INTRODUCTION

Raising local chickens by smallholder farmers in developing countries is based on

scavenging and providing some extra feed. Available low cost feeds that farmers can use to

supplement their chickens could be by-products and surplus products that can provide energy or

protein. Some locally available feeds, such as cassava root, sweet potato tuber and banana fruit,

are good sources of energy but they are not used widely by farmers even though they are abundant

at harvesting time or the price is low. However, these feeds contain low protein, vitamins, and

minerals (Silvestre and Arraudeau 1983; Cerning Beroard and Le Dividich 1976; Le Dividich et

al 1976). Therefore, if farmers use them to provide energy to chickens to support activities during

scavenging, some protein feeds should be also supplemented and these should be cheap and high

in nutrients, such as green forages, including Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaf. The CP contents of

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaf is 35.9 % (Nguyen Thi 25.0 % (FAO 1993), respectively. These

indicate a good potential for smallholder farmers to improve the performance of their scavenging

chickens. However, there is a concern in using green forages for chickens because they contain

high levels of fiber, which has been associated with reduced nutrient digestibility (Just 1982;

Graham 1988).

The Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is an herbaceous perennial, mostly cultivated

as an annual. It grows up to a height of 2 m. Its adventicious and shallow root system arises from

the corm, a swollen underground stem that contains high levels of fine starch and weighs up to 1

kg. Corms are usually cylindrical and 30 cm long x 15 cm diameter, but they are highly variable

in size, shape and color. The leaves are 30-90 cm long and 20-60 cm broad, and are borne in

crowns at the end of upright, thick, succulent, 0.9-2 m high petioles. The inflorescence is a large

pale green spathe (Ecoport, 2010; Safo Kantaka, 2004).

There are hundreds of taro cultivars. Dasheen taros are wetland cultivars, mainly cultivated in

Asia and the Pacific Islands. They have a single and large mealy corm (Ecoport, 2010). Eddoe

taros are dry land cultivars, mainly cultivated in Africa and the Caribbean. They bear numerous

smaller corms (cormels) around the central corm and have a firmer structure and a nutty taste

(Ecoport, 2010; Onwueme et al., 1994).

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) yields high quantities of energy and protein per ha (Göhl,

1982). It is mainly cultivated for home consumption in Asia, Africa, Papua New Guinea and the

Pacific Islands. The soft white-fleshed taro corms, usually called taro roots, are highly valued as

a staple food and are eaten boiled, fried, roasted, fermented or turned into flour ("fufu" in West

Africa), bread and biscuits. Low-grade corms are also used for alcohol production. Taro

(Colocasia esculenta) petioles and leaves are used as vegetable. Taro (Colocasia esculenta)

corms and peelings are fed to livestock, mainly cattle and pigs. In Vietnam, some Taro

(Colocasia esculenta) varieties are used only for pigs (Ngo Huu Toan et al., 2010). In Hawaii,

taro tops are used to make silage (Onwueme et al., 1994).

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is native to India and the Malay Peninsula, and is now

cultivated throughout tropical and subtropical Asia, Pacific Islands (including northern

Australia), the Caribbean and tropical Africa (from East to West). It was recently introduced in

the southern USA (Onwueme et al., 1994; Ecoport, 2010).

And on the other hand, the Taro (Colocasia esculenta) plant is a very common and native plant

here in the Philippines. Because the Taro (Colocasia esculenta) plant is over sufficient, people

often use this in many delicacy. And a popular taro recipe that is very famous here in the

Philippines is the “laing” which originates from the Bicol region. Sometimes they also use this

taro plant to feed native pigs called “binugbugan”. Also, taro is another used to feed poultry in
Cuba. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a tuber also known as dasheen or cocoyam. You can use taro

as a substitute for maize or other grains. Grind the taro into flour. Add up to 15% of this flour to

the diet of chicks between the ages of one day to four weeks. Of course you must also have enough

protein, vitamins and minerals in the feed. Maria in Cuba also reminds farmers that to get a good

start in life, chickens must eat well from an early age. Chickens gain weight quickly- they can gain

10 times their weight in the first four weeks of life.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a vegetable propagated tropical root having its origin from

South-east Asia. It occupies 9th position among world feed crops with its cultivation spreaded

across Africa. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) tubers are important sources of carbohydrate as an

energy source and are used as staple foods in tropical and sub-tropical countries. It is largely

produced for its underground corms containing 70 to 80% starch. There are numerous root and

tuber crops grown in the world, Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is one of such crops grown for various

purposes. It is an erect herbaceous perennial root crop widely cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical

world belonging to the genus Colocasia in the plant family called Araceae (Macharia, 2014).

Taro (Colocasia esulenta) leaves have two main parts, the petiole (i.e., leaf stem) and

blade (large and heartshaped). Mainly the petiole is used in Japan (Matthews 2004) and China

(Jianchu et al. 2001.Yongpin and Jianchu 2000). In the Eastern Mediterranean, use of the leaves

has not been recorded (Matthews 2004, 2006). The petioles and blades are eaten in Nepal

(Pandey et al. 2000), Vietnam (Nguyen 2000), and Myanmar (Matthews and Naing 2005). Taro

(Colocasia esulenta) leaves (daun talas) appear in many Indonesian recipes, but without the leaf

parts identified (D.P. 1967). Throughout the Pacific islands, it appears that mainly the blade is

used, together with coconut milk and other ingredients (Brennan 2000, and other recipe books).

