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.