An appraisal of feeding practices in the hill agro-climatic zone of Assam

A survey was undertaken to study the land inventory, livestock inventory and production of crop and crop residues and also the feeding practices of livestock in the hill agro-climatic zone of Assam. The information gathered from 100 farmers which represented large farmers (>10 acres), medium fanners (5–10 acres), small farmers (2–5 acres) and landless farmers (< 2 acres) of the selected villages revealed that the main crops cultivated were paddy, wheat, maize, different pulses like black gram, gram and oil seeds mainly mustard and sesame. Sorghum and cowpea were also cultivated to a limited extent. Many byproducts were available from these crops which were fed to their livestock. It was also observed that each household had an average of 0.997 hectares of land which was mainly used for cultivation of crops. Among the livestock inventory the local cows predominated followed by pigs which was 2.08 and 1.07 per household, respectively. It was concluded that locally available feed resources were sufficient and need to be utilized in a scientific and economical manner to get maximum return.