Knowledge transfer towards cost–effective poultry feeds in Nigeria

02nd July 2016
by secretary

Paepard

27 June – 1 July 2016. Asaba, Nigeria. Workshop organised by the PAEPARD supported consortium: Knowledge transfer towards cost–effective poultry feeds production from processed cassava products to improve the productivity of small-scale farmers in Nigeria.

This partnership seeks to address the critical issues of high cost and poor quality feeds in the Nigerian livestock industry. Feed cost constitutes 75% of input cost of commercial poultry production in Nigeria. Specifically, the rising demand for maize, soybean and groundnut for alternative industrial uses has driven the cost of these important animal feed raw materials upwards in a region that has never produced enough of

these to meet the demand for human consumption, the beverage industries and livestock production. The solution therefore has been to explore through research, the use of alternative feed ingredients, such as abundant cassava roots hitherto under exploited by poultry farmers.

During the workshops, research on equipment fabrication, processing of fresh or pre-dried cassava roots to value added products, poultry feed formulation and production were transferred to small-scale farmers in order to scale up the production and supply of cassava based poultry rations to the poultry industry in south-eastern Nigeria and beyond.

The workshops had the general objective of building capacity of small-scale poultry operators on development of value added cassava products for use in formulating cost-effective poultry rations in the Nigeria poultry industry. The two workshops resulted in:

Knowledge on equipment needed for production of processed cassava products for poultry feeding.
Technologies for producing cost-effective poultry feeds from processed cassava products
Knowledge on poultry feed formulations that utilize cassava in place of maize
Interest of the farmers in the adoption of cassava based poultry rations
Poultry farmers knowledgeable on the use of cassava in producing poultry products
Farmer-researcher nucleus for collaboration on future challenges in the industry
A model for research collaboration between Nigerian universities and industry
A group of agricultural researchers with experience in science technology innovation transfer
A sub-regional awareness of the value of cassava as raw material for poultry production

Despite the difficulties of this consortium to attract external third party funding, the two workshop may help in submitting a proposal to a German call on food processing and packaging if a German partner is identified.

Source: PAEPARD FEED