Moringa a good substitute for soybean meal

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is studying the potential of moringa, locally known as malunggay, as a “healthy” animal feedstock to substitute imported soybean meal.

“We are gathering scientific evidence through the conduct of feeding trials of local moringa meal to livestock to confirm whether it is a cheaper and better substitute to soybean meal,” Alice Ilaga, director of the DA Biotechnology Program, said in a statement.

Moringa meal, which was sourced from the leaves and the seed kernels of the moringa tree, has recently been recognized as a superior livestock feed meal, according to a non-government organization called Biomasa.

Biomasa is an agricultural research program based in Nicaragua that has studied various aspects of moringa for over six years. The group has conducted extensive trials using moringa leaves as cattle feed (beef and milk cows), swine feed, and poultry feed.

“For many years the livestock industry has been almost solely dependent on soybean meal importation for their source of high protein feedstuff,” Biomasa said.

“The Philippines has constantly ranked as among the biggest soybean meal importing country from the United States and various sources, with imports from all sources amounting to more than one million metric tons annually,” it said.

“This translates to close to P10 billion spent on soybean meal importation per year. While farmers and feed suppliers have valued soybean meal for its high quality protein content, concerns about the overall quality of the imports (e.g. presence of aflatoxins and product freshness) and increasing prices of most grains have triggered the search for an equivalent and cheaper protein source.  Feedstuffs such as copra meal and fishmeal have been used, but these items have their gross deficiencies as soybean meal alternatives,” the group said.

“With moringa leaves constituting 40 to 50 percent of feed, milk yields for dairy cows and daily weight gains for beef cattle was shown to increase by 30 percent. Birth weight, averaging 22 kilograms for some cattle breeds, increased by three to five kgs,” it said.

Biomasa said feeding the animals with moringa feed has increased milk production from seven to 10 liters a day.

With moringa feed, daily weight gain of beef cattle was 1,200 grams per day. Without moringa feed, daily weight gain of beef cattle was 900 grams per day. In a recent study conducted by a group of Japanese poultry experts, feeding moringa meal to egg laying poultry showed very encouraging results, the group said.

“Moringa meal thus serve to support the supply of high protein feedstuff needed by the growing livestock industry worldwide in the midst of a food price crisis that is expected to lasts until 2010,” it said.

“In terms of crude protein (CP) content and amino acid variability, moringa meal cannot be beaten- the leaves can offer as much as 43 percent CP and the extracted seed meal can provide as much as 70 percent CP. Even Class A soybean meal can only provide 48 percent CP,” Biomasa said.

“As moringa meal is solely produced locally, their attractive low price and superior quality offer farmers and feed millers the opportunity to economize on their production,” it said.

“Comparing prices per gram of protein, moringa meal could stand as the single meal which offers great CP values for the producers’ money and investments.  Furthermore, all-fresh meals are surely what farmers will get on a very regular and predictable basis.”

Aside from animal feedstock, moringa oil is also being promoted as biofuel in the US.