**6. Conclusion**

Seasonal feed scarcity is a concurrent problem that farmers usually face besides natural calamities like drought, flood, cyclone, earthquake, etc., which has a significant impact on sustaining animal agriculture and guaranteeing profitability. Ensiling of surplus forage biomass will ensure round-the-year feed supply and safeguard production decline in times of feed scarcity and also could able to make ready the animal for the next production year, thereby enhancing per animal productivity/whole farm output. Some of the inherent problems associated with ensiling are decline in the feeding value due to protein and amino acid breakdown and concomitant accumulation of ammonia. Assessment of the likely importance of microbial inocula and enzyme additives for stimulating various stages of ensiling process (e.g. separation of lingo-cellulose), likely impact of microbial origin formic acid vs. petrochemical sources and interactive function of microbial communities in ensilage are some of the areas of concurrent and ongoing research. Newer research areas include silage with herbal additives, phytochemical-rich plant biomass, therapeutic silage that promises veterinary health care (e.g. parasite control, control of bloat, acidosis), antioxidant-rich silage, high-moisture silage, etc. There is always animal and human health concern pertaining to consumption of deteriorated silages due to secondary aerobic spoilage by molds, bacilli, listeria and enterobacteria. Novel microbial approaches to solving the problem of aerobic deterioration during the feed-out period are needed. Silage inoculants can facilitate the ensiling process, but they can never be a substitute to the fundamental factors (plant maturity, DM content, oxygen exclusion) that are keys to making good quality silage. Utilization of agroindustrial by-products/co-products, including fruit and vegetable processing co-products, can be effectively used in mixed silage or TMR silage, which seems to be an underexploited source of dietary supplementation to farm animals with functional compounds and the production of value-added products. A challenge in the future is to complete studies on plant lipid fractions in conjunction with PSM and PPO in order to discriminate between effects of plant lipids on FA biohydrogenate intermediates. This may become the basis for achieving more sustainable, less expansive and healthier ruminant-derived human food.
