Studies on foliar application of nutrients on fodder maize production under hydroponics and field condition

Abstract

Livestock sustains and boosts agriculture in most farming systems. India feeds about 20 % of the world s livestock and 17.5 % of its people on only 2.3 % of the world s land (Singh et al. 2022). The human and livestock populations are increasing at a pace of 1.6 and 0.66 % per annum. Presently, cultivation of fodders is limited to only 5 % of the entire cultivable land in the country. There is a current short fall of 30.6 % green fodder, 11.85 % dry fodder, and 44 % concentrate feed ingredients across the country (IGFRI). In the recent scenario, adequate attention is not being given to the production of fodder crops because of more land requirement, scarcity of water or saline water more labour requirement, more growth time (gt60 days), non-availability of same quality green fodder round the year, and affected by natural calamities. As an alternative to conventional method, fodders can be grown with hydroponics technology within a week. In such situation, the novel approach called hydroponic fodder production it can be best option or a substitute for getting nutritious and year round green fodder production. newline