Spineless Cactus in Hilly/ Degraded Lands and Grass pea in Winter Fallows for Fodder, Food & Nutrition Security in Tribal Areas in Odisha

Keshari Sahoo, Padma

Spineless Cactus in Hilly/ Degraded Lands and Grass pea in Winter Fallows for Fodder, Food & Nutrition Security in Tribal Areas in Odisha

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Date

2020-12-30

Authors

Keshari Sahoo, Padma

Swain, Nigamananda

Sarker, Ashutosh

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Padma Keshari Sahoo, Nigamananda Swain, Ashutosh Sarker. (30/12/2020). Spineless Cactus in Hilly/ Degraded Lands and Grass pea in Winter Fallows for Fodder, Food & Nutrition Security in Tribal Areas in Odisha.

Abstract

With an objective to productively use hilly and degraded lands in watersheds to produce green fodder from spineless cactus, and conserve soil and water erosion, the spineless cactus project is being implemented by ICARDA with support of Directorate of Watershed Development. The project is planned to benefit 144 villages of 36 GPs in 18 blocks in 6 districts of Odisha. The project imported 24 exotic fodder cactus species and established in 16 foundation nurseries in project and other districts. 36 GP Adaptation & Multiplication nurseries are established in the project districts to multiply select cactus species and produce planting material for degraded and hilly lands. Within two years, we have attained the capacity to produce 40,519 cladodes per year which is sufficient to meet the planting requirement of 65 ha. The production capacities are increasing to supply more and more cladodes to plant abundant degraded lands in the watershed areas. The green fodder form cactus has enough of moisture and minerals to supplement water and nutrient to animals in the hot summer months. But there was initial apprehension if the animals in Odisha will prefer, and eat spineless cactus as a fodder! The project has demonstrated 132 numbers of feed mix demonstrations in project villages in adherence to feed mix ration as advised by IGFRI. It is observed that, all types of livestock, the cattle, goats, sheep, etc. find the feed mix very palatable, and their water intake is observed to be reduced due to lot of moisture content in cactus green fodder. The livestock owners say that the health and body lustre especially of goats are observed to be very good after taking cactus feed mix. A long-term study on it would help to quantify the results on milk and meat yield and health of animals. Feed-mix trials have been conducted in the presence of officials from various departments like Project Director, Watershed, Training Officer from the office of Chief District Veterinary Officer, block level veterinary surgeon, sarpanch, etc. To chop cactus pads, green leaves and straw, 150 chaff cutters have been distributed in 144 villages. Similarly, to popularize grasspea fodder as part of cactus feed mix, required grass pea seed and inputs are given to grow the crop. 36 zero- tillage seed cum fertilizer drills, and 144 spiral seed graders have been distributed in project GPs and villages. Grasspea cluster demonstration in rice fallow lands have been done in 294.78 ha covering 1402 farmers in 2018-19 and in 576 ha covering 1863 farmers during 2019-20; in total, the project has covered 870.78 ha and 3265 farmers. Off total 24 cactus species, 20 species have survival rate of 100% except species like Jalpa, Palma azul, IPA – 90-111, and IPA-90-18. The average length of pad ranges from 15 to 40 cm, average width ranges from 4.6 to 21.5 cm and average weight ranges from 140 to 220 gram. The potential to produce new pads range from 37 to 114 numbers per year, and the average yield ranges from 6.6 to 22.8 kg per accession per year. The species like IPA 20 ou clone 20, Orelha de elefante Africana, F8 – forrageira 8, and IPA – 90 -73 have the potential to produce more than 20 kg fodder per plant per year. Through this project, as of 31st March 2020, a total of 1,48,351 cladodes have been planted in the project districts covering 5859 beneficiaries including GP Adaptation & Multiplication nurseries as well as individual farmers. Apart from these, 5942 numbers of cladodes have been planted in 16 foundation nurseries across ten districts. To capacitate the stakeholders, required technology trainings have been conducted. Apart from experts of ICARDA and IGFRI, various departmental officials from district soil conservation & watershed development, and livestock & animal husbandry, etc. are involved. In this financial year, 37 field level technical training programs on cactus are conducted at District, Block and GP levels, covering 5,738 participants (3266 males [56.91%] and 2472 [43.08%] females). During this period, 20 field school/ field days have been conducted covering 1105 farmers out of which 587 (53.12%) were male and rest 518 (46.87%) were female participants. The major themes of the discussions were around basic knowledge on the plantation, management of the plantation sites, pest and disease management, critical irrigation, etc. A five-member team including two senior Government Officials from Soil Conservation and Watershed Development Department, two senior scientists from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) and the State Program Advisor, ICARDA attended the 7-days long training program on ‘Cactus Pear Evaluation and Best Agronomic Practices’ conducted by National Agricultural Research Centre, Amman, Jordan. Exposure trips were also conducted to Amlaha and IGFRI. As a part of knowledge management under the project, in this financial year, one technical report, three leaflets, one brochure, success stories booklet, one documentary video, and two exposure visit reports have been developed.