Assessing sweet potato chips as a cost-effective alternative for maize in broiler’s diet

Abstract. The consistent increase in the price of feedstuff, especially maize, is one of the many challenges faced by the Nigerian populace, especially the livestock farmers. The post-COVID-19 influenced food insecurity had increased the cost of feed available for livestock production especially in poultry industries. This study aims to assess sweet potato chips as a cost-effective alternative for maize in broiler’s diet. One hundred and fifty broiler chickens were raised on deep litter intensive management system for eight (8) weeks and fed with sweet potato-based diet at the finisher phase (4th – 8th week). At 4 weeks of feeding the one hundred and fifty birds were distributed based on weight equalization from the pool into five treatments of three replicates each with ten birds per replicate. Milled sweet potato were incorporated to replace maize in diet at 25, 50, 75 and 100% inclusion. The diets were compounded to supply 21.32% crude protein and 3360.20 kcal/g ME on average. Data on performance were collected weekly, data on digestibility were collected daily during the last seven (7) days of the 28 days’ experimental trial. The carcass yield was weighed at the last day of the experiment. The economic analysis was conducted based on the prevailing price at the time of the study. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and significant differences were compared using DMRT while a t-test (p<0.05) was used for economic analysis. Birds on maize diet utilized the feed better than those on sweet potato. Birds on T1 (100% maize-based diet) digested crude protein (27.44%) significantly better than those on sweet potato which resulted in the highest final weight (3.431 kg), dressing percentage and higher weights of breast, thigh and drum stick. On the other hand, the birds on 100% sweet potato diet were able to digest more soluble carbohydrates, hence, more energy than those on another treatment. The economic analysis revealed that 100% maize diet is economically better than sweet potato diet, although the latter has a great potential to serve as feedstuff for broiler finisher. It was recommended that further study should be carried out using pelletized feed as birds may pick grains in their diets rather than non-grains.