Tropentag, October 5 - 7, 2004 in Berlin "Rural Poverty Reduction through Research for Development and Transformation"

Expanding Rural Poultry Production through the Use of Processed, Low Cost Cassava Fruit Coat as Alternative Fibre Source

¹Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Germany
²University of Ibadan, Department of Animal Science, Nigeria

Abstract

Cassava fruit coat is a rural by-product of cassava processing. It is free of hydrocyanic acid (HCN), the anti-nutritional factor and toxic component in cassava often found in the roots, branches and leaves of the plant. The coats were processed into meal and used to replace to wheat offal, an expensive fibre component in poultry rations. Cassava fruit coat meal (CFCM) was used to replace 25, 50, 75 and 100% of the wheat offal in a standard broiler diet. One hundered and twenty-five one-week old broiler chicks of the Anak strain were randomly allocated to the five experimental diets on weight basis with each treatment having five replicates of five birds each. The birds were fed the starter and finisher diets ad libitum for a total period of eight weeks during which weekly body weights and feed intake were recorded. Access to clean and fresh water was unrestricted. At the end of the eighth week the birds were sacrificed for carcass measures and the weights of the organs taken. At the starter and finisher phases, the feed consumption of the birds was not significantly affected by levels of CFCM upto 50%, the weights of the birds and feed conversion were significantly (P<0.05) affected. Replacing wheat offal with CFCM had no effect on the carcass measures except for the meat to bone ratio which was significantly reduced when the CFCM level was above 50%. The digestibilities of nutrients were unaffected. Replacing wheat offal with CFCM resulted in significant reduction in the cost of feed but above the 50% replacement, the cost of producing 1 kg of broiler was significantly increased apparently due to the reduced weights of the birds at this level of CFCM inclusion. Results of the study showed that replacing wheat offal (an expensive fibre source) with processed cassava fruit coat can encourage the integration of this cassava by-product into feed for rural poultry production.

Keywords: Cassava fruit coat, processing, rural poultry production

Contact Address: Eustace Ayemere Iyayi, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Emil-Abderhalden Straße 26, 06108 Halle, Germany, e-mail: iyayilandw.uni-halle.de