Background:
Pareshbhai Vitthalbhai Kotadiya is a 45 Years old farmer living in Charodiya village, in the coastal village of Rajula block of Amreli District. He is living with4 members in a single family. In terms of education, Pareshbhaihasattended till Matric level. He is small farmer with 9 bighas (3.5 acres) of farm land and 4 buffaloes and 2 cows his main source of income being Animal husbandry. Pareshbhai used to grow Groundnut, Cotton as a Kharif crop and Onion, Wheat and Gram as a Rabi crop. He used to feed the animal with cotton cake and groundnut cake. Animals usually take more roughages and less concentrate. But animals are suffering from deficiency of nutrition resulting in lower milk production, which further results in a high cost of feeding for animal rearing.
Priority:
In Charodiya, mostly farmers are dependent on livestock. Due to small agriculture land holdings farmers are facing the shortage of nutritional fodder for their livestock. In such conditions, they are getting low fat milk, encountered various health issue in their livestock. The residents of Charodiya used to suffer from livestock losses due to unavailability of proper medicine & proficient doctor to treat the livestock in worst condition farmers contacts low proficient doctor at higher cost. Pareshbhai is also facing these problems, Charodiya is also part of Coastal saline belt of Saurashtra region in western Gujarat, due to drinking of high TDS water livestock immune system becomes weak & also affects livestock seasonal health issue like Foot mouth disease (FMD) is called KHANGWA disease. Recently Charodiya farmers have faced Lumpy deadly virus in livestock. Pareshbhai is victim one of them.
District / State: Amreli, Gujarat.
Location: Charodiya, Rajula Taluka.
Beneficiary Name: Pareshbhai Vitthalbhai Kotadiya
Struggle Story:
Pareshbhai Vithalbhai Kotadiya is small &marginal farmer, He mainly depends on animal husbandry as an additional source of income. Pareshbhai is living with 4 family members, owns 4 buffaloes and 2 cows. The average of daily milk yield of Pareshbhai cattle is 10 liters, milk selling price is 60 rupees per liter in western Gujarat which makes monthly income 18,000 rupees of Pareshbhai. With this amount he has to balance expenditure of whole family members &livestock. Which is very less amount to upbringing the family &livestock. Pareshbhai has to face Lumpy virus attack this year. During this pandemic attack Pareshbhai has lost 1 Cow and 2 buffaloes that is unbearable to him. In addition, remaining cattle reduces the milk yield on a daily basis.
Muskil (Challenges):
InCharodiya village, animal husbandry is a main source of livelihood providing surplus income to the farmers by pouring the milk in local dairies. Despite this there is a complete absence of trained veterinary service providers- veterinary doctor or livestock inspector. This leads to exploitation of the livestock rearers by quacks posing as Livestock Inspector. These quacks not only charge a hefty fees for even the examination of the ailing cattle but also leads to casualties, at times, due to poor knowledge and inexperience. At times, these untrained livestock practitioners charge INR 1,000 just for the examination of the ailing animal. In addition, the shortage of green fodder specially during the dry spell leads the animals to a deficiency of nutrition. This in turnaffects their milk production and deteriorates the health of livestock. Every year Pareshbhaiwas facing losses in animal husbandry. He was contemplating to migrate to urban areas from his native place. His family was also suffering from lack of the necessary help and support.
Capacity building:
Under capacity building, CSPC veterinary expert is spreading the awareness amongst the farmers for effective livestock health management, nutritional green fodder, mineral mixture,
artificial insemination, stall feeding etc.
Vaccination drives:
CSPC has provided the Lumpy virus& FMD vaccine to all Livestock of Charodiyavillage including Pareshbhai. After the completion of Lumpy vaccination drive Pareshbhai is assured that his livestock will not fall prey to this dreaded disease.
Azolla Bed:
During our project orientation meeting, Pareshbhai got to know about the HDFC project being implemented by CSPC in Sept’21. During the series of training and field days on Azolla cultivation conducted by CSPC, Pareshbhai has adopted the Azolla cultivation for supplement feeding to 4 animals under the HRDP project supported by HDFC.
About the Azolla bed:
It is a methodology of cultivation of edible aquatic fern in a plastic bed containing soil and dung to supply the daily supplemental need of animals. It is easy to install and maintain. No more any technical knowledge is required. Floating fern containing Anabaena rich source of various proteins, Vitamins and minerals. Azolla bed is suitable where lower TDS water is available. The fresh Azolla increases the production of milk and maintains the health of animals.
Experience of Pareshbhai:
Pareshbhai makes ghee from the milk of a cow. He is well satisfied for use of Azolla. Getting an increase in milk production and fat percentage.
“I am very satisfying with this Azolla. It gives me very good
protinous healthy green feed. I have saved costlier concentrates. I am expecting good green Azolla out of
this intervention. I wish that all the other farmers should adopt the Azolla cultivation.”Pareshbhai Vitthalbhai Kotadiya
Future Plan of Pareshbhai:
Pareshbhai is planning to set up one more Azollabed. He also shared that he will ask his fellow farmers, relatives and friends to adopt the Azolla.
Cost-benefit analysis Azolla Vs Other Concentrates:
| Sr. No. | Descriptions | Azolla | Concenters ( Cotton cake) |
| 1 | Total cost | 1900/- | 2000/- |
| 2 | Duration | 3 Year | 1 Month |
| 3 | Increase fat % | 0.7 | 0.6 |
| 4 | Increase SNF % | 1 | 0.8 |
| 5 | Increase Milk L | 0.7 | 0.5 |
| 6 | Per year Cost | 1900 | 24000/- |
| 7 | Per Three year cost | 1900 | 72000/- |
From the data, we can conclude that the use of Azolla is beneficial for an increase of SNF % by 10 %, Fat % by 20 % and overall milk production by 30 %. The major attention is on Azolla required very less cost for three years Rs. 1900/-. While the cost of cotton cake for three years is very high Rs. 72000. It means 38 times the high cost for cotton cake over Azolla cost.