Stylosanthes Production, Processing and Utilization Technologies for Animal Production-A Review

Abstract

Stylosanthes popularly known as stylo, is among the most versatile, widely adapted, highly productive and fast growing tropical pasture legume commonly grown in a number of agricultural systems in many countries with a tropical or subtropical climate. Being a leguminous fodder, Stylosanthes is rich in nutrients and on an average, it contains 15–25% DM, 15–20% CP, 10–15% CF, 1–2% ether extract and 50–60% nitrogen free extract. In India, it is the most important tropical legume for semi-arid and arid regions, where it is mainly used as cut-and-carry fodder, a pasture and/or range crop, a cover crop to suppress weeds and control soil erosion, an inter-crop in agro-forestry and grass-legume mixture, a green manure to enhance soil fertility and nitrogen, protein banks, fallow crops, hay, a pioneering coloniser of problem soils and, more recently, a cash crop to produce dried leaf meal as an ingredient of animal feed formulations for poultry and fish. The surplus Stylosanthes can be processed as leaf meal and feed blocks and can be stored for lean period utilization. These can be sufficient for maintenance requirement of sheep and goats during scarcity period. The review provides a comprehensive account of Stylosanthes research for production, processing and utilization in India during last five decades.