Fodder problem in Madras

Abstract

While we are making an all out effort to grow more food and have subsidies for well sinking, grand irrigation projects, an organised supply of manure and seeds, in fact all ways and means that we could muster with all the scientific knowledge at our command to produce enough food for the human population which is certainly a very right thing, have we thought sufficiently of food for the 'Dumb Millions' which form the backbone of our agriculture? Fodder scarcity has been more or less a permanent factor in Madras Presidency. During the last one or two decades the severity has been felt more, due to the diversion of the area under food crops into more paying money crops like tobacco, cotton and sugarcane. To add to this, the continued failures of rainfall have resulted in the drying up of the grasses in the grazing areas thereby producing a most alarming state of affairs. How best can this fodder problem for the cattle be faced and how speedily can we avert a crisis which has almost been reached!