The Hindu : 20,000 tonnes of fodder sought for Anantapur

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

20,000 tonnes of fodder sought for Anantapur

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, MARCH 22. The district administration has requested the State Government to provide about 20,000 tonnes of fodder from other areas in the State by transportation to overcome the severe fodder shortage during the coming two months. Several areas in the district have already been facing the scarcity.

A letter was already written to the Relief Commissioner by the district Collector, Y.V. Anuradha. Request letters were also written to the Collectors of East Godavari and West Godavari.

The administration has identified Atmakur, Kudair, Rapthadu, Bathalapalli, Tadimarri, Kanaganapalli, Ramagiri, Kambadur, Kundurpi, Settur, Beluguppa, Rayadurg, Brahmasamudram, Amarapuram, Gudibanda and Rolla as high fodder-scarcity mandals.

When contacted the Joint Director of Animal Husbandry, K. Venkata Ramana, said on Monday that there was 9.86 lakh heads of cattle and 20.7 lakh sheep/goat population in the district. The cattle population would require 17.99 lakh tonnes of fodder per year.

Of the total requirement, 13.75 lakh tonnes was produced in the district in the form of groundnut hay and paddy straw, leaving a shortage of 4.25 lakh tonnes. Of the shortage in demand, about 3.10 lakh tonnes could be procured from different sources within the district like community fodder cultivation and individual cultivation by farmers.

Community fodder cultivation had helped in production of about 51,000 tonnes of fodder worth about Rs. 25 crores, including the yet-to-be-harvested fodder in Roddam, Hindupur and Ramagiri mandals, and 1.31 lakh tonnes from cultivation of fodder by individual farmers. The Joint Director of AH stated that CO-1 multi-cut variety cultivated in 6,300 acres by individual farmers had produced 1.26 lakh tonnes.

To meet the remaining shortage in demand of 1.15 lakh tonnes the district administration was planning transportation of 20,000 tonnes fodder from other districts, procurement of 4,000 tonnes from farmers with surplus fodder in Kanekal and Bommanahal areas, 3,000 tonnes of feed and 1,000 tonnes of mineral mixture.

An amount of Rs. 6.25 crores was spent on transportation of 11,000 tonnes of fodder from other districts at Rs. 3,500 per tonne including the cost of fodder and loading and unloading charges, and procurement of feed and mineral mixture last year. An amount of Rs. 1.80 crores was already released this year and another Rs. 5 crores was expected for the purpose. Mr. Ramana, however, admitted that procurement of fodder, feed and mineral mix would not solve the fodder problem. There could be wider gap in demand when we get down in the field. The projections made by them were simply based on the cattle population.

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Andhra Pradesh