Countering Climate Change By Dietary Manipulations.docx

COUNTERING CLIMATE CHANGE BY DIETARY MANIPULATIONS S Senani , A K Samanta and Manpal Sridhar

Now, there is a global consensus about the threat posed by the climate change. The disagreement is only, on how to go about altering human activities that unleash greenhouse gases, fuelling global warming. The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the latest scientific assessment of the impact of global warming on human, animal and plant life. The culprit is greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These are accumulating to unprecedented levels in the atmosphere as a result of profligate burning of fossil fuels, industrial processes, farming activities and changing land use. The greenhouse gases act like a blanket around the earth, trapping too much of the heat that would otherwise have escaped into space. The IPCC is a body of 2500 scientists that brings out reports, considered the last word on the Science of Climate Change. "Warming of the Climate System is unequivocal", says the IPCC in its latest report, pointing to the increased global, air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising sea levels. If the introduction of these greenhouse gases continued to soar, global temperature could rise up by 2.40C to 6.40 C by the end of the century, with far-reaching consequences for the climate, warned the IPCC.

Indian Impact

Climate change will make monsoons unpredictable. As a result, rain-fed wheat cultivation in South Asia will suffer in a big way. Total cereal production will go down. The crop yield per hectare will be hit badly, causing food insecurity and loss of livelihood. The rising levels of the sea in the coastal areas will damage nursery areas for fisheries, causing coastal erosion and flooding. Changes in climate around the globe are expected to trigger a steep fall in the production of cereals. It is estimated that a rise of 0.5 degree Celsius in winter temperatures could cause a 0.45 tonne per hectare fall in India's wheat production. The average per hectare production in India is 2.6 tonnes. Worse still, total agricultural land will shrink and the available land may not remain suitable for the present crops for too long. Farmers have to explore options of changing crops suitable to weather. The climatic changes could lead to major food security issues for a country like India. In this situation both human being and livestock are going to suffer.

Indian Stand

India is vast country with a variety of very different agro-ecological regions. Even though there has been a continuous rise in the temperature across many regions the situation is further worsened due to scanty of rains. As a result the livestock face continuous heat stress affecting their survival and level of production in northern and central part of the country. This situation warrants change in the feeding and management practices for deriving optimal production from live stock.

Natural calamities are occurrences in the nature which happens of their own accord or as a result of anthropogenic activities (pollution, rapid urbanization, etc.) and are known to cause damage to life. In such situations there is unassailable loss of property of affected people, livestock and damages to crops. These disasters include cyclones, floods, drought, and landslides, etc. Among all the ones mentioned: flood, drought and earthquakes are most common in India. Simple management practices which are practical and implementable are listed hereunder to counteract these challenges. Flood and draught India is the most flood affected nation after Bangladesh. Out of total deaths by floods in the world, (1/5) are from India. The main causes of floods are excessive rains in river catchments, poor natural drainage, changes of river course, landslide restricting river flow, cyclone and very intense rainfall. During flood, the impacts are enormous because of huge mortalities of livestock occurs due to inundation, loss of income, shortage of feed due to submerged grazing areas and contaminated drinking water leading to the outbreak of flood borne diseases. However during drought there is acute shortage of food and feed and there is migration of livestock in search of feed. In both these conditions livestock could be saved by providing a ration for survival of livestock. During such situations the welfare of animals should be the prime concern, and nutrition, of course, is a critical factor. Providing feed for the stranded animals is vital, particularly when they have had to swim to save themselves, and in the process have expended a huge amount of energy. Feeding for Survival

