Proliferation and nutritional profile of wheat and maize derived hydroponic fodder produced at small scale farmers’ level

Abstract

In Rwanda, livestock is a key sector playing an important role in the economic development of the country and community wellbeing. Livestock subsectors provide meat, milk, and eggs that are necessary to meet the nutritional requirements of a rapidly growing population. Despite its role in community development, the livestock subsector in Rwanda is still challenged by numerous factors, including but not limited to poor animal genetic potential, animal diseases, and poor nutrition in both quality and quantity. Hydroponic production is an ideal solution responding to the need for good-quality livestock fodder despite the high cost of establishing the required infrastructure. This study was conducted to assess the proliferation and nutritional profile of wheat and maize-derived hydroponic fodder produced at small-scale farmers’ levels. By using locally available materials, small-scale hydroponic infrastrure were constructed, and two cereal grains were used as treatments: maize and beans in Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 6 replicates. Growth parameters like shoot length, leaf width, and root length data were collected daily from day 1 up to day 8, and 6 parameters of nutritional composition were tested in the laboratory. The results indicated that at 8th day shoot length, leaf width, and root length were 16.7, 12.3, and 1.7 cm, respectively, for maize and 17.8, 14.5, and 1.5 cm, respectively, for wheat shoot length, leaf width, and root length. For nutritional composition; the dry matter (DM) content was 19.30% for maize and 12.84% for wheat; protein and crude fibre were respectively 14.69% and 14.50% in wheat and 12.00% and 4.97 in maize, while other parameters, ash content, were 2.22% in maize and 2.12% in wheat; calcium residues were 0.08% in maize and 0.17 in wheat; and phosphorus were 0.10% in maize and 0.35 wheat. The study results revealed that locally available materials can be used to produce high-quality hydroponic fodder to be fed to livestock. To farmers, this study recommend the adoption of hydroponic production for the purpose of decreasing cost of production which is mostly associated with feeding.