VEGETABLE WASTE AS ALTERNATIVE FEED RESOURCE FOR LIVESTOCK DURING PANDEMIC
Abstract
The cases of COVID-19 have been increasing day by day. As preventive measure during this pandemic, central and state government imposing lockdown which has been resulting in dramatic slowdown in economic activities across the board. In agriculture sector, the impact may manifest in delayed fashion. Livestock play major role in Indian economy by providing livelihood and employment. To maintain this sustainability, we need to provide suitable feed resource and management strategies. In India, summer fruits and vegetables have ripened and ready for harvest, but hobbled by severe labour shortage, transport problem and decreasing demand due to a nationwide lockdown resulting in dumping of fruits and vegetables. These vegetables are nutritious and can be included in the diet of livestock. Now in summer, there is shortage of green and other feed resources all over India so, these dumped vegetables and fruits can be used as an alternative feed resource.
Key words: COVID-19, Economy, Feed, Livestock, Lockdown, Vegetables.
Introduction
Today whole world is facing the coronavirus pandemic. Infectious disease, COVID-19 cause by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a beta coronavirus first reported in Wuhan, China in December, 2019. Despite immense control efforts, this has now spread to more than 190 countries worldwide. The doubling rate of this disease is fairly more, as the reproduction no. i.e., R0 is about 3-4. By the end of May 2021, the number of positive cases has reached 16.9 crore worldwide and about 2.73 crore in India. To reduce the spread, many countries followed lockdown protocol and social distancing which has been showing positive result. In continuation, Prime minister of India declared a nationwide lockdown many times, limiting the movement of entire 1.3 billion population of India as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Many state government and UT are imposing lockdown according to rise of cases. Even before the full impact of COVID-19 on health of Indian citizens is clear, the economic impact of various control measures to deal with this pandemic are showing great problem. Specifically, lockdown and other movement restriction imposed by government have been resulting in dramatic slowdown in economic activities across the board.
The quantitative methodology based on the input- output (IO) technique model given by economist Wassily Leontief provides detailed sector wise information of output and consumption in different sector of economy. This model shows that the loss of GDP ranges from ₹17, 29, 51 and 73 lakh crores when the average loss of output days are 13, 27, 43 and 67, respectively, which means 7 %, 13%, 23% and 33% loss of GDP, respectively. If we take the scenario where prolong lockdown happens, averaging 47 days across the sector, the mining sector faces the largest drop of 42% followed by 29% in electricity sector and value added sectors. In agriculture sector, the impact may manifest in delayed fashion, if the COVID-19 measures or pandemic itself, affects agriculture operation in upcoming kharif season, even if, as reports suggest, much of this year’s rabi has been successfully harvested.
Livestock play major role in Indian economy by contributing 4.11 % to GDP and 26.6 % to agriculture GDP. Around 20 million people of India depend upon livestock for their livelihood which accounts to about 16% income of small household farmers (Vaswani S, 2017). To maintain this sustainability, we need to provide suitable feed resource and management strategies.
Vegetables waste as livestock feed
https://www.pashudhanpraharee.com/feeding-vegetable-waste-as-cattle-feed/
In India, summer fruits and vegetables have ripened and ready for harvest, but hobbled by severe labour shortage, transport problem and decreasing demand due to a nationwide lockdown. Millions of farmers are facing huge financial losses. Farmers who usually make good return on their vegetables and fruit produce are now forced to let it rot as there are no buyers in market. Farmers dumped their produce in garbage bins as they could not transport it to APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committees). Now in summer, there is shortage of green and other feed resources all over India so, these dumped fruits and vegetables can be use as alternative feed resources.
Vegetable wastes and their by-product such as baby corn, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, cucumber, jackfruit, peas, potato are rich in both protein and energy. Owing to high acceptability and palatability by animals, it can be used as alternative feed resources to livestock (Wadhwa et al., 2016).
Carrot is the richest source of fiber and carotenoid with 10 % CP. Feeding of 10 kg fresh carrot/ day to dairy cow result in improvement of reproductive performance. Cucumber waste contain 56% TDN and inclusion of 6.7%. Cucumber waste in feed blocks can replace 35-40% cereals-based concentrate in pregnant and non-pregnant goat (Romero and Molina, 2014). Fresh culled potatoes contain 65-75% starch, 9.5-10% CP and 80% TDN and can be include in the ration of 4.5-6.5 kg/day in calf diet, 10-11 kg/day for yearling and 16-18 kg/ day for a 500 kg cow without any adverse effects. Culled snow pea (23-25% CP) is highly palatable and can be fed to adult male buffalo @50 kg/day safely (Bakshi and Wadhwa, 2012). Feed block containing 12.5% culled tomato waste (14-20% CP) can replace 35% cereal-based concentrate diet in diets of lactating goat. Dried culled tomato can replace 3% alfalfa meal in broiler with satisfactory effects (Ammeman et al., 1965). Other vegetable waste like cabbage, sweet corn and sarson saag etc are nutrient rich and can be safely included in livestock feed at optimum level. However, there is need to conduct more research to find-out possible antinutritional factors in these wastes to make it worth for livestock feeding.
Conclusion
In current scenario of pandemic, rather than dumping, the unsold as well as leftover agricultural products and vegetables can be used more efficiently to feed the livestock as an alternative and thereby reducing the expenses on conventional feeds and fodders, which would be helpful for marginal farmers to sustain in their business during current financial crisis. It would also create awareness among farmers for effective agricultural resource management and waste recycling in days to come.
Rathod akash., jayswal kavipriya., Tambe Maheshkumar.
Division of Animal Nutrition, Indian Veterinary Research Institute – 243122.
References
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Bakshi MPS, Wadhwa M. 2012. Utilization of residual biomass from fruit and vegetables. In: Oberoi HS. ed. Proceedings National Training on Fermentation technology for production of value–added products from agricultural residues. Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana, India.
Romero-Huelva, M. and Molina-Alcaide, E. 2013. Nutrient utilization, ruminal fermentation, microbial nitrogen flow, microbial abundances, and methane emissions in goats fed diets including tomato and cucumber waste fruits. J Anim Sci. 91: 914-923.
Wadhwa, M., Bakshi, M.P. and Makkar, H.P. 2015. Waste to worth: fruit wastes and by-products as animal feed. CAB Reviews. 10: 1-26.
Corona virus updates with statistics and graph 2021, Worldometer. (2021, May 27). Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34010789/
