Assessment of animal and feed resources available in coastal region of Karnataka

The status of animal feed resources availability in coastal Karnataka region comprising of Uttara and Dakshina Kannada has been assessed using secondary data on crop production, land utilization pattern and livestock census. Livestock distribution revealed that cattle were predominant species (79%) followed by buffaloes (18%) and small ruminants (3%) constituted a small proportion in the coastal region. In Uttara Kannada buffaloes were predominantly used for milch purpose (48%) while in Dakshina Kannada they were mainly used for draught purpose (70%). The coastal region had a total potential of 1.3 million tones of dry matter, of which crop residues, greens and concentrates accounted for 44, 52 and 4% respectively. After fulfilling the requirement of the improved poultry the feed balance works out to be 4.25kg/Ruminant Livestock Unit/day for the coastal region indicating deficiency of feed resources against the minimum requirement of 7.0 kg.