Union Minister Jadhav asks Buldhana to prepare now for water and fodder shortage

Buldhana district may face a shortage of water and fodder ahead. Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav has said that arrangements for animal fodder must be made now. He directed that fodder be cultivated on a large scale in the district, with farmers benefiting through the Centre-assisted 'G Ramji' scheme. He also said everyone, including the administration, must work together to deal with drought-like conditions.

Jadhav was speaking at a review meeting on water scarcity and fodder arrangements at the Collector's office. MLA Shweta Mahale, Collector Dr Pravinkumar Deore and former MLA Sanjay Raimulkar were present. Officials of the water conservation, soil and water conservation, agriculture and animal husbandry departments also attended. The work of the various departments was reviewed, and they were asked to plan in detail to tackle water and fodder shortages in the coming days.

The animal husbandry department has already distributed seeds to farmers for growing fodder. Jadhav said information on whether these seeds were actually sown should be collected through agriculture assistants and patwaris. A tehsil-wise report on the areas where fodder has been planted must be submitted within eight days. Fodder cultivation should be planned at village level so that a shortage does not arise later.

He said rainfall was low in the kharif season and this has affected crop yields. Fodder arrangements must therefore be the first priority. After the kharif harvest, soybean and tur straw and residues of other crops are left in the fields. These should be collected and used as animal feed. Livestock keepers should be advised on using the available fodder sparingly. Training and awareness work should also be carried out on conserving fodder, making silage, storing fodder properly and improving the nutritional value of crop residues.

Jadhav said plans should be made for future needs based on the number of animals and the current stock of fodder. Farmers with irrigation facilities should grow jowar and other fodder crops in the rabi season. He also said fodder camps for animals may have to be started in the coming period, so the administration should make the necessary preparations now. An awareness campaign was also asked for, to take information about measures for farmers, schemes of various departments and facilities available to people to the public.

On tackling water scarcity, Jadhav said departments should jointly take up water conservation works at tehsil level. Detailed planning should be done for deepening rivers, desilting ponds, deepening streams, building farm access roads, digging farm ponds and ridge-to-valley water conservation work. These works should be carried out effectively under existing schemes, he said, with emphasis on holding as much rainwater as possible and letting it percolate into the ground.