Damauli. A silage industry has come into operation at Malebagar of Bhimad municipality-6 in the district. Bhimad Municipality has set up a silage industry in partnership under the Chief Minister’s Innovation Programme of the Gandaki State Government.

Sudip Gaihre, deputy animal health technician at gandaki state government and 30 per cent of the municipality’s cost, said sudip Gaihre, deputy animal health technician of the municipality. The industry has been set up at a cost of Rs 5,618,771. According to him, Rs 2,218,771 has been spent on the construction of structures in the industry while Rs 3.4 million has been spent on installing equipment.

Gaire said the silage industry has been set up with the objective of providing nutritious food to the animals reared by the farmers. He said that the industry has been set up to ensure that there is no shortage of nutritious food for the animals reared by the farmers here as the city has a lot of potential for animal husbandry.

“There is a compulsion to import straw from Tarai, Madhes and India to feed the animals during winter,” he said. This industry will help in ending the compulsion of wasting napier, corn and grass in the rainy season and paying money in the winter. ’

Animal health technician Gaihre expressed the belief that feeding the grass with stems into silage would be useful for the growth and development of the animals. “The grass is cut through a chapcutter and put in a barrel machine to produce berry silage with plastic,” he said. Since there is not enough grass during the winter, we use the grass of the rainy season and provide it to the farmers in the winter. He said that if silage is made from milky corn, it can be fed by cutting grains and pumpkins.

According to Gaire, cattle, goats, pigs and fish can also be fed silage. Bhimad Agricultural Enterprise Cooperative Society has been given the responsibility of running the silage industry. The cooperative has been entrusted with the responsibility of operation as it has sought applications from various cooperatives within the municipality.

A committee has been formed under the coordination of Mayor Dadhiraj Subedi for the operation of the industry. An agreement has been reached to allocate 50÷ percent each to cooperatives and municipalities.

Narayan Prasad Poudel, chairman of the cooperative, said that the farmers here will be able to bring grass and maize and take it to the silage and the grass produced by the farmers can be brought to the industry and sold. Similarly, arrangements have also been made to purchase ready-made silage.

The farmers will get Rs 8 per kg for bringing maize plants and selling them, while the price of napier has been fixed at Rs 4 per kg. If you have to make it yourself, you have to pay Rs 5 per kg. Napier’s silage has been fixed at Rs 12 per kg and maize at Rs 16 per kg.

Meghraj Marasini, a buffalo farmer of Bhimad-5, said that the farmers would be benefited as silage could be used due to lack of grass during winter. “There is no green grass in winter. There is a compulsion to depend on straw brought from the Terai. Silage made it much easier to use green grass and its own grass. “Silage is a nutritious food for animals and it is useful for farmers,” he said.

Surya Prasad Parajuli, a farmer of Bhimad-8, said that the animals do not eat properly while feeding the grass for feeding the animals.

He said, “Feeding silage increases the amount of milk, increases meat and improves the health of animals.” He said that the cost of feeding silage would also be less than the farmers buying straw from tarai Madhes.