Grassland management practices in Amrit Mahal Kaval: Change in trend over 20 years

A research study was conducted in Chitradurga district during 2022-23 using a Retrospective survey design. Data was collected by personal interview using pre tested standardized schedule through ODK collect software using tablets with sample size constituted of 300 farmers. The findings revealed that Irrespective of the types of livestock (large ruminants, small ruminants, and their combinations) owned, a large majority of respondents (91.74%, 98.25%, and 99.03%) adopted a blend of stall feeding and grazing methods to feed their livestock. Trend of changes in grassland as perceived by grassland dependent communities over 20 years period that more than half (56%) of the respondents expressed that the area of grassland has remained constant, decrease in grassland area by (41.25%), moderate accessibility by 37.01 per cent of respondents, low support for grazing (92.53%), grazing duration remained same (58.36%). Also perceived that decrease in forage availability, palatable species and number of animals grazed (59.07%, 60.14%, 86.47%) respectively. Adequacy of fodder in Kaval revealed that in case of large and small ruminants, highly adequate during rainy season followed by winter and summer season. Among the listed of grassland management practices, significant differences were observed in migration of animals in summer season at 0.05 level of significance where as fencing by thorny species or trenching at 0.01 level of significance over the period of 20 years as observed by ‘z’ value.