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Department of Agricultural Economics, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati.
The present study aimed to estimate the feed and fodder demand for the existing livestock population and supply in Andhra Pradesh. For the study the secondary data was collected from the different sources. The livestock population was converted into Ruminant Livestock Units (RLU) based on the species, age and sex. Ruminant Livestock Units (RLU) were considered to have a body weight of 350 kg and a dry matter intake of 2 per cent of their body weight. The total RLU in the state is 9.24 million, requiring 23.61 million tonnes of feed and fodder on dry matter basis. Availability of dry fodder and concentrates were estimated using appropriate conversion ratios to different crop production while green fodder was estimated by applying per hectare yield to different fodder sources The total annual availability of feed and fodder in the state was estimated to be 33.13 million tonnes against the requirement of 23.61 million tonnes and thereby excess of around 40.35 per cent per annum. The availability of feed and fodder was excess in 9 districts except for the Visakhapatnam, Prakasam, Kadapa and Anantapuram districts of the state. Average dry matter availability in the state was 9.82 kg/RLU/day against the requirement (7 kg). Creation of fodder banks and transport fodder to the deficit areas of the country are the policies to be developed and need priority attention to solve the problem of fodder in deficit areas.
KEYWORDS: Dry matter availability, Dry matter requirement and Ruminant Livestock Unit.