ABSTRACT
Demands of green and dry fodder are steadily increasing from the last two-three decades in India due to the increasing trend of livestock population. India leads in milk production in the world. Rather than focusing on fodder production on agriculture field, we have to focus more on the forest (69.41 million ha.) and resources other than the forests which were used by common peoples (54.1 million ha.), which are the main grazing resources. Whereas, the country’s 146.82 million hectare area comes under different land degradation categories. An establishment of silvo-pasture systems on such areas is a big opportunity to bridge the gap between production and supply of fodder. At an environmental, economic and social level, such production practices help in the country’s sustainable development. This system has lots of direct and indirect benefits such as yields fodder, fuelwood, biomass production, carbon sequestration, carbon storage and other environment ameliorating benefits. The 5.58 M ha area is under the silvo-pasture system in India, is the potential area for fodder production. The perennial nature of woody tree species and perennial grass species, the system has advantages over other systems for biomass production 156and carbon storage potentials. Biomass production and carbon storage in vegetation and in the soil help to improve fodder production and environmental conditions in coming years, when the country’s whole degraded area brought under the silvo-pasture system.
