Fodder Management During Floods in Assam: How Farmers Can Protect Their Livestock

When floodwater rises in Assam, families rush to save what they can: children, grain, documents and animals. Cattle and goats are led to embankments, roadsides and highland. But once the animals are safe from the water, a second crisis begins. The grazing land is underwater, stored straw is soaked, and there is little to feed them. Weak, hungry animals then fall ill, milk yields drop, and some die.

This happens year after year. Yet much of the loss can be prevented with planning before the monsoon. This article explains why fodder becomes scarce during floods, which fodder crops suit Assam, and how farmers can store feed, through silage, hay, feed blocks and treated straw, so that their animals stay fed when the water comes.

Why livestock suffer during floods

A livestock sector that depends on open grazing

Livestock are central to rural life in Assam. Cattle provide draught power, milk and manure, while goats, pigs and poultry provide income and nutrition. But productivity is low. According to the National Dairy Development Board, per capita milk availability in Assam was just 84 g a day in 2023–24, compared with a national average of 471 g a day.

One major reason is feeding. Most animals in Assam graze freely on roadsides, fallows and common grasslands, often of poor quality. Because wild grass is plentiful during the monsoon, few farmers grow fodder crops. Most small farmers also prefer to use their limited land for food crops. Common grazing lands, seen as belonging to no one, are often overgrazed and neglected.

Floods make a bad situation worse

Assam is one of the most flood-prone states in India. According to the state’s Water Resources Department, about 31 lakh hectares, nearly 40 per cent of the state’s land area, is flood-prone.

When floods come:

• grazing land is submerged for days or weeks;
• stored straw and hay get soaked and rot;
• animals crowd onto embankments and roads with little feed or clean water;
• hungry animals may eat flood debris, mouldy feed or contaminated plants;
• transporting feed to affected areas becomes slow and costly.

Poor nutrition weakens animals’ immunity just when the risk of disease is highest. The result is weight loss, lower milk yield, abortions and deaths.

Fodder crops that suit Assam

The best defence is to grow fodder, so that there is a reserve before the flood season. Different crops suit different land:

Crop	Type	Best land and season	Notes
Hybrid Napier	Perennial grass	Highland, embankments, homestead	Very high yield; cut every 45–60 days
Guinea grass	Perennial grass	Highland, partial shade, orchards	Tolerates shade; good under trees
Setaria	Perennial grass	Highland and medium land	Tolerates heavy rainfall
Congo signal grass	Perennial grass	Highland, slopes	Good for soil conservation
Para grass	Perennial grass	Low-lying, waterlogged land	Tolerates standing water
Fodder maize	Seasonal cereal	Highland, kharif or rabi	Excellent for silage
Cowpea and rice bean	Seasonal legume	Kharif	Protein-rich; mix with cereals
Oats	Seasonal cereal	Rabi	Can be cut more than once
Subabul, drumstick, jackfruit, kanchan	Fodder trees	Field boundaries, homesteads	Green leaves even when grassland floods

Mixing a legume (such as cowpea or rice bean) with a cereal or grass gives animals a better balance of protein and energy.

Practical measures before, during and after floods

1. Grow perennial fodder on high and spare land

Perennial grasses such as hybrid Napier, Setaria and guinea grass keep producing for several years from a single planting. Grown on land that stays above floodwater, they provide green fodder when everything else is underwater. Suitable places include:

• community highland and upland;
• embankments, road and pond edges;
• homestead and kitchen garden borders;
• orchard floors (silvi-pastoral and horti-pastoral systems).

Perennial grasses also protect soil from erosion, improve soil health and store carbon. Village panchayats, the forest department (through Joint Forest Management Committees) and milk cooperatives can help develop fodder plots on community land.

2. Use waterlogged land for flood-tolerant grasses

Assam’s low-lying wetlands can also produce fodder. Some grasses grow well in water:

• Para grass (Brachiaria mutica) grows in swampy, poorly drained land and survives long periods under water. It can be grazed, cut and carried, or made into hay or silage.
• Dol grass (Hymenachne species), a tall perennial grass of floodplains, is widely used as cattle feed in Assam’s wetlands and can be made into hay. In some countries it has become an invasive weed, so it should not be spread to new areas.
• Arali grass (Leersia hexandra) grows naturally and quickly in waterlogged areas and is a useful local feed, though it can be a weed in rice fields.

Water hyacinth is abundant during floods and is sometimes fed to animals. But it has very high water content, low nutritional value and can contain harmful substances, especially when growing in polluted water. Feed it only in small amounts, wilted, chopped and mixed with other feed, and never from contaminated water.

3. Build a fodder bank

A fodder bank is a reserve of feed stored for emergencies: green fodder, hay, silage, treated straw or feed blocks. Fodder banks can be:

• individual, kept by each farmer on raised platforms or in sheds;
• community-level, managed by panchayats, SHGs, farmer producer organisations or milk cooperatives.

Progressive farmers trained by Krishi Vigyan Kendras can grow improved fodder, store the surplus, and supply or train neighbours during emergencies.

4. Store straw safely and improve its value

Rice straw is the main dry fodder in Assam. It fills the animal’s stomach but is low in protein and digestibility, so it can’t keep animals productive on its own.

• Store it safely: keep straw on raised bamboo or wooden platforms and cover it, so that it stays dry in heavy rain and floods.
• Improve it with urea treatment: a commonly recommended method is to dissolve about 4 kg of urea in 40–50 litres of water, sprinkle it evenly over 100 kg of straw, pack it tightly, cover it airtight with plastic and leave it for about three weeks. Treated straw is softer, more digestible and has more crude protein. Always follow your KVK’s or veterinary officer’s guidance, and never feed urea directly to animals.

