Azolla Cultivation and its Useas alternative green fodder for livestock

摘要

INDIA has the largest livestock population and also in terms of milk production in the world. But average milk production still needs to be improved; this may be due to low nutrition, insufficient availability of good quality feeds and fodder. Nowadays greatest problems of the Indian livestock farmers are facing, is the shortage of fodder due to cultivation of high yielding varieties, urbanization etc. The rapid shrinkage of common grazing lands of the villages and expansion of urban areas also led to disappearance of grazing lands and pastures. Traditional sources of cattle feeds like oil cakes and coarse grains also declined as other cash crops occupied their areas. Such varied factors have contributed in an inter-linked way to aggravate the fodder crisis. A number of synthetic antibiotics, steroids and vitamins are used to increase the production of milk, meat, egg etc. These chemicals may accumulate in the human body, through the consumption of animal products could cause various degenerative diseases. If we can substitute the cattle feeds with natural feeds that are rich in useful nutrients, it will be of great importance for human andanimal health. Hence the Azolla can be used as unconventional high potential feed resource for non-ruminants. Above all, for the best performance, diets of chicks can be formulated with inclusion of Azolla up to 10%. Azolla is a good source of minerals and essential amino acids; its usage is limited in pig production due to their low digestible energy. Information obtained from different studies revealed that Azolla has high nutrient and it is well accepted by sheep and goats. Azolla can be used as an ideal source of feed for cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits and fish as an alternate source to a concentrate/ feed/fodder to improve the production status of the animals.