Due to severe drought conditions during the last five years, several areas in Bundelkhand are facing fodder crisis. At present, the farmers have to travel 10 to 50 km to get fodder for their cattle. As this involves transportation cost, it also increases the cost of fodder. “Our effort is to neutralise this transportation expense. Since it is a demand driven scheme — the number of fodder banks has not been fixed. No separate budget has also been allocated,” said Relief Commissioner Pankaj Agarwal. He added, “The idea is to transport fodder from a place where it is available to an area which is facing scarcity. This will enable a farmer to buy fodder at cheaper rates rather than spending money in

transportation since they buy in bulks.”

Last week, the state government had constituted a committee headed by Agriculture Production Commissioner Anis Ansari for this purpose. The committee is scheduled to meet next Tuesday to finalise the logistics involved in the execution of the scheme.