Presented by:

Akhilesh Kumar

Dhartiputra Kisan Sewa

Education:

B.Sc. Agriculture From Allahabad

Agricultural Institute, Naini, Allahabad

Master In Social Entrepreneurship

From TISS, Mumbai,

DKS Agriclinic and Agribusiness Centre:

Vision:

To make agriculture sector more efficient and

economically viable by promoting sustainable

and feasible technology at village level.

Mission:

DKS Agriclinic & Agribusiness centre

delivers demand driven agricultural

technology, products & services by

qualified professionals.

Activities:

To demonstrate the latest agricultural

Technologies to the farmers

To impart training to the farmers,

farmwomen, rural youth and extension

functionaries by following principals of

“teaching by doing” and “learning by doing”

To develop extension models to be adopted

by existing extension system for large scale

multiplication

An interconnected Problem

More cattle overgrazing Degradation of

Grassland

biomes

Fodder shortage Chemical

concentrates

Harmful side effects

Deterioration of milk quality

Some possible alternatives

• Quality Biomass Production through

• Macro Fodder

a) Hybrid Napier

b) Berseem

c) Cowpea

d) Sorghum

• Micro Fodder

a) Algae and Single cell protein like Anabaena and Spirulina

Are these solutions suitable for

small farmers?

• No!

The reasons:

Non availability of space in Small homesteads for macro-fodder

Technical problems faced by small farmers in handling micro-fodder

Azolla as the right solution because

Azolla is the most economic and efficient

feed substitute for live stock

Farmers can handle the plant easily

Biomass production is very high

So, What is Azolla?

• Azolla a water fern which looks like an algae, belongs to the family Azollaceae.

• Azolla hosts a blue green algae – Anabaena azollae which fixes atmospheric nitrogen.

Azolla

Anabaena inside

Azolla

Why azolla ?

Azolla on dry weight basis is constituted of 25-35%

protein content, 10-15% mineral content and 7 – 19%

a combination of amino acids

Milk yield increases by 10 to 25%

15 to 30% commercial feed is replaced by azolla

Steps involved in preparation of new azolla bed…

Harvesting and feeding of azolla

to cattle

BAIF team Visit to azolla Farm, Village –Milki, Post-Paliganj, Dist-Patna, Bihar

Guiding Farmer to make integrated model azolla cum vegetable cum vermicompost

Thank You

For more information log on:

www.dhartiputrakisansewa.blogspot.com

Contact me on : akhilesh.azolla@gmail.com