Port Blair, Aug 12: The Animal Science Division and KVK Sippighat of ICAR- Central Island Agricultural research Institute, organised one day awareness training programme on “Cultivation of Fodder crops under varying topographies to improve livestock productivity” under the inter Institutional fodder project to increase the productivity of Dairy Animals of Bay Islands. The training programme was organised at Collinpur, South Andaman on Tuesday.
The programme was presided over by Dr. A. Kundu, Head of the Division, Animal Sciences; Dr. Nagesh Ram, PC KVK was the chief guest in this occasion. In his address, Dr. A. Kundu narrated the fodder scenario of the islands and its importance in increasing the productivity of the dairy animals. Dr Ram encouraged the farmers to take full advantages of the experts present in the training programme. Farmers were provided the fodder root slips of Hybrid Napier and fodder seeds of Multicut sorghum, Cow pea and Agathi for cultivation in their field.
Dr. N.C Choudhary, ACTO of KVK and Co-PI of Inter Institutional project briefed about the project initiated by ICAR-CIARI for the benefit of the dairy farmers. An interactive session was also held in which Dr. B. Gangaiah, HOD NRM division and agronomist briefed about the agronomy for cultivation of fodder in different topographies. Dr M. S. Kundu the PI of the Project, explained about the importance of quality fodders to increase the productivity of the milking animals. The optimum requirement of cultivated fodder for maintaining the good reproductive health of the dairy animals was also explained along with the different toxic principles present in the natural and wild grasses. Cultivations of fodder were also demonstrated to the farmers. Altogether, 24 famers and one farm women attended in the training. The team also visited the farmers’ field to advice the farmer on different aspect of fodder cultivation and exploring the option to integrate the different farming activities.
