Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies
for Sustainable Dairy Production Under
Changing Climate Scenario
Mukund A. Kataktalware, S. Nazar, G. Letha Devi and K.P. Ramesha
Abstract In India, dairy sector plays vital role in the national economy and in the
socio-economic development of the country by providing gainful employment and
income generating avenues for small, marginal farmers and landless labourers.
Apart from the existing challenges like increased occurrence of emerging and
re-emerging animal diseases, vulnerability to exotic diseases, perennial shortage of
feed and fodder resources and an urgent need to increase production as well as
productivity to meet ever increasing demand for animal products, etc. now livestock
sector is confronting a very serious challenge of ‘climate change’. Changes in
climate which encompasses decrease in minimum temperature, increase in maximum temperature, erratic rainfall, higher incidence of extreme weather events, etc.
may negatively affect water availability, pasture and fodder crop quality and
quantity, animal immune response, epidemiological pattern of vector-borne diseases, productive and reproductive efficiency, which in long term would affect the
livelihood and food security of millions of farmers’ dependent of livestock.
Adaptation strategies like selection of animals for thermal tolerance, alteration in
herd composition, microclimate modification, access to cool clean drinking water,
changing feeding frequency and time of feeding and changing ingredients, e.g.
addition of dietary fat to increase energy density, etc. could be adopted to maintain
dry matter intake during stressful environmental conditions. The important strategies for mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dairy animals include
diet manipulation, direct inhibitors, feed additives, propionate enhancers, methane
oxidisers, probiotics, defaunation, hormones, vaccination for reduced activity of
rumen protozoa, etc. Improving waste management by adopting waste-to-energy
concepts like biogas production, electricity generation, etc. would reduce GHGs
such as CH 4 , N 2 O significantly. The existing adaptation and mitigation strategies
have the potential to significantly reduce the likely impact of climate change on
dairy production system. Therefore, it is high time that concerted efforts are made to
M.A. Kataktalware (&) Á S. Nazar Á K.P. Ramesha
SRS, ICAR-NDRI, Adugodi, Bengaluru 560 030 India
e-mail: mtalware@gmail.com
G. Letha Devi
ICAR-NIANP, Adugodi, Bengaluru 560 030 India
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_31
519
for Sustainable Dairy Production Under
Changing Climate Scenario
Mukund A. Kataktalware, S. Nazar, G. Letha Devi and K.P. Ramesha
Abstract In India, dairy sector plays vital role in the national economy and in the
socio-economic development of the country by providing gainful employment and
income generating avenues for small, marginal farmers and landless labourers.
Apart from the existing challenges like increased occurrence of emerging and
re-emerging animal diseases, vulnerability to exotic diseases, perennial shortage of
feed and fodder resources and an urgent need to increase production as well as
productivity to meet ever increasing demand for animal products, etc. now livestock
sector is confronting a very serious challenge of ‘climate change’. Changes in
climate which encompasses decrease in minimum temperature, increase in maximum temperature, erratic rainfall, higher incidence of extreme weather events, etc.
may negatively affect water availability, pasture and fodder crop quality and
quantity, animal immune response, epidemiological pattern of vector-borne diseases, productive and reproductive efficiency, which in long term would affect the
livelihood and food security of millions of farmers’ dependent of livestock.
Adaptation strategies like selection of animals for thermal tolerance, alteration in
herd composition, microclimate modification, access to cool clean drinking water,
changing feeding frequency and time of feeding and changing ingredients, e.g.
addition of dietary fat to increase energy density, etc. could be adopted to maintain
dry matter intake during stressful environmental conditions. The important strategies for mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dairy animals include
diet manipulation, direct inhibitors, feed additives, propionate enhancers, methane
oxidisers, probiotics, defaunation, hormones, vaccination for reduced activity of
rumen protozoa, etc. Improving waste management by adopting waste-to-energy
concepts like biogas production, electricity generation, etc. would reduce GHGs
such as CH 4 , N 2 O significantly. The existing adaptation and mitigation strategies
have the potential to significantly reduce the likely impact of climate change on
dairy production system. Therefore, it is high time that concerted efforts are made to
M.A. Kataktalware (&) Á S. Nazar Á K.P. Ramesha
SRS, ICAR-NDRI, Adugodi, Bengaluru 560 030 India
e-mail: mtalware@gmail.com
G. Letha Devi
ICAR-NIANP, Adugodi, Bengaluru 560 030 India
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_31
519