E-Paper
Management graduate turns straw into fodder
Ludhiana: A 43-year-old management graduate from Raikot in Ludhiana is scripting a success story by turning paddy waste into cattle feed
Ludhiana: A 43-year-old management graduate from Raikot in Ludhiana is scripting a success story by turning paddy waste into cattle feed.
Before taking up stubble management as a fulltime profession in 2019, Puneet Kashyap was working as an animal nutritionist. The idea of turning waste into feed struck him when he saw ‘gujjars’ feeding stubble as fodder to low milk producing animals.
“The major problem in the paddy stubble is the presence of silica. Due to its bitter taste, the cattle avoid consuming it. Being an animal nutritionist, I could make out what the gujjars were doing to make it consumable. I returned home and discussed it with my wife, who is a veterinarian. She told me about the residue of the basmati crop being used as cattle feed. And I decided to go ahead with the project,” said Kashyap.
He is now processing 2,500 metric tonnes (MT) of stubble and incorporating it as cattle feed in the Raikot area. He has adopted fields of 252 small and marginal farmers in 90 villages to collect paddy residue, thereby contributing his bit to end the practice of putting stubble of fire.
The feed is being supplied to dairy owners and cow sheds in Bathinda, Malout and Abohar. And now, he is eying to sell his product in the cow sheds across Ludhiana.
Kashyap has also registered his farmers’ producer organisation (FPO) and bearing the cost of managing the paddy residue and further mulching the field to prepare it for the next crop. Besides, the FPO is sharing profit with farmers.
“We collect straw and treat it in fields, besides blending with other ingredients for enhancing the value of fodder. We have noticed that fodder from paddy straw has enhanced the milk production,” said Kashyap.
He said that during the processing, less silica content was found in short duration varieties particularly in PR 126, which could make ideal cattle fodder. “This is not a residue for burning but an agricultural by-product for further usage. So, utilise it for other applications and save environment,” he said in his message to farmers.
