BAIF prepares fodder from sugarcane waste

pune: coming to the rescue of the district administration, saddled with the problem of acute shortage of cattle-feed, the bharat industrial agro foundation (baif) research centre at warje has come out with a special formula to prepare sugarcane-based fodder good enough for the survival of dying cattle. the offer of help from baif comes in the wake of below-normal rainfall in many talukas of pune district in the last two months. in fact, the district collector has officially announced that almost eight talukas in the district have had deficient rains, affecting the drinking water supply and the cattle. according to officials, almost 84 per cent of the sowing was over and much of it went in vain due to the abnormal rainfall. speaking to this paper, n.g. hegde of baif said his foundation would go to the sugar co-operative factories in the affected talukas and help them prepare the fodder in large quantities. "the idea is to use bagasse (fibrous residue left after crushing the sugarcane) along with molasses and urea in a fixed ratio to achieve nutritious fodder, tasty enough for the cattle to eat and survive," hegde said. the process would involve treating bagasse with steam to make it soft and then mixing it with molasses, which brings in the element of carbohydrates into the formulation. finally, the requisite amount of urea is added to the mixture of bagasse and molasses to make the cattle-feed nutritious. hegde said several sugar factories had approached baif with offers to provide all raw material needed for the preparation of this new type of cattle-feed. "the co-operative sugar factories are mostly owned and run by farmers who are in a desperate situation due to low rainfall. in any case, the factories have ample quantities of bagasse and molasses left with them to use for production of fodder," he said. moreover, farmers would be too happy to sell their existing crop of sugarcane, given the fact that the government would be willing to offer a minimum standard price to lift this stock and use it for fodder generation. "such mandatory purchases can be done by the government as part of measures to save the cattle in drought-prone areas," he said.