Use of market crop wastes as feed for livestock in urban/peri-urban areas of Kampala, Uganda

Urban farming includes growing of crops and animal keeping. Due to the fast urbanization, farming in cities is practiced in many parts of the world and provides food and income for around 700 million people. This study was conducted in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Uganda has a population of 27.8 million people with 82.6% of the population living below the poverty line. Kampala has 1.2 million inhabitants, with a high population density, 7, 378 persons per km2 of land. Urban agriculture is widespread in the city. By-products from crops in the markets generate a lot of wastes that are used as feed and fertilizer, collected by the authorities or left dumped in the markets causing environment and health problems. The aim for this study was to identify the use of market crop wastes (MCW) as animal feed in the urban and peri-urban areas of Kampala. The study included interviews with 125 farmers as well as chemical analyses of the most commonly used wastes. Livestock was very important for most respondents and contributed with 25-50% to their economy. A majority, 72% of the respondents were women who needed the income from livestock for buying food and to pay school fees for the children. Two thirds of the farmers were not using MCW as feed. Reasons were access to other feed resources, problems to transport the wastes and lack of knowledge about the MCW. The MCW mostly used as animal feed in Kawempe and Lubaga divisions were: banana (Musa) peels, sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) peels, sweet potato vines, cassava (Manihot esculenta) peels, cassava leaves and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) leaves. A mixture of different fruit wastes was also very commonly used. Cassava leaves had the highest content of CP, 22.1%. Compared to the leaves, the peels had poor nutritional values with very low CP (2.6-6%) and high NDF values (52-75.3%). The NDF of the leaves ranged between 28 and 50%. The DM of all wastes was low, especially for the leaves, which had a DM between 11.9-21.9%. Contamination of the MCW by e.g. nails, plastic bags and mud was a serious problem. Further, high prices of the wastes and costs/difficulties transporting the wastes were other constraints. By reducing the contamination of the MCW, more wastes could be used as feed. Further research about the ways to reduce the contamination of the wastes in the markets and research about the feeding value of MCW for different livestock species is needed. Workshops and written information about feeding and the potentials of MCW as feeds could be a way to increase the knowledge among the farmers