Sustainable Use of Paddy Straw As Livestock Feed: A Climate Resilient Approach to Crop Residue Burning

Rice straw is the most abundant, least expensive and most valuable agricultural by-product for cattle feeding. Due of the difficulty in collecting, transportation and storage, it is only utilised as cow fodder on rare occasions. Rice straw cannot meet the nutritional requirements of high milk production cattle since it is not as nutritious as grasses, is poor in protein and is difficult to digest. It is feasible to increase the nutritional content, digestibility and usefulness of paddy straw by physical processing, chemical pre-treatment, or biological treatment. Furthermore, technology is essential for enabling the collection, transportation, stacking and processing of rice straw from the field in order to profit on the usage of rice straw as livestock feed on a greater scale. Because of limited expertise and resources, as well as uncertainty about the acceptability of technologies for use on farms and their potential benefits for livestock producers and animals, technology implementation is generally low. However, these technologies can help livestock producers generate additional cash by selling milk or live animals. As a result, rice straw remains a viable, plentiful and economical source of fodder for cattle in countries where feed is scarce or high-quality forages are scarce.