Animal feed suppliment from avocado residue and other locally available materials
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Date
2009
Authors
Ndungu, E.
Gitome, J.
Wanjau, R.
Murungi, J.
Makibia, J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Kenya's population has been on the increase, and more than 15 million people are poor
and live in rural Kenya. Of these, 70% are women, who are particularly vulnerable because
they do not have equal access to social economic assets thus widening economic gap and
rising poverty levels that erode self-esteem and growth in education, health, food security
and employment. Most of the poor people are farmers who, apart from growing crops for
subsistence, majority of them also keep livestock as a major source of farm income and
manure. Proper feeding of the animals is a critical input in productivity as feeding alone
accounts for about 40% of production cost or more depending on the sources of feeds and
feed ingredients. The available feeds used by farmers including plant residual and napier
grass do not meet all the needs of the cattle kept by most farmers which compromises the
productivity of the animals leading to low income for the farmer. In order to improve and
empower the small holder farmer, there is need to come up with technologies that. can
improve their lives. This project aimed at reducing poverty in Evurore division in Mbeere
District, by training the locals to prepare animal feed supplement, using locally available
avocados. Avocado is one of the most commonly grown farm products in area and is
available throughout the year. The fruit is mainly used as a salad fruit and a source of oil
for cosmetic products as well as fuel. The seed and the peels of the avocado fruit have not
been fully exploited and are normally thrown away with the garbage. This project was
designed to come up with an economical way of producing commercial feed supplement
using avocado peels and seed as well as other locally available materials in order to curb the
problem of low animal feed resources for livestock. The avocado peels and seeds were
analyzed for the levels of essential minerals using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)
and were found to have substantial amounts of the minerals. The produced animal feed
supplement will be used as a source of essential macro and micro nutrients which improve
health and productivity of the livestock and consequently that of the farmers. The efficacy
of the feed developed will be tested by feeding rats and comparing the results with those of
commercially available feed concentrates .
Description
Proceedings of the 1st Kenyatta University Research conference held on 28th – 30th 2009 at Kenyatta University
Keywords
Avocado, Animal feed, Macro and micro-nutrients