Analysis of Pig Marketing in Zango Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria

This study examines the profitability and efficiency of pig marketing in Zango Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. A market survey of 50 pig traders from an urban market (Katsit) and two rural markets (Zonkwa and Samaru Kataf) was conducted to evaluate the structure, conduct and performance of the markets. Data were collected from the respondents through the use of a structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using Gini Coefficient, marketing margin and marketing efficiency. Empirical finding indicated that producer's share of what the final consumer paid was high (61%). The average marketing margin was 39%. The retailers had higher market margin than the wholesalers. The margin at Katsit (41.5%) was higher than Zonkwa (36.74%) and Samaru-Kataf (38.5%). Katsit market was more efficient than both Zonkwa and Samaru markets. Pig marketing is therefore, profitable but inefficient as shown by the market margin and efficiency analyses. The pig market was found to be oligopolistic. There were many buyers and sellers. Entry into marketing of pigs was easy except for the high size of operating capital. The market was found to be vertically integrated as various participants played some other roles besides their principal roles. Flow of information was free and widespread between assemblers and wholesalers. The market structures measured by Gini Coefficient of 0.59 for wholesalers and 0.66 for retailers indicated that there was a high degree of concentration in the market. The problems confronting pig marketers were also highlighted

ROLES AND EFFICIENCY OF PARTICIPANTS IN PIG MARKETING IN THE NORTHERN PART OF NIGERIA

This study examines the performance of market participants in pig marketing in Zango-Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to describe the organizational pattern of pig marketing; identify the major problems militating against the marketing efficiency and evaluate the marketing margins of pig at various levels of the marketing channel/chain. The study investigated the pig marketing practices in this area through interviews with producers, rural assemblers, wholesalers, commission agents and retailers. The data collected were analyzed using costs and marketing margins to assess market performance. Empirical findings indicated that the difference (margin) between the price received by producers and the retail price of pork and butchers’ sales of by-products was N4,192.40 (US $32.75) per head of pigs. This margin expressed as percentage of the sum of the price paid by pork consumers and by-products merchants was 22% and was shared by the intermediate agents in the marketing chain. Several factors perceived by participants in the market as limiting constraints to pig production and marketing are inadequate abattoir, absence of refrigerators, absence of standard weights and measures, high cost of transportation, lack of access to formal credit sources and lack of good roads. The study recommends the provision of credit facilities, installation of processing plants, use of weights and infrastructural developments in order to increase overall volume of the market

Effect of phytase and protease supplementations on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens fed suboptimal levels of crude protein

Two hundred and seventy (270) day old unsexed Arbor Acre broiler chicks were assigned to nine dietary treatments comprising three replicates of 10 chicks each. During the starter phase birds were fed the control 23% crude protein (CP) without enzyme (T1), 21% CP without enzyme (T2), 21% CP plus phytase (PHY) (T3), 21% CP plus protease (PRO) (T4), 21% CP plus PHY and PRO (T5); and 19% CP without enzyme (T6), 19% CP plus PHY (T7), 19% CP plus PRO (T8), 19% CP plus PHY and PRO (T9). Phytase and protease supplementation followed the same arrangement in all the phases, but the crude protein were 23, 20 and 18% CP (in T1); 21, 18 and 16% CP (in T2, T3, T4 and T5) and 19, 16 and 14% CP (in T6, T7, T8 and T9) during starting, growing and finishing phases respectively. Feed and water were given unrestrictedly. The feed intake and weights of birds were recorded on weekly basis. Nutrient digestibility was determined at each phase and carcass evaluation was done at the end of the experiment. From 0-56 days, PHY supplementation significantly (P < 0.05) improved final body weight and daily weight gain in suboptimal CP diets (T3). Enzymes had no significant effect on the carcass characteristics except drumstick, which was highest (P < 0.05) on PRO treatments. The addition of phytase or protease alone and in combination increased the available nutrient levels and there was a significant effect of enzymes supplementation on nutrient digestibility. It could be concluded that phytase, protease and their combination improved performance, nutrient digestibility and carcass cut part of broiler chickens fed suboptimal crude protein diets.Keywords: Feed additives; enzymes; suboptimal crude protein; carcas

Growing pigs fed cassava peel based diet supplemented with or without Farmazyme® 3000 proenx: Effect on growth, carcass and blood parameters

