Vol. 11, Special Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
K Naveena, Y Pradeep Kumar Reddy, P Pandu Ranga Reddy and MV Dharma Rao

Abstract:
An appraisal of livestock and poultry feed resource availability was done based on secondary data in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh state, India. Among the large ruminants, cattle population was highest compared to total buffalo population. Crossbred cattle outnumbered indigenous cattle with 3.4:1 ratio. Poultry production was predominant with large scale commercial poultry farms of broilers and layers in 1.3:1 ratio. The region possesses overall DM availability of 5.10 million tonnes (Mt) from various feed resources. Major portion (35.98%) of the green DM forage availability is contributed from the forest area in the district followed by gross cropped area (33.12). Crop residues contributed to 63.73% of total DM supply for livestock in the region. Straw from sugarcane crop, groundnut followed by bajra are the major cereal straws available in the region while the ground nut straw is a major legume straw. The contribution of the green fodder, dry fodder, and concentrates for the overall DM availability in the region is 31.96, 68.04, and 0 respectively. The DM availability per RLU/day for the region as a whole is 5.10 kg. The study revealed that there was a moderate DM availability in Chittoor district (72.88). The percentage availability of dry matter, green forages, dry forages, and concentrates per RLU for the region are 5.10, 1.63, 3.47, and 0, respectively. Complete unavailability of concentrates in the region depicts heavy demand of concentrates for poultry, owing to the presence of higher poultry population in the region. Thus, it could be concluded that there was a severe shortage of concentrates to meet the requirements of both livestock and poultry. Although the region is self-sufficient in terms of dry forage availability, majority of dry forages are nutritionally poor straws. Hence, suitable strategies should be developed for the efficient utilization of existing feed and fodder resources to improve animal productivity in this region. Furthermore, the correlation analysis revealed significant positive co-expression of rainfall with buffalo and poultry population, gross cropped area percent, sugarcane tops, palm press fiber, grains and brans availability, and total available dry matter percent. The rainfall in the regions were negatively correlated with sheep, goat, cultivated fodder, private primary grazing areas, public primary grazing areas, public secondary grazing areas, legume straws, chunnies, and oil seed cakes.