ਚਾਰਾ

What does chara mean in Punjabi? Chara (ਚਾਰਾ) is fodder, the food that farmers grow, cut and store for their cattle, buffaloes, goats and horses. It is the daily feed of the animals that give milk and pull the plough, and in a Punjab village the chara is cut fresh every morning and evening.

What does chara mean in Punjabi?

Chara means any feed given to livestock, from the green leaves and stalks cut fresh from the field to the dry straw stored after the harvest. In old Punjab records, straw itself was called chara or nira, and fodder crops were listed as a separate part of the farm, as important as the grain crops themselves.

What kinds of chara do Punjab farmers use?

Farmers divide chara into two kinds. Hara chara, green fodder, is cut fresh and fed the same day: berseem, the winter clover sown after the paddy harvest, is the best known, and in summer jowar, bajra and maize are grown for the same purpose. Sukka chara, dry fodder, is what carries the animals through the lean months: wheat straw, called tudi, and hay, stacked and stored after the harvest. Oil-cake, called khal, is sometimes mixed in, but it is a supplement to the chara, not chara itself.

How is chara fed to the animals?

Green fodder is cut with a sickle, called a datri, and carried home in bundles on the head or on a cart. In many villages it is now chopped in a toka, a chaff cutter, so the animals can eat it easily and less is wasted. The fodder is fed morning and evening, usually mixed with a little dry straw and water, and a milking buffalo gets the best of it. The work is daily and never stops: a farmer with cattle must have chara ready every day of the year, in every season.

Why does chara matter in village life?

A Punjab village runs on its animals. Buffaloes and cows give the milk that feeds the family and is sold in the village, and in earlier times bullocks pulled the plough, worked the wells and drew the carts. All of that work depended on chara, so a large part of the cropped land has always gone to fodder: in Pakistani Punjab, fodder crops cover about two million hectares, yet supply still often falls short of what the animals need. A farmer who grows good chara keeps his animals healthy, and healthy animals mean more milk and more income.