UTILIZATION OF BANANA PLANT WASTE IN ANIMAL FEEDING

UTILIZATION OF BANANA PLANT WASTE IN ANIMAL FEEDING

Lamella Ojha

Animal Nutrition Division, ICAR-NDRI, Karnal

lamellaojha@gmail.com

Introduction

One of the most important factors influencing the success of livestock operations is the availability of forage feed. During the dry season, however, forage will be scarce, thus feed will be supplemented with agricultural wastes such as rice straw, stover, or maize straw, as well as other crop wastes. At present, the use of banana plant waste as animal feed varies greatly in each banana-producing country. Banana by-products like leaves, young plants, rejected fruit, and stems can be utilized to feed ruminant animals and also monogastric animals. Despite the abundance of banana plant waste, its use is limited due to a number of variables, including the high fibre content of the stems and leaves. Furthermore, because banana plant waste is quickly damaged by high water content, it is frequently discarded. Further processing procedures are required to overcome the aforementioned restrictions and boost the nutritional content. Fermentation technology is the simplest and most cost-effective way of subsequent processing. The ability to retain seasonally abundant feed for later meals during seasons of feed shortages is an added benefit of the fermentation process.

Next to mango, the banana (Musa sp.) is India’s most important fruit crop. Bananas arose in Southeast Asia’s wet tropical regions, with India serving as one of their cradles. Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, as well as their natural hybrids, were first discovered in the rain forests of Southeast Asia, and have evolved into modern edible forms. Approximately 120 countries cultivate bananas and plantains. A total of 86 million tonnes of fruits are produced each year around the world. With an annual output of 14.2 million tonnes, India is the world leader in banana production. Brazil, Ecuador, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Thailand, and Colombia are some of the other significant producers.

Many by-products of banana production include leaves, pseudo-stems, and fruit peel. The majority of these by-products are classified as a low-value commodity and are typically composted or dumped in landfills or rivers. These by-products are easily spoilable due to their high moisture content; hence they are frequently discarded.

Banana by-products are only used in a few places throughout the world. To replace some of the nutrients in the soil, the pseudo-stems are typically let to decompose on farms. During the dry season, pseudo-stem has been utilised as emergency fodder for cattle in numerous regions of the world, while during the rainy season, banana leaves have been used as umbrellas. Fruit peel is mostly used as a source of nutrition for goats that will be sold in municipal areas. The value of banana by-products and wastes has not been thoroughly addressed and studied, despite the fact that they have been used for a variety of reasons, including as animal feed.

Nutrient composition of banana plant parts

In some places of the world, every component of the banana plant can and has been used as animal feed. Because the leaves, top two-thirds of the pseudo-stem, and all fruit skin can be integrated into ruminant diets, banana wastes are readily available as feed for ruminants. Banana tree nutrition varies by type, age, and plant components. It has a high fibre and water content, but has a low nutritional value. Beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, is abundant in the leaf, while fibre, potassium, and vitamin B6 are abundant in the pseudo-stem. The banana plant is thought to produce roughly 200 tonnes of fresh materials (pseudo-stems and leaves) per hectare each year, with pseudo-stems and leaves accounting for 74.8 percent of above-ground plant components and fruit accounting for 25.2 percent (Perez, 1997). The CP content of banana wastes varies according to the plant section. The leaf had the highest CP level, followed by the fruit peel and pseudo-stem.

Table: The total nutritional content of the leaves and pseudo-stems

Use of banana plant waste in animal feeding

Banana wastes can be fed to ruminants or monogastric animals as a fresh, ensiled, or dry meal. To achieve high levels of animal performance, banana wastes must be supplemented with high nutrient sources due to low levels and imbalanced nutrient contents. Banana wastes are generally low in fermentable energy, CP, Ca, and P for ruminants.

In ruminants:

When compared to higher protein meals, banana wastes produced less growth in animals. Goats were given banana leaves, cassava leaves, and natural grasses ensiled with brewer’s grain by Sokerya and Rodriguez (2001). Goats fed banana leaves grew 17.3 g per day and had a feed conversion of 30.8; goats fed cassava leaves gained 44.9 g per day and had a feed conversion of 34.2; while goats fed natural grasses gained 34.1 g per day and had a feed conversion of 11.2.

