It would be of interest to know the growth of food and fodder crops in the past two decades. Main food grain is wheat, which is grown on 46 percent area of the crops while fodder is grown on 12 percent of the total cropped area.
While the wheat production increased by 53 percent during the past two decades, human population increased by 44 percent during the same period which shows that food production stayed ahead of human population growth which is a credit to the agriculture department.
However, the fodder production during the past two decades reduced by five per cent against the 40 per cent increase in buffaloes and cattle during the past 10 years which shows the dire state of animal nutrition.
The lack of fodder production must draw the attention of agronomists who treat fodder as grey area left for livestock department, which is not geared to create a green revolution in fodder production.
Earlier, the agriculture department had some concern for bullocks used for traction but with the introduction of tractors the agriculture department is not interested to produce fodder for milk and meat animals which is a matter of grave concern as almost 5.8 million acres of irrigated land is devoted for fodder production with little effort for R&D in the area to increase the per acre yield of fodder crops.
MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
