Summary
This synthesis reviews the diversity and nutritional value of tropical feed resources—including grasses, fodder trees, cereals, tubers, crop residues, and agro-industrial by-products—available for livestock across intensified and integrated farming systems. Whilst some resources match temperate equivalents (maize, soya) in energy value, protein resources rarely rival soya nutritionally. The authors emphasise that management practices (forage age, grain processing) and technology (antinutritional factor removal) create greater nutritional variability than genetics, and that strategic species-appropriate utilisation is necessary, particularly where secondary metabolites impose anti-nutritional constraints.
Regional applicability
This work addresses tropical and sub-tropical farming systems and is not directly applicable to United Kingdom temperate conditions. However, the principles of feed resource characterisation, management of antinutritional factors, and matching animal species to available resources may inform UK practice in sourcing sustainable alternative feeds and reducing reliance on commodity imports.
Key measures
Energy values, protein values, antinutritional metabolites, feed quality variability, technological treatments affecting nutritional composition
Outcomes reported
The study synthesises the availability and nutritional variability of tropical plant resources and agro-industrial by-products for livestock feeding. It examines energy and protein values, antinutritional factors, and management strategies affecting feed quality across diverse tropical production systems.
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