Ruminants given grass forage can be fed banana waste as an alternate meal. Barbera et al. (2018) found that a mixture of fresh banana leaves and pseudo-stem could be used as an alternative feed for lambs fed a commercial rye-grass hay basal diet, as there were no significant differences in total DM intake, total digestible energy intake, total body weight gain, or daily gain between the two groups of lambs fed the two diets. According to Viswanathan et al. (1989), using banana pseudo-stem to replace Brachiaria mutica hay up to 50% of the time had no negative effects on the health of the animals, and while the daily gain was low, the rate of growth improved up to 40%, after which it began to fall. In comparison to animals fed natural grasses or other concentrate diets, banana byproducts fed to animals supplemented with legume forages produced better outcomes. Lambs fed a high-level mixture of green banana fruits and Gliricidia sepium leaves gained 141 g/day compared to those fed a low-level mixture of green banana and Gliricidia (71.5 g/day) (Archimede et al., 2010).

In pig:

Banana foliage is fed to pigs in many tropical countries, especially during periods of feed shortage. Banana leaf meal has the potential to replace up to 15% of dry matter in growing pig diets without affecting weight gain or feed conversion ratio. Because the fresh banana or plantain pseudo-stem has high moisture content and is low in protein, vitamins, and minerals, it is recommended that they be fed simultaneously with supplements. To boost its nutrient value for developing, fattening, and lactating pigs, the pseudo-stem can be ensiled with easily fermentable carbohydrate-rich feedstuffs like molasses or rice bran.

In poultry:

Scanty information is available in the literature on the use of banana pseudo-stem and leaves in feeding poultry. Because the leaves’ high cellulose content may limit their usage by birds, fermentation could be employed to reduce the fibre level and increase their consumption by poultry. For four weeks of broiler finisher, researchers from Sam Ratulangi University in Indonesia gave banana leaves fermented with the fungus Trichoderma viride at 5, 10, and 15% inclusion levels in the diet. They found that the group fed 10% banana leaves fermented for ten days had the maximum feed intake, daily weight gain, feed efficiency, and carcass yield, showing that ten days of fermentation with T. viride and 10% inclusion were ideal for finisher broiler performance.

Conclusion

Nutritional value of banana wastes varied with plant parts, but in general, the highest nutritional value was found in fruit peel, followed by banana pseudo-stem and leaf. Banana wastes have high DM potential but unbalanced nutritional value. Banana wastes with suitable treatment and supplement could be a good ruminant and monogastric animal feed and good animal product (milk yield and daily gain) can be attained by feeding banana wastes.

References

Perez R. Tubers, Bananas and Plantains. Feeding Pigs in the Tropics. FAO Animal Production and Papers; 1997.

Sokerya S, Rodriguez L. Foliage from cassava, Flemingia macrophylla and bananas compared with grasses as forage sources for goats: effects on the growth rate and intestinal nematodes. Livestock Research for Rural Development 2001;13(2).

Barbera M, Jaber JR, Ahmed Salek S, Ravelo-Garcia A, Ponce ER, Ventura MR, et al. Effect of replacing rye-grass (Lolium spp.) hay by banana (Musa acuminata) by-product on feed intake, growth and feed conversion rate of Canary hair sheep breed Pelibuey lambs. Tropical Animal Health and Production 2018;50(6):1941–45.

Viswanathan K, Kardivel R, Chandrasekaran D. Nutritive value of banana stalk (Musa cavendishi) as feed for sheep. Animal Feed Science and Technology 1989;22(4):327–32

Archimede H, Gonzales-Garcia E, Despois P, Etienne T, Alexandre G. Substitution of corn and soybean with green banana fruits and Gliricidia sepium forage in sheep fed hay-based diets: effects on intake, digestion and growth. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 2010;94(1):118–28.

https://www.pashudhanpraharee.com/use-of-kitchen-waste-table-waste-as-a-promising-feed-resource-for-livestock-in-india/

http://jurnal.unpad.ac.id/jurnalilmuternak/article/view/26358

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