Mineral Status in Soil,Fodder, Water and Cattle of South Andaman,India

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, consisting of 576 islands with outstanding natural beauty and ecological diversity. Presently Andaman Nicobar Islands has about 153470 livestock and 1080022 poultry. The productivity of the livestock in general is very poor. Proper nutrition is the vital aspect in livestock production.The concentrate feeding to bovines is uncommon, thus, full dependence on grazing or forage feeding. Most of the soil is acidic which makes 'P' less or unavailable to plants. Thus, fodder growing to these soils possesses poor 'P' content. Similarly, high and intense rainfall washes topsoil leading to leaching of minerals from top soils. The plants growing on such soils will have lower content of these mineral(s). Animals reared on these fodder will thus get lower mineral content which no doubt may support maintenance of body function but will certainly affect the growth rate, fertility and milk production as these conditions requires additional nutrients including minerals. In this book, detailed studies on the status of minerals in soil, water, fodder and in cattle blood and its interaction are described.