36 growing pigs (average initial weight of 22.74 ± 0.88 kg) were allotted to three dietary treatment groups of 30%maize-based control diet and 30%cassava-peel based diet supplemented with or without Farmazyme® 3000 proenx. Each treatment had three replicates of 4 pigs/replicate (12 pigs/treatment) in a complete randomized design. The pigs were allowed ad libitum access to the diets and water throughout the 42-day duration of the trial. The replacement of the 30% maize in the control diet with cassava peel resulted in increased bulkiness and crude fiber contents of the cassava peel-based diets, hence, lowered energy content. There was also a reduction in the dry matter intake of the pigs and the cost of feed per kg intake by 19.6 and 23.5% for the cassava peel based diet with and without Farmazyme® inclusion, respectively. The replacement of the maize content of the control diet with cassava peel resulted in 23 to 24% reduction in the cost of feed per kg live weight gain of the growing pigs. Farmazyme® resulted in enhanced utilization (P < 0.05) of the cassava peel-based diet in terms of the daily and overall weight gains as well as the serum total protein, albumin, urea and cholesterol. While the heamoglobin and red blood cell (RBC) of the pigs were significantly positively influenced by the inclusion of the enzyme, it had no effect on the packed cell volume (PCV). The blood minerals (Na, Ca, Cl and P), relative organ weights and dressing percentage of the pigs were neither affected by the cassava peel replacement nor the enzyme inclusion but for the kidney, where lower values were obtained both for the control and Farmazyme® supplemented cassava peel based diets. It could therefore be concluded that, inclusion of Farmazyme® 3000 proenx enhanced utilization of the cassava peel-based diet thereby, resulting in performance results comparable to pigs fed the maize-based control diet.Keywords: Cassava peels, growing pigs, non-starch polysaccharides, exogenous enzyme, pig feedin

Utilization of sun-dried on-farm generated poultry litter as a feed resource for growing-finishing pigs

Forty eight (48) growing-finishing pigs (36.11 ± 1.26 kg) were allotted to three dietary treatment groups of 0, 33.33 and 66.67% sun-dried on-farm generated poultry litter (SOPL) as a replacement for 30% maize in diets of growing-finishing pigs on weight basis to assess its implication on the chemical composition of the feed, growth performance and blood chemistry of the pigs. Each treatment was replicated four times with 4 pigs/replicate in a completely randomized design. The diets were formulated to contain 16 - 19% crude protein and the pigs housed in concrete floored pens containing feeding and watering troughs for the duration of the study. The results obtained in this study revealed some numerical differences in the crude protein and fibre contents of the SOPL diets over the controldiet. Increases were also recorded in the acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) fractions of the diets as a result of the replacement levels of SOPL. Daily weight gains and the efficiency of feed utilization of the growing pigs were not significantly (P > 0.05) influenced by the graded levels of SOPL. Replacement of maize with 33 and 66% SOPL resulted in 10.4 -20.9% reduction in the cost of feed/kg. This in turn resulted in 15 - 25% reduction in the cost of feed required for an additional kg gain/pig when the graded levels of SOPL was fed to the pigs. An increased level of up to 66% SOPL resulted in a depression (P < 0.05) in the values of packed cell volume (PCV) and white blood cells (WBC) while the hemoglobin, serum glucose, urea, creatinine and glutamate pyruvate transaninase values of the pigs across the groups were unaffected (P > 0.05). However, variations recorded in the values of the red blood cells (RBC) and alkaline phosphatase did not follow any particular trend. The values of the serum total protein, albumin and cholesterol values increased significantly (P < 0.05)

Evaluation of three commercially available pig starter feeds in South West Nigeria

