Advancing Animal Husbandry Practices through Front Line Demonstrations for Improved Livestock and Fodder Management in Dharmapuri District
Thangadurai, R.*
ICAR-TNAU-KVK, Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu (636 809), India
Vennila, M.A.
ICAR-TNAU-KVK, Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu (636 809), India
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54083/ResBio/6.3.2024/121-124
Keywords: Adoption, Extension, Fodder, Livestock, Productivity, Sustainability
Abstract
Krishi Vigyan Kendra provides the rural farmers with an opportunity to upgrade their knowledge in the area of agriculture and allied sectors. KVKs implement Front Line Demonstrations (FLDs) which are implementations of new technologies on the farmers’ fields with advisory support. In animal sciences, FLDs were on infertility management, clean milk production and high nutrition, long duration fodder crop varieties. These field level demonstrations enable scientists to obtain real time data to further improve the technologies to be used in future research and extension programs. KVK Dharmapuri implemented FLDs in animal sciences from 2014-2024. The implementation of the new technologies in nutrition management, disease prevention and new fodder crop varieties led to the following changes. Milk yield increased from 6 to 9 liters day-1, weight gain in sheep and goats also enhanced from 4 to 6 kg month-1 and lamb death rate improved from 75% to 90%. Fodder production also increased from 70 to 200 tons acre-1, this is 185% improvement as compared to the traditional varieties. The income of the farmers from livestock enterprises increased from Rs. 72,000.00 to Rs. 92,400.00, which is 28% more than that of the traditional practices. The results of this study show that the FLDs in animal sciences developed in Dharmapuri have positively affected the living standard, production of forages and income from livestock production.
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Reference
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