In such situations straws, crop residues and milling by-product could serve as a low cost nutritious alternative feed for livestock .Paddy straw constitutes the basal roughage of cattle and buffaloes in different eastern and north eastern states of India. Rice milling by-products like hull, bran, polish and mixed rice-mill residue are available extensively in paddy growing belts of India. Rice bran, rice polish (as such/deoiled) and mixed rice mill residues are used as feed for livestock depending upon their availability. Wheat and rice bran are can be fed to livestock as the energy supplement along with roughage. Agro-forest based industrial by products can be used in the feeding livestock during scarcity periods. Several types of aquatic plants available in river, pond and other water logging areas such as water hyacinth, aquatic spinach, stalks and leaves of lotus plant (Nymphacae sp. and Neumbiull sp.), hydrilla and aquatic weeds, etc can also be used. They are easily available at the most of the places flooded with water. They contain a fairly good amount of CP (11.4%), 1-2% ether extracts, 15-25% crude fibre, 40-50% nitrogen free-extract and 13-15% ash. Complete feed block (CFB) Complete feed block technology can be of immense use and can be adopted for feeding to livestock during flood and drought. A TMR with low grade roughages, fallen tree leave, nonconventional feeds and concentrate mixtures in different proportions could be constituted and made into CFB. These blocks could be stored for 3-6 months and are easy for transportation. Nonconventional feed resources Areca sheath which is abundant in the coastal areas can be used as dry fodder for livestock feeding during the natural calamities. The areca sheath is superior to paddy straw in terms of relatively low lignin (<3%), silica (<4%), higher energy (>50% TDN) and some minerals like calcium, sulphur and copper. Feeding shredded areca sheath in sheep and dairy cattle showed that it can be a valuable dry fodder. The NIANP has developed a technology of using dried areca sheath in the form of total mixed ration (TMR) along with suitable proportion of concentrate to Support milk production. Pineapple fruit waste silage has been developed and was evaluated as animal feed in normal conditions and also it could be used in calamitous conditions when it is prepared in drums which make them easy for storage and transportation.

Feeding of urea enriched straw It could be one of the options to provide a survival ration to the livestock when other feedstuffs are not available. Urea treatment of straw (2.5 to 5%) and ensiling for about 3 weeks improves its nutritive value and the digestibility of straw. Ammonia, released from the urea, weakens the lignified outer wall and increases the digestibility of the straw. Once treated and if properly covered to preserve anaerobic conditions, the urea-ensiled material can be stored for several months. Addition of urea molasses is also one of the methods to improve the nutritive value of straw. A solution of 10 kg molasses and two kg urea in 10 kg water is spread by a sprayer on 100 kg straw and spread evenly under the sun for drying in a plastic sheet can be practiced. The treated straws can form maintenance ration when supplied with 2% mineral mixture and 1% salt and vitamin AD3 mixture. It has been suggested that feed go down should be created in the areas most prone to floods and droughts on the lines of FCI so that feed could be easily transported to the areas where it is needed most in case of any eventuality. Impact of extreme heat and cold Due to climate change there is a shift in the seasons and also the intensity of seasons has also become unpredictable. The summer months are getting hotter as a consequence of temperature rise. And it causes thermal stress to the animals and livestock attempts to acclimatize through physiological changes including cutting down on feed intake and heat production during summer stress. But this does not come without reducing a part of its productivity in terms of milk, meat etc. To prevent this huge economic loss to the farmer, we need to understand and effectively combat heat stress by minimizing its impact on animal body and subsequently on its productivity. There are no substitutes of good management practices to ameliorate heat stress that includes nutritional management, farm infrastructure facilities and animal shed in famer’s yard for providing comfort to the animal during hot climate

Table 1: DM requirement of animals as subsistence feeding

Sl.

