Performance and Dissemination of Multicut Fodder Crops in Ramanagara District, Karnataka State, India

Abstract

Fodder crops play a vital role in agriculture since continuous supply of nutritious green fodder in sufficient quantity is basic requirement for livestock to cater milk production and also to maintain the health of the livestock. The availability of good quality green fodder is far less than the requirement in Ramanagara district of Karnataka state. The production of fodder in Ramanagara district accounts to 50 % deficit, resulting in underfed and poorly maintained livestock. Further the cattle are not fed according to their age and the weight. The present situation calls for the adoption of improved production technology in fodder crops to obtain maximum biomass per unit area in order to meet the demand. Farmers are in need of highly palatable multicut green fodder that yields throughout the year. Farmers also lack knowledge about the availability of high yielding multicut fodder crop. In the milieu, KVK Ramanagara conducted an On-farm testing on “Performance of Multicut Fodder in Ramanagara District” at Hombalammanapete of Magadi Taluk in five farmers’ field. In this study three high yielding multicut fodder crops namely CO-3, COFS-29 and DHN-6 were compared with NB-21 fodder grown locally. Improved cultivation practices of fodder were adopted in the trial under the supervision of KVK Scientist. After every cut growth, yield and quality parameters were recorded such as stem length (cm), Number of tillers per hill, leaf length (cm), Leaf width (cm), Number of leaves per hill, stem girth (cm) and palatability (%) was recorded at every harvest. Observation recorded on the parameters cumulatively confirmed that DHN-6 multicut fodder recorded highest yield (220t/ ha/ year) followed by COFS-29 (160t/ ha/ year) and Co-3 (160t/ha/year) when compared to locally grown NB- 21 (120t/ ha/ year). Highest palatability (93%) was recorded in COFS-29 followed by DHN-6 which was 92%.