Adoption of Fodder Production and Conservation Technology in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

Livestock keeping provides an assured income to the farmers of Bundelkhand region as it is more reliable than crop husbandry. But these days the farmers are giving up rearing the livestock due to shortage of fodder and shrinking areas of fodder cultivation.  Purchasing the fodder becomes a costly affair for the farmers and so over dependence on post-harvest residues of crops and grasses as well as traditional grazing practice increases. The traditional grazing practice, when becomes uncontrolled converts into Annapratha in some areas of this region which loses many acreage of crops per year. The researcher has tried to see ground realities of fodder production and conservation in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh with this study conducted in five districts of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh (India) in 2014−15 involving 200 respondents.  The item “Names of leguminous and non-leguminous roughages” was ranked first followed by “Fodder requirement and cropping scheme preparation based on number of animals”, and “Importance of different roughages for animal health” ranked third. The highest adoption was found for the practices for which respondents had highest knowledge in terms of knowledge of the respondents. The highest constraints were related to “Technology transfer” followed by “Farmers purchasing capacity”. The study revealed that by addressing the issues of knowledge, adoption and constraints, the fodder production in the region can be enhanced thus providing another assured source of income.