Ajola become boon for farmers involved in dairy farming

Following drought, its indeed a challenging task for farmers to provide cattle-feed to their livestocks, especially for those involved in dairy farming. As a tailor made solution for this, Ajola, a waterborne green algae has found quick acceptance amongst thousands of farmers involved in dairy farming activity under Mysore Milk Union Limited (MYMUL).

Milk Unions are distributing the mother culture free of cost to the desirous farmers. Among 1309 milk producers society of Mysore and Charamajanagar, more than 600 societies are growing Ajola to cut down the feed cost.  MS Lakshmi Prasad Yadav of MYMUL Seeds and Fodder Unit says, there is a huge demand for Ajola grass in the districts, following  low cost maintenance and result of good yield.

“Ajola grass are rich in protein content. By feeding Ajola for milching animals like buffaloes and cows, not only milk production but even percentage of fat content increases, which helps farmers to reap more profits. Moreover, Ajola requires very small place, and it can be grown even in the backyard. It cost around 40 to 50 paise per kilo to grow Ajola and there is no labour problem. This has encouraged hundreds of farmers involved in the dairy farming to grow Ajola grass in their farms,” he said.

Though there is good response for Ajola, as its a very sensitive crop  farmers are provided training about growing Ajola at MYMUL Training Center situated in Alanahalli. It has to be grown inside a garden house or shadow under the tree to prevent formation of any fungus and bacterial attacks.  

“We  think of cutting costs while maintaining a good yield and also nutrition. The Ajola grass is blessed for us. Compare to cattle feeds provided earlier, the yield of milk is good after using Ajola”, says farmer Vasu of KR Nagar.

Training for farmers
Mymul is conducting 'Urea Straw Treatment', an educational training programme for farmers on enrichment of dry straw. The farmers are thought about processing of dry straw, Maize, Jower grass using water, salt, jower.

Lakshmi Prasad Yadav says: “Dry straw, fodder become soft when processed, and salt, jower enriches the proteins, vitamins contents. As its difficult for farmers to provide green grass for livestocks following drought, lack of space, this has become boon for farmers. From last few months about 300 metric tonnes of dry straw has been processed.”