Indian Farming June 2014 15 Green fodder demand, availability and gaps in India 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 Year Demand Supply Deficit Green forage (MT) Indian Farming 64(3): 15–18, 21; June 2014 Improving Fodder Productivity and Quality for Sustaining Livestock S. L. Meena 1 and Anchal Dass 2 Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012 The cultivated fodder accounts for about 4.4% of the total cropped area in India. Expansion in area under fodder crops seems to be impossible as the agricultural land is being utilized for growing food and cash crops. Rather, traditional forage resources like community grazing lands are shrinking due to encroachment and other uses. The productivity of the existing pasture is also declining due to over grazing. Major concern is the stagnation in the availability of green fodder and its increasing deficit. This necessitates the selection of suitable green fodder crops which will produce higher green forage yield per unit area and time. Therefore, the productivity of cultivated fodder needs to be improved vertically through using improved high yielding varieties with better management practices. With growing realization of importance of forage legumes in agriculture and livestock industry, it is becoming pertinent to pay more attention to the improved leguminous forages. Some of the important cultivated forage legumes with their recommended varieties and cultural practices are described here for benefit of the Indian farmers. L IVESTOCK production contri- butes around 4% to the gross domestic product (GDP) and provides livelihood to about 70% population in rural areas. India has the largest livestock population in the world (57% buffalo & 15% cattle) and 88% of the livestock is owned by small and marginal farmers. Forage and feeds constitute 65-70% of total cost of production. Currently, India is deficit by 62.76% in green fodder and 23.46% in dry fodder. The demand of green fodder will rise to 1012 million tonne by the year 2050. To meet out the deficit, green forage supply has to rise at 1.69% annually. The projected nutritional requirement of the fodder is presented (Table 1). The huge demand of green forage with crude protein and total digestible nutrients can be met by increasing the yield vertically through cultivated forage crops or top feeds. Adequate supply of nutrients is essential for enhancing the crop Table 1. Projected requirement, availability and deficit of crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) Year Requirement Availability Deficit (million tonne) (million tonne) (%) CP TDN CP TDN CP TDN 2010 60.0 347.8 43.0 271.3 28.47 21.99 2020 62.6 362.5 47.2 290.5 24.60 19.87 2030 67.0 388.2 53.1 320.2 20.78 17.52 2040 70.2 406.6 57.6 342.8 17.92 15.69 2050 74.4 431.2 61.9 364.5 16.81 15.47