Grass-Legume Intercropping for Enhancing Quality Fodder Production in Drylands

Abstract

Livestock sector, accounting for 4.2% of national gross domestic product plays a significant role in the socio-economic development of rural economy, notably of dryland regions where adverse extreme climatic conditions prevail. In dryland regions, poor nutrition owing to wide gap in demand and availability of fodder and feed resources is identified as one of the major reasons of low livestock productivity. The poor quality of available fodder from the prevailing fodder production systems further aggregates the situation and necessitates enhancement of quality fodder production. Intercropping of grass and legumes is an important, low-input production strategy for the development of sustainable fodder production systems, especially in fragile arid zones, owing to its multiple benefits over monocultures of either grasses or legumes. The grass-legume intercropping provides an opportunity to develop sustainable production systems with higher productivity and profitability; improve soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation; minimise the adverse impact of moisture and nutrient stress; reduce yield loss caused by weeds, diseases, and pests; and improve the protein content and quality of the overall livestock diets. It is imperative to ensure that there will be minimum competition between component crops for space, light, nutrients, and water for making a successful grass-legume intercropping system. The success of such systems largely depends on choice of crops, their differentiating growth, development, stature, root behaviour and maturity, crop density, and time of planting. The constrains that hinder the adoption of grass-legume intercropping systems, such as availability of efficient strains of Rhizobium, high-quality seeds, lack of awareness about the importance of legumes and their inclusion in fodder production systems, and technical know-how of complex intercropping systems, must be addressed effectively to popularise it among resource-poor and marginal farming community for enhancing the quantity and quality of fodder in drylands.