Category/species of livestock

No A

B

Total feed requirement

Kg/d(Roughage

+concentrate) Lactating animals High yielding

9-10

Low to medium yielding

6-7

Bullocks

5-6

Heifers

2-3

Calves

1-2

Sheep

1-2

Goat

1-2

Kids

0.5-1

Managing micro-environment For maintenance of high production levels in lactating buffaloes under hot environmental conditions may be modified to alleviate heat stress and to reduce the impact of harsh environment. The heat stress could be reduced by providing shade, increasing air movement and frequent sprinkling of water on animal for better evaporative cooling. The animals should be protected from direct solar radiation in day-time during summer by providing shade in the farm of animal house or through trees and plants. Free air movement and evaporative cooling through water mist with air or sprinklers could further reduce heat stress of the animals. The physiological response of on body temperature, heart rate and respiration rate all decreases when shade is provided during summer. These practices shall reduce the impact of direct heat and solar radiation while maximizing heat dissipation from the animal.

Nutritional interventions for hot environment

The impact of heat stress could also be managed through nutritional interventions. During summer

special high density formulations should be used to provide more nutrients through

reduced dry matter intake. The energy requirements of animals also increase under high temperature conditions. Feeding of low-fiber, high fermentable carbohydrate diets lower dietary heat increment compared to high roughage diets. The metabolic energy of dairy animals’ increases in a hot environment and heat stress depresses feed intake. Due to this, it is important to increase the energy content of the diet of dairy animals in order to maintain their energy intake. The heat increment, which is an internal stressor in hot environments, is low in highly metabolizable diets. In this condition fatty feeds, or calcium salts of fatty acids for improving energy supply of animals could be used in summer.

Dietary protein degradability is also critical under heat stress conditions. It is well known that excessive protein intake increases heat production and decreases reproductive performance. However, the protein requirement of animal increases and dry matter intake decreases in a hot environment, consequently, the protein supplied to lactating animals during summer is not always sufficient. By-pass protein in the form of Fish meal, cotton seed cake and from other sources should be used for increasing

milk production but at the same time reducing the

ruminal ammonia production. Water is the most important nutrient for all livestock during hot season. Water intake is directly related to dry matter intake and milk yield, but regardless of the rate of increase, it is important that abundant water must be available throughout day and night under hot conditions. Hot weather decrease dry matter intake and higher lactation demand increased water intake and dietary mineral concentration. The primary cat-ion in bovine sweat is potassium and sharp increases in the secretion of potassium through sweat occur during hot climatic conditions. Alterations in mineral metabolism also affect the electrolyte status of animals during hot weather. So it important to supplement minerals during hot climate. During peak summer the grazing hours of the livestock could be early morning, late evening and nights. During cool hours feed intake through grazing increases in animals.

Conclusions

Climate change is a reality and it has been happening since long and we have witnessed these changes in our lifetimes. Natural calamities like flood and drought are inevitable and livestock should be protected against these adverse conditions so that productivity and economic loses are minimised. In general drought, floods and extreme weather situations produce both direct and indirect impacts. The direct effects are usually physical/ material and include reduced agricultural production, depleted water levels, increased fire hazard, higher livestock and wildlife mortality rates, damage to wildlife and fish habitats. The direct impacts have multiplier effects through the economy on the society. As a result there is loss of agricultural production and income of the farmer and agribusiness, increase in the price for food, unemployment, reduced purchasing capacity and demand of consumption etc. These conditions are unavoidable but through certain preventive actions and better management the losses could be reduced.

Selected References 1. Roy, K.S. 2016.Managing heat stress of buffaloes during summer season. Integrated reproductive management in dairy buffaloes. J Gosh, (Eds) Published by Director NIANP, Page 55-57 2. Samanta, A. K., Khandekar,P., Senani, S., Kolte , A. P., Manpal Sridhar and Natasha Jayapal.2011.Effective nutritional management of livestock during drought. Agrovet Buzz, Vol IV, Issue IV, 15-July to 15 September, p50-55. 3. Das, N. and Das, M.M. 2011. Nutrition and care of livestock during natural disaster. Stadium Press (India) Pvt. Ltd. 4. Heath, S.E., Kenyon, S.J. and Sein, C.A. Z. 1999. Emergency management of disasters involving livestock in developing countries. Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz. 18: 256-271.