Abstract:

Smallholder livestock farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa are racing against time to find
cheaper, nutritious, and sustainable feed alternatives to the more pronounced and expensive
commercial concentrates amidst the increasing global demand for livestock products. Lately,
many prominent feed conservation technologies have been developed, with a notable example being
the sweetpotato silage technology that turns wasted sweetpotato components into a palatable and
nutritious livestock feed. However, despite the potential benefits associated with these technologies,
the level of demand and acceptance among smallholder farmers remains largely unknown. Thus,
this paper assesses the farmer demand and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sweetpotato silage-based diet
as pig feed by smallholder farmers in Uganda. The information for the study was collected through
secondary data review and semi-structured interviews to assess farmer WTP. The 256 semi-structured
interviews were randomly drawn from 16 purposive clusters formed at a radius of 3 km around
16 farmers piloting sweetpotato silage-based diets for pig feed. The results show that pig farming
is mainly the responsibility of women, with farmers’ mean willingness-to-pay price amounting to
0.20 USD per kilogram of sweetpotato silage-based diet. At the mean price, the annual demand
for silage was estimated at 17,679 tons, with a market potential of approximately 3.59 million USD.
The study concludes that, at the mean willingness-to-pay price, there is a substantial market potential
that can be exploited by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) venturing in the livestock
feed industry.