Use of fodder trees and shrub forages during such period is one of the potential strategies of smallholders for regular supply of high quality feed to their ruminants.

Adequate and regular supply of fodder round the year is essential for development of dairy and livestock where less than 54 to 60 per cent animals are underfed and the nutritional stress reduces their performance.

The role of multi-purpose trees and shrubs in the nutrition of farm animals is becoming popular. Among such trees, Moringa oleifera is a highly valuable and multipurpose tree locally called Suhanjna. It is a native to the sub-Himalayan tracts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and is planted around the world. The tree is cultivated as vegetative annual crop and is evergreen and fast growing with high capability to re-grow after pruning.

The tree has the capacity to produce high quantities of fresh biomass per unit area even at high planting densities and give dry matter yield from 4.2 to 8.3 ton per hectare with a cutting frequency of 40 days interval and even can be harvested after 15 days.

Almost every part of the plant is nutritious specially its leaves are a rich source of highly digestible protein, calcium, iron and vitamin C essential for livestock. The dry leaves contain seven times more vitamin C than orange, 10 times more vitamin A than carrot, 17 times calcium than milk, 15 times potassium than bananas, 25 times iron than spinach and nine times proteins than yogurt. Beside these, the plant is also rich in vitamin B-complex, chromium, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc.

Unlike other forages, moringa is adaptive to harsh and drier environments of the arid/semi-arid zones as well as in the hills and uplands of the humid parts during summer. Dairy animals like cows, buffaloes and sheep, if supplemented with green leaves and stems of Moringa, produce 43-65 per cent more milk. Cattle fed on moringa leaves also show rapid gain in weight.

However, the fodder should be mixed with molasses, sugarcane, young elephant grass, sweet (young) sorghum plants, or whatever else is locally available.

The high protein content of moringa leaves must be balanced with other energy food. Care must be taken to avoid excessive protein intake as too much protein in a cattle feed can be fatal. If it is to be used as a fresh fodder, the sludge should be taken after sedimentation and mixed with dry fodder until it is a semidry mass. The mass should be pressed through a meat grinder and made into pellets.

As a tree, it can be grown easily from seeds or cuttings which can flourish quickly even under poor soil conditions and start flowering eight months after planting. If the tree is propagated by planting stem cuttings, then the cuttings should be from the woody parts of the branches. It should be wood from the previous year.

They can be cured for three days in the shade and then planted in a nursery or in the field.

For intensive production of leaves, plants should be 10-20 cm apart. Closer spacing allows harvest of young edible shoots every two to three weeks. Addition of a balanced fertiliser or compost to infertile soil enhances root development. Regular irrigation keeps the soil moist which promotes growth.

Intensive moringa cultivation yields up to 650 metric tons of green matter per hectare more than any other green manure crop like beans which yield up to 110 tons/hectare of green matter in pure stands.

The vigorous and re-growth nature of moringa plant can produce 3-5 new shoots after each cutting and up to nine harvests can be obtained annually.

Despite its potential benefits in agriculture, moringa cultivation on large scale is always ignored. Researchers should take initiative to explore the possibility for its extensive use in agricultural crops in order to get high economic returns.