Pulses
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Browsing Pulses by Author "East African Production and Supply Council"
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Item Local Millets as Substitutes for Maize in the Feeding of Domestic Animals(1948) French, M. H.; East African Production and Supply CouncilAs a result of changing social conditions greater quantities of maize are being sought, for nutritional purposes, by Africans who formerly lived largely on millets. Consequently many marginal areas, which receive only a small or a badly distributed rainfall and which are therefore more suited for millet production are now being planted with maize. As would be expected, the yields are erratic and unreliable and there is a greater demand for maize grov-vn in the normal maize-producing areas. During recent years flourishing poultry and pig producing'units have been built up, and the chief foodstuff demanded by these enterprises is maize meal. A vicious circle is therefore being created by the greatly increased demands for maize for both human and animal nutrition whilst at the same time, because of the increasing tendency to plant maize on land which should be seeded with millet, the production of millet is lower and this deficit imposes a further demand on the available maize supplies. If, as is anticipated, there is a continued increase in the demands for these foods, the maximum amount of maize and millet grains will have to be produced and, to achieve this, potentially good millet-producing land should not be planted with maize. African nutritional requirements will probably draw increasingly on the, maize grown in suitable maize-Producing districts and this will be followed by a greater diversion of millet grains, from the areas suitable for millet growing,. to help meet the needs of enterprises producing animal products. The feeders of live stock in East Africa are not all familiar with the nutritive values of the various local millet grains nor of the extent to which they can replace maize in animal rations. The object of this article is therefore to indicate to what classes of livestock and in what quantities millet grains can be successfully fed. It also describes the results of experiments, conducted. at the Mpwapwa Veterinary Research Laboratory, Tanganyika, on the feeding value of local white millet (mtama) and Bulrush millet (mawe le).
