Poultry feed availability and nutrition in developing countries Alternative feedstuffs for use in poultry feed formulations

Global consumption of poultry products, especially poultry meat, has consistently increased over the years, and this trend is expected to continue. Much of the increase in global demand for poultry products will be in developing countries. Such growth in the poultry industry is having a profound effect on the demand for feed and raw materials. However, it is also becoming clear that the requirements for the four traditional feed ingredients – maize, soybean meal, fishmeal and meat meal – cannot be met, even according to optimistic forecasts. The gap between local supply and demand for these traditional ingredients is expected to widen over the coming decades, providing a compelling reason for exploring the usefulness of locally available, alternative feedstuffs in feed formulations. A wide range of alternative feedstuffs are available for feeding in all three poultry production systems. The greatest potential for efficiently utilizing these feedstuffs will be in traditional family poultry systems (scavenging and backyard) and the semi-commercial system. In the semi-commercial system, only part of the feed requirement is purchased from commercial compounders, so there is opportunity for on-farm mixing or dilution of purchased feeds with locally available, alternative feedstuffs. In low-input family poultry systems, locally available, alternative feedstuffs can be used to supplement the scavenging feed base.