Indigenous pasture production for regeneration of drylands and increased livestock production – A story from the drylands of Kenya to the drylands of India
In the blog on livestock production in India we read about the importance of the livestock sector in India and its characteristics. One significant aspect that came out is that of the total cultivated land, only 4-5% of arable land is used for fodder production. While out of the total landmass in India, 69% is dryland. In this blog we therefore will share with you an example from indigenous pasture production in Kenya, where 80% of the country is classified as dryland, to see where we can meet each other and take things across borders.
One important factor related to livestock production is feed production. According to Yadav et al. (2017) the large share of feed requirement is being met from crop residues. It revealed that the fodder requirement in India is “883.95 Mt of green fodder and 583.66 Mt of dry fodder whereas the estimated fodder production is 664.73 Mt of green fodder and 355.93 Mt of dry fodder.” Meaning an additional 219Mt of green fodder and 226.53 Mt of dry fodder is required. However, there is debate on this premise that livestock production heavily depends on crop residues in India. Most of livestock production in India is from states which have large lands under commons. India became largest dairy producers and net exporters and recently, third largest meat exporters in just 3 years when government opened exports. The paper by Yadav is highly technical and not fully addressing the social-ecological realities of the country. [1]