Sweet potato vines are feeds for pigs, cattle and goats. However, their availability is mostly seasonal, leaving farmers with limited feed options during the dry periods of the year.
In urban and peri-urban areas, sweet potato residue disposal is a challenge as they are dumped within the markets after the sale of potatoes. This is environmentally problematic.
Processing sweet potato residues into silage has the potential to mitigate seasonal animal feed shortages that many small-scale farmers face.
It provides an opportunity for the youth to collect sweet potato vines from markets and conserve them into high quality feeds for sale to livestock farmers.
Make sweet potato silage feed blocks
A compressed complete feed block is designed to be the only source of feed. This can make dairy cattle or pig farming profitable.
Urban dairy farms need the feed blocks because of limited land to produce sufficient pastures for their animals.
How to make sweet potato silage
Sweet potato silage can be made using chopped vines or combined chopped vines mixed with roots of non-commercial value (at a ratio of 70:30). Select a strong plastic sheet with high density (1.5m width, gauge 600 to 800 mm) to make plastic tube silage bags.
High rather than low-density plastic reduces the risk of tearing. Imported plastic tube silage bags are now available in Kampala.
Plastic fertiliser bags make good silos. Plastic drums are expensive, but can be used for many years and are not damaged by rodents.
