Over Population and Animal Fodder
The population has been expanding more quickly than ever, recently topping 8 billion. Many crises are caused by overpopulation. Numerous of the issues we currently have will only get worse as time goes on..
But how does overpopulation of humans affect animals?
Loss of habitat would be one of the main effects.
The primary cause of the destruction of animal habitats is climate change, for which humans are entirely responsible.
“Nearly 20 plant and animal species go extinct every hour”, according to a research by the National Wildlife Federation called Population and the Environment.
Another effect of human overpopulation on animals would be a lack of animal feed.
The amount of land available to cultivate fodder is decreasing as humans use more and more of it to grow their own food, industrialise, build structures, etc.
Climate change is causing land to degrade, and cultivated land is disappearing. Farmers currently experience a fodder shortage, which will only worsen as the number of people increases.
Humans would suffer just as much as animals from a lack of green fodder since it will have an adverse effect on the poultry, dairy, and other animal husbandry-related industries.
How can we overcome that?
Growing animal fodder hydroponically would be a great solution to this issue. When compared to the traditional method of cultivating fodder, soilless farming, also known as hydroponics, has a number of advantages.
Why Hydroponic Fodder is better than Conventional Fodder :-
Hydroponic fodder, unlike conventional fodder does not require fertile ground to be grown.
Compared to the conventional method, only 0.25 percent of the land is needed to grow Hydroponic Fodder. This saves 99.75% of the land!
Hydroponic fodder only needs 500 square feet of space to produce 500 kg of fodder each day, or 180 tonnes of fodder annually! Meanwhile, to produce 180 tonnes of fodder annually using traditional methods, 4 acres (174240 square feet) of land is needed.
While conventional green fodder takes 25–30 days to grow, hydroponically grown fodder takes just 9–10 days.
When compared to hydroponic fodder, traditional green fodder requires 350 times more area to grow.
As opposed to conventionally grown green fodder, hydroponic fodder can be grown 365 days a year because it is completely unaffected by environmental changes
Fodder grown hydroponically is much healthier and better for animals.
These are only a few of the numerous benefits of hydroponic fodder for both farmers and animals
Conclusion :-
Although the human race may benefit from overpopulation, animals are negatively impacted in numerous ways. Farmers have been compelled to sell their animals or even leave them to die due to a lack of fodder. Green feed should be grown using modern agriculture technologies, such as hydroponics, as the amount of land available for cultivation is quickly decreasing.