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Fodder crops are plants grown exclusively or primarily for the purpose of feeding livestock. They include maize, clover, and alfalfa, which are favored for their palatability for livestock and because of their ability to bind nitrogen from surrounding atmosphere and soil, which significantly enhances the protein value of the fodder and hence increases rapid and healthy growth of the livestock. The three main classes of fodder crops are grasses, legumes, and root crops. Fodder may be grown on temporary meadows or in natural settings, but in societies with more advanced agricultural industries, it is likely that dedicated land will be set aside for regulated and intensified growth of fodder crops. Compound foods are more common for livestock in developed countries, which have resources to maximize rapid growth by mixing different types of input.
Widespread animal rearing in a region requires intensive fodder growing, which leads to the transformation of the land. For example, the clearances of the Highlands, when Scottish crofters (smallholders) were forcibly evicted by English landlords to make way for sheep to graze on the land, was a result of fodder crop growth. The extensive use of U.S. land for cattle is also inefficient in terms of overall food production value.
However, land use change, in which land of marginal value is claimed for fodder growth, has enabled increases in food security and improved health for many people. At the same time, the space for shifting cultivation around the world has been reduced as population increases and desertification processes reduce the amount of land available overall. In countries such as Laos, where livestock has traditionally roamed free in forest or jungle land because of the limited amount of naturally occurring fodder available for large herbivores, these shifts in land use are both increasing the amount of agricultural land as a whole while converting the ways in which people have lived for many generations.
The commercial opportunities from animal slaughter has led to the use of animal material in fodder. This is in itself unnatural, as it leads to some natural vegetarians ingesting meat-based ingredients; contaminated animal fodder has been linked with the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (“mad cow disease”) and other conditions. It is also believed that the use of fish meal for animal fodder on a commercial basis has also contributed to the denuding of oceans and the collapse of their ecosystems.
Bibliography:
- Brad Collis, “Livestock for Livelihoods in Laos,” Appropriate Technology, (v.31/4, 2004);
- Muhammad Dost, “Fodder Success Story: Improved Fodder Crop Production in the Northern Areas of Pakistan,” (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2001).
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