RCDF plants thornless cactus for cattle feed production

Jaipur: The Rajasthan Co-operative Dairy Federation has taken a big initiative by experimentally planting 600 cladodes of thornless cactus in the premises of its seed processing plant at Bikaner. The thornless cactus is a valuable source of fodder in arid and semi-arid areas. Sushma Arora, Administrator and MD of RCDF, had visited Gujarat recently. During this, she urged the Chairman of National Dairy Development Board Meenesh Shah that there is acute shortage of fodder in arid and semi-arid areas of State.

Providing fodder for livestock in these areas is extremely challenging. That’s why thornless cactus should be made available to Rajasthan free of cost for testing. On this, 600 cladodes were sent by NDDB and planted in Bikaner.

If the test of planted thornless cactus is successful then it will be be widely generated across the state. There is ability of cactus to produce large quantities of nutritious green fodder and most of the land is arid and semi-arid in State.