Fodder growing plan faces hurdles

Hyderabad: Small land holdings of individual beneficiaries and non availability of grazing land in the villages is posing great problems to the district level officials. Due to the problems faced the fodder growing plan for sheep, under the State government’s ambitious sheep distribution scheme, is taking a hit.

Highlights:

• From each village about 150 beneficiaries are selected for the distribution of 3,000 sheep
• Small land holdings is keeping the beneficiaries from growing fodder on their lands

According to sources in the Animal Husbandry Department, action seeds would be distributed to individual beneficiaries to grow fodder on their lands. In addition to that, plans were prepared to grow fodder on forest lands.

But, in districts like Mahbubnagar, the total extent of land available in a village is only about 1,000 acres. From each village about 150 beneficiaries were selected for the distribution of about 3,000 sheep. This would be in addition to the already existing 1,000 to 1,500 sheep in each of these villages. Earlier, each village had Banchari lands earmarked as grazing lands during the Nizam’s time.

But, almost all of them had been allocated to people under the SC, ST and weaker sections housing schemes. Most of the lands existing in the vicinity of several villages are full of rocks and boulders. All these issues are posing a problem for the district level officials to motivate beneficiaries to grow fodder on their lands, the sources said.

Further, doubts were also expressed over sheep grazing in open lands. The main objective of the scheme is to provide a source for income generation of the shepherd communities by selling sheep for meat. But, leaving them for grazing in open lands was a traditional method. “If we want to encourage sheep rearing for meat production then the best method adopted in several parts of the country was to have stable fed sheep and goat farming, “said a senior official.

However, State Director for Animal Husbandry D Venkateswarlu said the department had taken all necessary measures to grow fodder to meet the demand. As part of this, seed stocks were already positioned for one lakh acres. Seeds would be supplied to individual beneficiaries on 75 percent subsidy to grow fodder in Mango,

Lime and other orchids on an extent of 50,000 acres. In addition to this, fodder in 50,000 acres more would be grown in forest areas, he said. All this was in addition to the natural vegetation grown in fallow lands which would meet the demand for fodder, he said.

BY V R C Phaniharan