Lumu Richard, Katongole Constantine Bakyusa, Nambi-Kasozi Justine, Bareeba Felix, Presto Magdalena, Ivarsson Emma, Lindberg Jan Erik
Department of Agricultural Production, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda.
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2013 Oct;45(7):1571-8. doi: 10.1007/s11250-013-0401-8. Epub 2013 Apr 9.
This study identified the indigenous criteria used by livestock farmers in urban and peri-urban areas of Kampala to assess the nutritional quality of available feed resources. Focus group discussions and questionnaire interviews (with a total of 120 livestock farming households) were conducted. The findings showed that banana peels, leftover food and own-mixed feeds were the most commonly used feed resources for cattle, pigs and chickens, respectively. Farmers use several indigenous criteria to judge the nutritional quality of the available feed resources. These included perceived effects on disease resistance, feed intake, growth/body condition, hair coat appearance, faecal output, faecal texture and level of production, among others. According to farmers, animals offered with a feed resource of good nutritional quality are more resistant to diseases, ingest much of the feed, gain weight with well-filled bodies, have smooth hair coats, produce large quantities of faeces that are not too firm or watery and exhibit good performance (lactating cows produce more milk, sows produce piglets of good body size, hens lay more eggs of normal size, etc.). Although this indigenous knowledge exists, farmers put more importance on availability and cost as opposed to nutritional quality when choosing feed resources. This explains why banana peels were among the feed resources perceived to be of low nutritional quality but, at the same time, were found to be the most commonly used. Hence, there is a need to sensitise farmers on the importance of nutritional quality in ensuring better and efficient utilisation of the available feed resources.
本研究确定了坎帕拉市区和城郊地区的畜牧养殖户用于评估现有饲料资源营养质量的本土标准。开展了焦点小组讨论和问卷调查（共涉及120个畜牧养殖家庭）。研究结果表明，香蕉皮、剩饭菜和自配饲料分别是牛、猪和鸡最常用的饲料资源。养殖户使用多种本土标准来判断现有饲料资源的营养质量。这些标准包括对疾病抵抗力、采食量、生长/身体状况、毛发外观、粪便产量、粪便质地和生产水平等方面的感知影响。据养殖户称，投喂营养质量好的饲料资源的动物更抗病，采食量大，体重增加且身体丰满，毛发顺滑，粪便量大且不过于干结或稀薄，生产性能良好（泌乳奶牛产奶量更高，母猪产仔体型好，母鸡产蛋量多且蛋大小正常等）。尽管存在这种本土知识，但养殖户在选择饲料资源时更看重可获得性和成本而非营养质量。这就解释了为什么香蕉皮被认为是营养质量较低的饲料资源之一，但同时却是最常用的。因此，有必要让养殖户认识到营养质量对于确保更好、更有效地利用现有饲料资源的重要性。
