April 11, 2013
Ghanaian students recycle cassava peels into animal feed
Three students of the Kwadaso Agricultural College in the Ashanti Region, Ghana have set up Kwadaco Company Limited to recycle waste cassava peels into animal feed.
The company was formed by Albert Adombile Ayingura, Eric Agyei Gyansah, and Marcellinus Babai, all students of the college.
Ayingura, said the company had done the feed trials, proximate analysis and other necessary checks on the feed and was, therefore, ready to go commercial with the feed once the founders were out of school.
The company''s feed is called Ultimate Cassava Meal and is suitable for poultry, pigs, fish and rabbits, among others.
As to the rationale behind turning cassava peels into animal feed, Ayingura explained that he and his colleagues realised the high competition between man and animals for corn, a major source of raw material in animal feed. That, he said, was pushing prices of corn-sourced animal feed up.
"But cassava peels are readily available and cheap; it''s even a waste to some people and so we realised that producing animal feed from it will help solve the environmental challenges posed by the peels as well as reduce the strain on corn and make it more available to man for food," he explained.
In the course of production, Ayingura said some ingredients were often added to the milled cassava peels to help meet the nutritional requirement of the animals.
"It''s true we want to cut down on cost but we also have at the back of our minds the need to meet the nutritional requirements of the animals for their optimum growth," he added.
The company and its products were adjudged the best in the 2013 National Agri-business Competition held in Damongo in the Northern Region recently. The competition was between similar companies operated in the six agricultural training colleges in the country and was organised by the Agricultural Extension (AgEx) Services unit of Engineers Without Borders (EWB,) Canada, in collaboration with the various colleges and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).
The company''s Marketing Manager, Gyansah, said the award was a morale booster and pledged their commitment to make the idea work in order to benefit many animal farmers.
The Head of Operations, Babai, mentioned transportation of the cassava peels and funds as some challenges facing the company in its commercial production. He, however, said the group was committed to making the initiative work.
"Beyond us putting into practice what we have learnt from school, we also want to resort to cheaper but available source of animal feed with the intention to help solve the problem of high inputs in animal production. Remember the cereal is not even enough for human consumption yet animals are also competing for it," Babai noted.