“I did not know that what we call waste here in the market is gold for livestock farmers,” Peter Kilwana, a food vendor, exclaimed.
This was one of the revelations during a training for vendors in St Balikuddembe Market (Owino) in Kampala, on how they can benefit from waste as a source of livestock feeds.
Organised by Prof. Jolly Kabirizi, the full-day training, held at the market located on Kafumbe Mukasa Road, took place on April 10.
The training was done in partnership with Pride Microfinance, the International Potato Centre and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).
Over 100 vendors turned up for the training with hundreds more listening from their stalls.
On a rainy Thursday morning, over 30 trucks were offloading fresh produce like potatoes, bananas, cassava, maize and cabbages for sale.
There was obviously a lot of waste, which Kabirizi told the farmers could be used to feed livestock.
Kabirizi said she started with St Balikuddembe Market because it is the largest city market, but the training will be taken to other markets later.
According to the City Garbage Ordnance, the collection, transportation and disposal of garbage in Kampala is the responsibility of KCCA.
Officials estimate that the city generates about 1,500 tonnes of garbage daily. KCCA lacks the capacity to collect and dump all the garbage at its landfills and thus collects only 500 tonnes.
The rest of the garbage is usually left to rot on pavements, streets as well as sewerage and water channels.
This unfortunate trend experts say poses a serious health danger and tarnish the city’s image.
Agricultural waste, livestock feed
Given that agricultural waste accounts for over 40% of the city’s garbage, it is imperative to find alternative methods of its disposal or utilisation.
Kabirizi, a livestock nutritionist and consultant, said one alternative is to use agricultural waste to make livestock feed.
In turn, this will reduce the rate of accumulation, a reduction in pollution, thus improving environmental health, livestock productivity and household income.
Kabirizi says most of the agricultural waste has high nutrient levels of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.
Such waste can be processed and converted into high quality feeds for livestock such as cattle, goats, rabbits and pigs.
Besides, “For small-scale urban dairy cattle farmers, the high-grade conventional feed resources such as Napier grass is quite expensive to get and also not easily available. It is, therefore, necessary to increase the availability of alternative feed resources for cattle,” Kabirizi says.
She told the vendors that even if they do not keep livestock, they can process this market waste into feeds for sale to urban cattle keepers.
Banana peels constitute about 30% of the total weight of the banana fruit. This means that for every truck that enters the city carrying matooke, 30% of the cargo is garbage.
The market vendors were told that the dry matter of banana peels contains 6-9% protein; variable quantities of starch and soluble sugars as well as minerals such as phosphorus, iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, copper and potassium.
Green banana peels contain about 40% starch that is transformed into sugars after ripening. A lactating dairy cow needs a good supply of glucose to make milk and this nutrient can be found in ripened banana peels.
For proper handling of banana peels, it is important to reduce the moisture content, which stands at 80%, Kabirizi said.
This allows nutrient concentration, longer storage time, reduction of the growth of micro-organisms as well as transportation costs.
Sweet potato residues
The training on how to use potato vines as feeds was facilitated by Martha Namabiro Matovu from DAFAN, one of the winners of the 2024 Best Farmers Competition in the category for co-operatives.
Matovu says sweet potato residues (vines, non-commercial roots and peels) provide a good source of energy (roots) and protein (vines). In order to make good use of sweet potato residues, one has conserve them when abundant for use during times of scarcity.
The International Potato Center (CIP) and by youth groups, including that run by Matovu, have developed strategies on conserving potato residues.
“I request you to deliver me a truck of potato vines weekly. I pay well,” Matovu told the vendors.
Conserving sweet potato residues as silage, Matovu said can mitigate seasonal feed shortages. It can also help cope with seasonal feed price fluctuations that many smallholder pig and dairy cattle farmers experience.
“It also provides an opportunity to reduce waste in urban markets and at household level as well as can open up business opportunities for youth and women. I have benefited financially from this,” Matovu told the vendors.
Maize stover feeds
The vendors were also told about the value in maize stovers.
Kabirizi said stovers consists of stalks, leaves and husks of maize plants left in the field following the harvest or in food markets after selling fresh or roasted maize cobs.
Kabirizi said two youth vendors in USAFI and St Balikuddembe markets in Kampala city have been trained to process fresh maize residues.
They collect leaves and stems from women and men who sell fresh maize cobs, dry them under sunshine and pack them in bags.
They sell maize stovers at sh1,500 per 50kg bag.
“This is a strategy that can be adopted to lower the cost of feeding without necessarily lowering the physical growth process and productivity,” Kabirizi told the vendors.
Maize stover is a highly fibrous feed of limited digestibility and palatability that requires treatment to enhance its nutritional value.
The feeding value of maize stover can be improved by ensiling it with banana peels and sweet potato vines. The vendors were grateful for the training.
“It is these simple things that will help us fight poverty. Nearly all the things that these people talked about are thrown away as waste. I will collect it and use it to make more money,” Christine Namwanje, who sells fresh potatoes and cassava, said.
“This has been an eye-opener to me. I have cattle in my village in Mubende, but I have never realised how value can be added to this waste to turn it into feeds,” Charles Mwebe, a trader, said.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Matovu training vendors on how to use market residues to make livestock feeds.
