Ethnoecological insights on wild fodder bioresources and their geospatial perspectives on sustainable piggery in Wokha and Zunheboto districts of Nagaland, India

Livestock rearing and agriculture are the primary and integral parts of livelihood among the indigenous people of Nagaland, India. A significant improvement towards the socio-economic status of the people is attributed to piggery farming. This work highlights the various wild fodder plants (WFPs) found in Wokha and Zunheboto districts of Nagaland. The survey revealed a major involvement of women’s community in backyard piggery rearing. A total of 64 WFPs, belonging to 33 families were documented, identified and assessed. A major portion of WFPs was collected from forests (31%) and secondary succession fields (23%). The habits of WFPs mainly belonged to herbs (56%) and shrubs (26%). The main constituent of the plant parts used comprised of leaves (36%). Normalized Difference Vegetation Index revealed a high percentage of the land area under the class thick vegetation with 51.9% and 59.14%, and overall accuracy of 90% and 87.5% for Wokha and Zunheboto, respectively. The pervasive distribution of WFPs in a high vegetation status area offers remarkable prospect towards the sustainability and socio-economic upliftment of the indigenous people.