The fodder grass resources for ruminants: A indigenous treasure of local communities of Thal desert Punjab, Pakistan

Indigenous people have been using their regional grasses for rearing their animals for centuries. The present study is the first recorded traditional knowledge of grasses and feeding system for livestock from the Thal desert in Pakistan. Snowball method was used to identify key informants. Information was collected from 232 informants from six districts of Thal Desert through semi-structural questionnaire and site visits. The data was analyzed through Smith’s salience index and Composite Salience using ANTHROPAC package in R software. On the whole 61 grasses were recorded from the study area and most of the species belongs to the Poaceae family (52 species). Based on palatability grasses were categorized into three major groups i.e. (A) High priority, (B) Medium priority and (C) Low priority. Species in Group A, abundantly present in the study area, highly palatable forage for all ruminants. 232(141M +91W) local informants were interviewed. Informants were grouped into three major age categories: 20–35 (48 informants), 36–50 (116 informants) and 51–67 years (68 informants). ANTHROPAC frequency analysis conformed the Smith’s salience index and Composite Salience; Cynodon dactylon was the favorite species (6.46 SI, 0.6460 CS) followed by Cymbopogon jwarancusa (5.133 SI, 0.5133 CS) and Sorghum sp. was the third most salient species (5.121 SI, 0.5121 CS). Grasses were mostly available during the season of August and October and had also ethnoveterinary importance. This document about the traditional feeding of livestock from Thal Desert can strengthen the value of conserving our traditional knowledge, which was poorly documented before.