Processing Prosopis Juliflora as Cattle Feed: Case Study of Afar Region and Awash River Basin
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In the Ethiopia, Prosopis juliflora was introduced in the 1970’s by Ministry
of Agriculture in the Awash River basin in the Afar National Regional State
(ANRS) of Northeast Ethiopia. The plant rapidly invaded vast areas of a these
region. Variety of material has been done on utilization of this plant for
different application and benefit including as feed ration. Despite the high
content of Nutrition available for the cattle feed, it is less digestible for
ruminant animals. Therefore, Thermochemical Treatment methods of
processing P.Juliflora to improve its digestibility have been suggested by
different researchers. This paper assesses the effectiveness of treatment of
Prosopis Juliflora using Sulfurous acid (SO2 + H2O) and was found to have
the better potential.
The effect of reaction time, concentration of Sulfurous acid, and heat
treatment for improving digestibility of Prosopis was investigated. The
treatment was efficient that it almost increase the total digestibility of this
plant by two fold making it comparative to other commercial roughage feeds.
The treatment efficiency of this thermochemical method was increased with
concentration of sulfurous acid and cooking temperature. The In-vitro Dry
Matter Digestibility was appreciable when reaction time is also longer.
Laboratory scale reactor were conducted and showed good result on
improving the digestibility of P.Juliflora. The In-Vitro DMD shows a
maximum of 70% digestibility under condition of 6% SO2, 120 oC and 2.5
hours reaction time including a 30 minute heating rate.
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Process Engineering Stream