Imran	Scientific Officer	M. Sc. (Hons.) Agri./Agronomy

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

1. Ashiq Hussain, Sartaj Khan, M. I. Sultani and Dost Mohammad. 2007. Locational differences in green fodder yield, dry matter yield, and forage quality of sorghum. Pak. J. Agric. Res. 20:25-29.
2. Allah Bakhsh, Ashiq Hussain, Sartaj Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Gurmani and Muhammad Imran. 2007. Variability in forage yield of oats under medium rainfall of Pothowar tract. Sarhad J. Agri. (in press).
3. Imran, M., Allah Bakhsh, Sartaj Khan, Ashiq Hussain and Zulfiqar Ali Gurmani. 2007. Forage yield and quality potential of dual-type millet varieties under rainfed conditions of NARC. Pak. J. Agric. Res. (in press).
4. Imran, M., Ashiq Hussain, Zulfiqar Ali Gurmani and Sartaj Khan. 2007. Berseem (Egyptian clover): A nutritive multicut fodder. International J. “Science, Technology and Development” (in press).
5. Imran, M., Ashiq Hussain, Zulfiqar Ali Gurmani, M. S. Zahid and Sartaj Khan. 2007. Cultivation of sunflower and its utilization in livestock. International J. “Science, Technology and Development” (in press).
6. Imran, M., Sartaj Khan, R. Khalid, Z. A. Gurmani, A. Bakhsh, M. Masood and M. I. Sultani. 2007. Performance of different millet cultivars for fodder production under rainfed conditions of Islamabad. Sarhad J. Agric. 23 (2): 281-284.
7. Gurmani, A.Z., S. Shafiq & M.S. Zahid, Ashiq Hussain, M. Imran and Sartaj Khan. 2006. Effect of phosphorus fertilizer application on green fodder and grain yield of four vetch species. PJST 1(8&9): 1-8.
8. Gurmani, A.Z., M.S. Zahid &M. Bashir. 2006. Performance of vetch (Vicia sativa) cultivars for fodder production under rainfed conditions of Pothwar region. J., Agri. Res., 44(4):291-297.
9. Gurmani, A.Z., M Qamar S. Shafiq & M.S. Zahid 2006. Effect of phosphorus fertilizer application on fodder and grain yield of vetch under rainfed conditions of Pothwar region Pak. J., Agri. Sci., 43(1-2):17-20.

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