Karnataka's first Fodder Densification Unit in Chamarajanagar

Now-a-days farmers own small piece of land and with the generated less amount of income they cannot offer good amount of nutritious feed for their livestock’s. In this regard, Mysore Milk Union Limited (Mymul) is coming out with an unique project to mechanise the agro waste in districts and even cut down the waste. It will be inaugurating Karnataka's first Fodder Densification Unit (Fodder Block) at Munachanahhli in Chamarajanagar District next month.

The set-up machines will compress the dry fodder into blocks, enriching fodder value by adding cattle feed ingredients like fodder, wheat and paddy straw, mineral mixture, and much more. Due to this the dry fodders wasted by animals while eating can be prevented.

MS Lakshmi Prasad Yadav of Mymul said that wastage of about 90 per cent of dry straws can be prevented by providing blocks for animals. The produced fodder blocks will be distributed to farmers of Mysore and Chamarajanagar and transportation is also a loss cost affair.

'The block provides good quality of nutritious food for animals in a affordable price. For a big cow two block per day is sufficient, while one for smaller cow. About 60 per cent of chopped straw, cane grass, molasses, will be added to overcome nutritious deficiency. Apart this, in winter season the fooder will be stored in the unit and will be supplied in summer,' he added.

The unit will be set up in five acres of land and the estimated cost of the Projects is Rs 2.6 crore, in which Rs 1.6 crore will be funded by Government of India, under Rashtriya Krushi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and another crore will be owned by Mymul. The capacity of the plant is it produces 12 tonnes of block per day. The Unit will be developed on the lines of Uttarkhand Densification Unit, he added.

Madhumathi, a woman farmer from Periyapatna said that “we are finding it hard to serve food for animals due to severe scarcity of fodder following droguht. The blocks will be really a boon for us as its save maximum amount of waste.”

Fodder farms in taluks

Mymul will be extending the fodder farms in all the taluks of district. Ten acres of plot will be identified in every taluks and varieties of fodder will be grown and supplied to the farmers. Already lands at KR Nagar and Hebbenathi at Periyapatna has been finalized and land identification at Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Kollegal are under progress. In the unique fodder farm set-up at Allanahalli, Mysore the officers are facing severe shortage to meet the demand of farmers.