Thaman (1984) states that wild taro is often ‘protected in streams or in the bush’ in Fiji, and is an
important green vegetable in villages throughout Fiji. Stolons and inflorescences can be obtained

from wild or cultivated taros, and culinary uses have been reported in Myanmar and China. The

use of wild taro as both food and fodder is widespread in Southeast and East Asia (Matthews et

al. 1992; Matthews and Naing 2005; Jianchu et al. 2001).

Also, according to Wang (1983), Taro (Colocasia esculenta) has great potential as animal feeds

in the tropics and subtropics where it is often a staple food for pigs. However, because of the

problem presence of calcium oxalate, the leaves, petioles and corms of Taro (Colocasia esculenta)

are often considered unacceptable for direct use as an animal feeds (Jiang Gaosong et al 1996).

Wang claimed that this problem could be solved by the fermentation occurring during the process

of ensiling. This has been confirmed recently by Chittavong Malavanh et al (2007), who

successfully fed ensiled Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaves to pigs during reproduction and

lactation, and by Peng Buntha et al (2007), and Chhay Ty et al (2007) who fed ensiled and dried

leaves of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) to growing feeds. As for our research study we wanted to

know if it is also possible for Taro (Colocasia esculenta) to be fed by growing chickens.

The Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaf, like most other plant leaves, is rich in protein. It contains

about 23% protein on a dry weight basis. It is also a rich source of calcium, phosphorus, copper,

iron, vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin, zinc, niacin, and a very good source of vitamin B6 and

manganese which are important constituents of human diet. The fresh taro lamina has about 20%

dry matter, while the fresh petiole has only about 6% dry matter. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) corms

are very high in starch, and are a good source of dietary fibre. One of the main goals of organic

chicken farming is self-sufficiency.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is also known to be a good source of carbohydrate, fibre, and

minerals especially potassium and vitamins (especially B-complex) which is more than that found
in whole milk and vitamins A and C. it is rather low in ascorbic acid and carotene with the amount

of carotene being the same level as that found in cabbage and twice that found in potato. (Wang,

1983).

To bridge the gap and tackling the problems, inclusion of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaf

meals in the diets of chicken may brought products rich in essential nutrients for the consumers.

The idea of replacing soybean by taro leaves up to 10% is very important to improve nutrient

density and utilization because taro leaves is low in fiber and inhibitors. Taro (Colocasia esculenta)

leaves can be harvested from plants grown for tubers any time during the season and used as animal

feed. Harvesting taro leaves do not affect tuber yield rather frequent harvesting increases the leaf

yield. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaf is rich in proteins and can be of supplementary protein,

carotene and trace minerals in chicken diets. Moreover, most of poultry diets are made of cereals

and lack the most important amino acids for humans such as lysine, threonine, the sulfur-bearing

amino acids (methionine and cysteine) and occasionally tryptophan unless supplemented in the

ration. However, the above mentioned amino acids are very expensive and beyond the rich of

poultry farmers. Since this is great problem in nutrition and that is why important to identify

alternative high quality protein feed ingredients that contains most of essential amino acids.

The tremendous increase in population and high demand of foodstuff, which causes rapid

increase in cost of feed, high cost of cereals and protein supplements and uncertainty about their

sustainable supply for poultry pressed the need to search for other potential non-conventional feed

sources which are relatively less used for human consumption. Unfortunately, the rapid growth of

human population has intensified the competition between man and livestock for these cereal

grains resulting in high cost of feeds and consequently high prices of poultry products leading to

very low levels of protein intake in most developing countries. Poultry production especially
broiler provides a rapid means of producing animal protein to meet the nutritional needs of the

teaming populace (Taiwo et al. 2005). For stopping this problem the inclusion of Taro (Colocasia

esculenta) leaf meals in poultry ration may supply high nutrients for the consumers because Taro

(Colocasia esculenta) is multipurpose crop for food and feed sources. Taro (Colocasia esculenta)

leaf is rich in proteins and can be of supplementary protein, carotene and trace minerals in chicken

diets. To achieve maximum efficiency in meat quality and production, properly balanced ration is

a pre-requisite and taro could be possible alternative feed ingredients in this study.

Taking responsibility from beginning to end of the life cycle of chickens, and creating a more

sustainable farm is one of their missions. Organic chicken have been found to have fewer toxins

than commercially raised poultry which often contains hormones, antibiotics and trace amounts of

pesticides (Wozniak 2010). Organic farms use brooders; chicken tractors organic feed, as well as

the Government Districts provided the basic equipment needed to do the processing. The district

purchases a set of Kill cone, Scalder and a Plucker from the Featherman Company to rent out to

small farmers for on farm use, and we were the first farm that used this equipment. When analysing

the advantages of organic poultry, flavour nutrients, and lack of chemicals being present tend to

outweigh the price change. Many aspects about meat quality are also taken into consideration when

processing organic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus).

Many things need to be identified such as: age at slaughtering, physical activity, pasture intake,

and genetic strains (Catellini 2008).The chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) at majority at the

majority of organic farms are not given any growth hormones or antibiotics. This process is

creating awareness about commercially raised chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) compared to

organically grown locally processed chickens, is prevalent throughout our food industry, and farms

need to take action.

 Products made from organic chicken feeds especially those that manufactured locally are not

commonly used by its community. The reason may either be the products lack of proofs and lack

on efficacy due to the mentality that locally made products are low quality. The researchers saw

the need to produce new organic chicken feeds which make use of locally available materials.

Also, they would like to promote the public acceptance of organic-based products and encourage

its wider use.