The study evaluated the chemical composition of three available commercial starter feeds and their effect on performance of weaner pigs. Three samples of commercially available pig starter feeds in Southwest, Nigeria were evaluated using two different approaches (biological and chemical analyses). The three commercial feed samples in the study, were assigned to three dietary treatments, namely commercially available feed 1 (CAF1), commercially available feed 2 (CAF2) and commercially available feed 3 (CAF3). Forty-eight weaner pigs with an average initial body weight (BW) of 11.15±0.58 kg were randomly apportioned to the three treatments for biological (performance) evaluation of the three commercially available pig starter feeds. There were significant (P<0.05) differences among the performance indices across the treatments. Pigs fed with CAF1 and CAF2 had the highest (45.03 Kg) and lowest (26.04 g) values respectively for final body weight, even when the pigs fed with CAF2 and CAF3 had similar average daily feed intake (0.84 vs 1.0 Kg) while that of pigs fed CAF1 was significantly (P<0.05) higher (1.32 Kg). The feed with lower cost (CAF2) increased the feed cost per kilogram live weight gain of the animals by 10.93 and 13.70% when compared with that of feeds with higher cost (CAF1 and CAF3) respectively. Majorly, the ME (Kcal/Kg) and crude fibre contents of CAF2 were at variance with the nutrient requirements of weaner pigs, hence the inferior performance and economic results obtained with the diet. Even though, there were marginal variations in the nutrient compositions of the CAF1 and CAF3 feeds, their growth performance and economy of gain results were comparable because they fell within the recommended nutrient requirement for this class of pigs. In conclusion, only two of the three commercially available pig feeds (CAF1 and CAF3) sampled, could be said to have been formulated to meet the recommended nutrient requirement for this class of pigs, hence their comparable performance and economy of gain results. Keywords: Commercial pig feeds, Weaner pigs, Biological evaluation, Chemical compositio

Turning waste to wealth: harnessing the potential of Cassava peels for nutritious animal feed

In Nigeria, processing cassava for food and industry yields around 15 million tons of wet peels annually. These peels are usually dumped near processing centres to rot or dry enough to be burned. Rotting heaps release methane into the air and a stinking effluent that pollutes nearby streams and underground water, while burning produces clouds of acrid smoke. However, when properly dried, peels can be an ingredient in animal feed. Previous attempts over two decades to use peels in animal feed failed to yield profitable options for drying wet peels at commercial scale, but recent research suggests that cassava peels can be processed into high-quality cassava peel (HQCP) products to be used as nutritious, low-cost animal feed ingredients. The core innovation was to adopt the same steps and equipment used for processing cassava roots into gari, the main staple food in the country. When dried, 3 tons of wet peels yield a tonne of healthy and energy-rich animal feed, containing nearly 3,000 kilocalories per kilogram of dry matter (kcal/kgDM). Adopting this innovation at scale in Nigeria’s poultry and fish sectors alone has the potential to turn approximately 3.6 million tons of wet peels into 1.2 million tons of feed ingredients capable of replacing approximately 810,000 tons of largely imported maize. The innovation has great potential to increase feed availability and lower its cost while saving cereals for human consumption, reducing the import bill, creating new business opportunities, and protecting the environment. This research was initiated by CGIAR centres and taken up by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) over the past decade with strategic input from the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock to accelerate development of the innovation, and this chapter documents the potential and progress in taking this innovation to scale

Participatory evaluation of chicken health and production constraints in Ethiopia

Chicken production has a major role in the economy of developing countries and backyard production is particularly important to women. Several programmes, in Ethiopia and elsewhere, have attempted to improve chicken production as a means to reduce poverty. A key constraint to chicken production identified by farmers is disease. This study used participatory rural appraisal methods to work with chicken-keepers in order to prioritise chicken diseases, place these within the context of other production constraints, and to explore perceptions of disease risk factors and biosecurity measures. The study, focused on Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, included 71 poultry keepers (41 backyard and 30 semi-intensive chicken producers). Although women played an important role in backyard production systems, semi-intensive farms were more likely to be controlled by men. Participants identified 9 constraints to production: 7 of 8 groups of backyard producers and 15/31 semi-intensive producers ranked diseases as the most important constraint to chicken production. In contrast to previous reports, farmers in both groups had considerable knowledge of diseases and of factors affecting disease risk. Both groups, but particularly semi-intensive producers, highlighted access to feed as a constraint. Many of the challenges faced by both groups were associated with difficulty accessing agricultural and veterinary inputs and expertise. Whilst many of the constraints identified by farmers could be viewed as simply technical issues to be overcome, we believe it is important to recognise the social factors underpinning what are, in reality, relatively modest technical challenges. The low involvement of women in semi-intensive production needs to be recognised by poultry development schemes. Provision needs to be made to allow access to inputs for a wide range of business models, particularly for those, such as women, who have limited access to the capital to allow them to make the jump from backyard to semi-intensive producer, and require support to slowly build up a flock into a profitable venture