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