States Pitch For Separate FCI To Ensure Fodder Security

NEW DELHI: In order to improve availability of fodder in the country, several state governments today suggested setting up of a Fodder Corporation of India (FCI), ban on export of oilseed cake and disallowing harvesting of wheat and other fodder crop using combine harvestor.

Some states also demanded that the Centre should treat animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries at par with the agriculture sector and ensure benefits such crop loans at lower interest rate and Kisan Credit Cards facilities are passed on to people engaged in allied agriculture activities.

Flagging concerns of the allied farm sector at a national conference here, the state ministers handling this sector told Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh to address these issues at the earliest to achieve the next level of growth.

Inviting suggestions from the states on various issues, Singh said the state governments should implement the ongoing schemes related to this sector in its true spirit.

"A sub-mission on fodder under the National Livestock Mission will try to address the problems of scarcity of animal feed resources in the country," he said and added that large-scale prevalence of animal disease is also the biggest hurdles to growth of dairy and livestock productivity.
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