Imagine fresh green and nutritious feed for your cattle, right from a greenhouse near your cattle shed or in your premises and envision carrying the leafy greens that are not stocked for months. These are the potentials of hydroponic cultivation.
Spurred by threats of the dry season leading to a shortage of fodders for livestock, worsening the food security, Monggar is set about growing cattle fodder using hydroponic farming. The science of soil-less farming is being implemented at Unaridang dairy farm in Saling Gewog of Monggar.
The maize fodder is being grown inside the greenhouse using hydroponic farming for almost a week. In another one-week time, the maize will be ready to feed the cattle.
There are over one hundred trays of seeds put inside the greenhouse. A kilogram of seeds can produce almost ten kilos of green fodder. According to Livestock officials, the seeds need to soak in water for 24 hours and put inside a bag until germination takes place. Once the seeds germinate, it must be evenly spread in the tray inside the greenhouse and sprinkle water twice a day.
Tenzin Dorji, the Chief District Livestock Officer of Monggar said, “of the 97,000 metric tonnes of fodder required for cattle, we could only produce 57,000 metric tonnes of fodder now. So we are running short of 39,000 metric tonnes of dry matter. Therefore, we started hydroponic farming to produce enough fodder in the Dzongkhag.”
The trial project is being implemented to supplement the dry fodders during winter. Most of the dairy farms depend on karma feeds and stored fodders like crop residues to feed cow during winter.
Research attributes the drop in milk production and other dairy products to lack of nutritional green fodder. Unaridang dairy farm has also stored 24 metric tonnes of silage and straw, which is being used this season.
The Chief District Livestock Officer also said, “when there are enough maize plants and green fodder, we produce silage by doing value addition and store it for two to three months.”
If it is proven successful, the project would be soon replicated to other commercial dairy farms and the gewogs as well.
“We would soon replicate the hydroponic farming in the Land Use Certificate projects in Silambi and Ngatshang Gewogs. And we are also proposing fund this year to take the project at the gewog level. We have also plan to replicate such projects to the interested dairy farmers in the villages,” he added.
A kilogram of fodder can be shared among three cows due to high nutritional values. And this results in enhanced milk production.
Similar projects were also executed in Lhuentse Dzongkhag last month and it has proven successful. The Commercial Agriculture and Resilient Livelihoods Enhancement Program (CARLEP) have been financially supporting the hydroponic farming in the country.
To address fodder shortage during winter, the Livestock office has also started planting fodder trees in the fallow lands and nearby the roads.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
