Villagers in these districts restored pastureland in shamlat lands to ease impacts of fodder crisis in livestock farming
A resident of Tirol village in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district carries fodder collected from a pasture developed on revived common land (Photo: Vikas Choudhary) At a time when dairy farmers across the country are struggling to keep their businesses afloat in the face of steady inflation in fodder prices and severe shortage in fodder availability, animal husbandry continues to be a profitable proposition in the semi-arid region of Rajasthan’s Udaipur and Bhilwara districts.
“Till 10 years ago, we too used to struggle for arranging feed for our animals,” says 50-year-old Sarsi Bai, from Boojh village in Udaipur district. Though arranging fodder and different forage crops for their livestock has been a way of life for the residents of the semi-arid village, fodder availability had gradually reduced with population growth and fragmentation of landholding.
In the 2010s, the situation became so dire that most households had to buy fodder from a private beed (pasture) some 7 km away; price of the fodder depended on the beed owner’s will.
In 2016, Boojh residents got in touch with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), a non-profit that works with communities across the country on ecological restoration. This marked a turnaround for not only the households of Boojh, but also several other villages in the region.
“FES researchers told us that we can overcome the fodder crisis by reviving and managing the shamlat or village common land,” recalls Deepak Shrimali, a resident.
There are three pastures, spanning 45 hectares (ha), which Boojh residents shared with neighbouring villages. Soon, almost all the households in the village came together to set up a “pasture development and management committee”, and named it after the local deity Bhujeshwar Mahadev.
The committee decided to revive one of the three pastures. FES prepared a revival plan for the 15 ha patch and offered guidance to the committee from time to time.
As a first step, the committee fenced the patch and planted 2,500 saplings of local tree species such as neem (Azadirachta indica), amla (Phyllanthus emblica), khejri (Prosopis cineraria) and mahua (Madhuca longifolia), and various perennial native grass species, such as seran (Sehima nervosum), kalilap (Heteropogon contortus) and bhangati (Apluda mutica).
The next step was to build loose boulder check dams to harvest rainwater and to ensure that the hilly terrain retains moisture. Within two years, 1-1.5 m tall grasses filled the patch.
In 2019, the committee allowed harvesting of the fodder grass, but only one person from each household was given the permit to check overharvesting. A fine of Rs 1,000 was imposed on those who let their cattle wander into the revived pasture and Rs 500 for lopping trees.
Shrimali says there has been no need to impose fine since the rules are abided by all the residents. The committee collects a fee of Rs 20 from each family, which is then spent on the maintenance of the pasture.
Following successful revival of the 15 ha patch, the residents of Boojh in 2019 initiated the development of another pasture, spanning 16 ha. “Now, every family in Boojh harvests 90-100 bundles (150-200 kg) of fodder a year from these two pastures,” says Shrimali.
Given that a bundle of 1.5-2 kg fodder now costs Rs 8-10, the pastures have helped each family save Rs 1,000 in a year. During the lean months of April, May and June when the growth of grass is slow, fodder demand is met from the 14-ha patch where open grazing is still allowed.
Some residents sell the excess fodder harvested from the revived pasture in the market. Sarsi Bai recounts the biggest advantage of this initiative and says, “Earlier women in the village used to walk 7-14 km in a week in search of fodder and carry back the huge bundles on their head. Now we have to walk only 500 m to 1 km,” she adds.
In nearby Tirol village of Udaipur district, the residents have revived a 25 ha pasture with the help of FES and plan to revive another patch of 27 ha. Megh Singh, the 81-year-old chairperson of the village’s pasture revival and management committee, says that hardly any household in the village has bought fodder in the past four to five years.
Researchers with FES say development of pasture is gaining momentum in semi-arid areas like Rajasthan, where livestock is the most reliable source of income for farmers.
According to the 20th Livestock Census, released in 2019, Rajasthan accounts for 11.4 per cent of the country’s 56.8 million cattle, making it the second leading state in terms of milk production after Uttar Pradesh.
Sanjay Joshi, executive director of FES, says, “The organisation has so far helped develop 2.1 million acres (around 85,000 ha) of shamlat land in 18 districts of Rajasthan, benefitting over 8 million people. Each family receives free fodder worth Rs 10,000 throughout the year.”
But the revival of pastures has not been easy at all the places. In Swarooppura village of Bhilwara district, the residents in 2017 drew up a plan to develop 142 ha of pasture. But they could not begin the revival process until late 2021.
Shankar Lal Gurjar, president of the pasture committee in this Gurjar-majority village, says, “The pasture was open till 2017. We were not aware of its limits. Animals from nearby villages used to come here to graze.”
The committee in 2020 started work on the boundary wall, but the residents of neighbouring Mochdi’s Kheda village protested and subsequently demolished the wall to claim ownership over the pasture.
Swarooppura residents then took out a map of the pastureland from the patwari and urged the district administration in August 2021 to ban Mochdi’s Kheda residents from using the pasture.
Swarooppura residents are confident that they will now be able to resolve the fodder crisis in the next two to three years.
This was first published in the 16-30 April, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth
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