Other crop residues, such as maize stover, sugarcane tops and bagasse, can also be chopped and fed, ideally mixed with green fodder or concentrate.

5. Make hay

Hay is green fodder dried until it can be stored without rotting. It is ideal for the surplus grass of the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons.

How to make hay:

• Cut the fodder at the right stage, usually just before or at flowering.
• Let it wilt in the field for a day, then chop it into pieces about 5–8 cm long.
• Spread it thinly on a clean, dry, hard surface in the sun.
• Turn it every few hours so that it dries evenly. In good sunshine, this takes 3–4 days.
• It is ready when stems snap easily and the moisture is about 15–20 per cent or less.
• Store it in a dry, covered, raised place.

Thin-stemmed, leafy crops such as oats, cowpea and many grasses dry faster and make better hay. As a rough guide, 10 kg of good hay can replace about 35–40 kg of green fodder in an animal’s diet.

Important: never feed hay that has been soaked by floodwater. It can grow moulds that produce toxins, and it may carry disease-causing germs.

6. Make silage

Silage is green fodder preserved by fermentation in an airtight pit, bag or drum. Lactic acid bacteria convert the sugars in the fodder into lactic acid, which preserves it. Well-made silage keeps its nutrients for many months, and it is especially useful for thick-stemmed crops such as maize, sorghum and hybrid Napier, which are hard to dry as hay.

How to make silage:

• Choose the crop. Fodder maize, sorghum, hybrid Napier and sugarcane tops are ideal because they are rich in sugars.
• Harvest at the right stage. For maize, this is the milk-to-dough stage, when the moisture is about 65–70 per cent (dry matter about 30–35 per cent). Wetter fodder leaks juice and spoils; drier fodder doesn’t pack well.
• Prepare the pit or bag. Choose a high spot where water won’t collect. As a guide, a pit of 1 cubic metre holds about 500 kg of silage. Line the pit with thick plastic sheet, or build it with bricks and cement. For small farmers, silage bags are a convenient option.
• Chop the fodder into pieces of about 2–4 cm with a chaff cutter.
• Add additives if advised. Molasses or jaggery dissolved in water can improve fermentation. A small amount of salt can improve taste. Use additives as recommended by your KVK.
• Fill and press hard. Fill the pit in layers and press each layer firmly, by trampling in small pits or with a tractor in large ones, to remove as much air as possible.
• Seal airtight. Cover with thick plastic, then a layer of straw or soil to protect it. Make sure rainwater can’t enter.
• Wait. The silage is usually ready in about 45–60 days.

Good silage smells pleasantly sour, is golden-yellow to olive-green in colour and isn’t slimy or mouldy. Open the pit from one end only, take out what you need and reseal it. Depending on the animal and its stage of production, silage is commonly fed at 5–25 kg per animal per day, as part of a balanced ration.

7. Use feed blocks

A complete feed block is a compressed block of chopped straw or fodder mixed with concentrate, molasses, minerals and other nutrients in a balanced ratio. Blocks are made in a machine that presses the mix into a dense, compact shape.

Feed blocks are especially useful in floods because they:

• take up much less space than loose straw;
• are easy to transport by boat or truck to affected villages;
• provide a balanced diet in one product;
• can be stored for months if kept dry;
• make better use of poor-quality straw.

Village-level or cooperative feed-block units can produce blocks in the surplus season and stock them for floods.

8. Plant fodder trees

Tree leaves stay above floodwater. Goats in particular prefer browsing leaves to grazing grass. Planting fodder trees such as subabul, drumstick (moringa), jackfruit, kanchan and others on field boundaries, homesteads and community land provides green feed during floods. Silvi-pastoral (trees with pasture) and horti-pastoral (fruit trees with fodder) systems combine tree crops with fodder production.

A flood-season calendar for livestock farmers

When	What to do
Before the monsoon (Feb–May)	Grow fodder on highland; make hay and silage from surplus fodder; store straw on raised platforms; identify safe highland for animals; vaccinate cattle against haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) and black quarter (BQ) as advised by the veterinary department; deworm animals
During floods	Move animals to safe high ground early; provide clean drinking water; feed stored hay, silage, treated straw or feed blocks; avoid flood-soaked or mouldy feed; feed water hyacinth only sparingly and from clean water; watch for signs of illness and contact the veterinary officer
After floods	Give extra feed (compensatory feeding) to help animals regain weight and milk yield; clean and disinfect sheds; dispose of rotten feed; re-sow fodder crops; restock the fodder bank

Government support

The National Livestock Mission (NLM) of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying supports fodder development, including fodder seed production and assistance for entrepreneurs who set up units for silage, hay, total mixed ration (TMR) and feed blocks. Assam’s Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department and the state disaster management authority also run fodder and relief programmes during floods. Contact your district veterinary office or KVK for current schemes.

Conclusion

Floods in Assam can’t be stopped, but hunger and disease among livestock can be greatly reduced. The answer lies in preparing before the water comes: growing perennial grasses on highland, using flood-tolerant grasses in wetlands, planting fodder trees, and storing feed as hay, silage, treated straw and feed blocks.

These practices aren’t expensive or complicated. What they need is planning, training and community effort, through KVKs, panchayats, SHGs and milk cooperatives. When every village has a fodder bank and every farmer has a plan, floods will no longer mean starving animals.