Official give ‘useless’ silage for free to tribals

Kakinada: Silage provided to tribal people in the Agency area with cent percent subsidy is seen dumped beside the roads in heaps.

Neglected and unused, it is slowly rotting and getting totally spoilt.

According to sources, the animal husbandry department has been supplying silage to tribal people in the Agency area free of cost for feeding cattle, in particular cows, buffaloes, bullocks and milk cattle.

The animal husbandry department had supplied 1,200 tones of silage to the Agency area in last financial year.

The silage was supplied in bundles for the convenience of transporting it. But, many of the bundles have not been opened as yet. A lot of the entire silage has been spoilt without the farmers using any of it.

Meanwhile, many farmers in the non-tribal areas are finding it difficult to feed their animals due to non availability of proper feed and grass which has become a costly affair. However, in Nimmalapalem, Addateegala and also some other areas, the silage is seen rotting on the roadsides.

Several NGOs have expressed their concern at this gross negligence and waste.

Sources said that the tribal people do not rear buffaloes and depend mostly upon bullocks and cows and use them in the fields to improve the fertility of the lands.

Therefore many of the tribal people have not shown much interest in silage.

But it is alleged that to meet the targets, the officials have supplied the feed to the tribal farmers. It is also being said that some of the tribal farmers did not even know that the silage belonged to them.

The NGOs have said that if instead the silage was provided to ‘Gou Salas’ run by NGOs, they would make proper use of it and feed it to the cattle.

The Animal Rescue Organisation secretary Mr Gopal. R. Surabathula said that the NGOs were purchasing the feed for their animals at market price without getting any subsidy. If the silage was provided to them, it would definitely benefit the cattle.

Meanwhile, animal husbandry department joint director N. T. Srinivas said that only 1,200 quintals of silage had been supplied to Addateegala and other areas in Agency area, where the tribal people were rearing milk cattle.

He said that there should have been no possibility of them not using the feed as it was necessary for the milk cattle. However, he said that he would make efforts to create awareness amongst them for proper utilisation of the silage.