LAUSR

Goats in rural communities are often raised in conditions which do not allow them to achieve their maximum performance nor express their genetic potentials. For goats to perform to their full potential, they require high nutritious feed especially in the winter season when there is food shortage or during high milk-producing periods. However, supplementation can be done using fresh green feeds, protein blocks or vitamins which are often expensive, hence the need to source for indigenous crop residues. This study assessed the knowledge and perceptions of farmers on feeding sweet potato vines to their goats. The data were gathered by administering a total of 105 structured questionnaires using face-to-face interviews. The results showed that the majority of farmers (71.4%) were aware and practise some sort of supplementary feeding. Most farmers (72.4%) cultivated sweet potatoes, and they used them for different purposes such as income generation (53.3%), consumption (27.5%) or both (8%). Sweet potato vines were being discarded as waste or burnt (32.4%), left on the field as manure (25.7%), conserved as propagation material (8.6%) or randomly fed to livestock (7.6%). Nevertheless, most of the farmers (78.1%) rejected the use of sweet potato vines as feed to livestock. In conclusion, more intervention measures are required for developing farmers’ knowledge and perception on feeding sweet potatoe vines to livestock. Farmers may be assisted through training and workshops on the use of sweet potato vines and other indigenous forage supplementation as feed.