Sweet Potato Waste: A Hidden Resource for Poultry Feed
Sweet potato production generates significant agricultural waste, often posing disposal challenges for farmers and processors. In 2024 alone, Zixin Group, a Singapore-based biotech company, generated 748.8 metric tons (mt) of sweet potato peels from its snack food business—a notable increase from 673.1 mt in 2023. Previously, this waste was a cost burden, disposed of through local collection points or animal farms.
Now, Zixin Group is leveraging this waste to create a valuable product: probiotic-infused fermented chicken feed. Collaborating with the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences in China, the company has developed a patented formulation that converts sweet potato waste into a nutrient-rich feedstock for poultry.
The R&D Process
The development of this innovative feed involves:
- Enhancing Probiotic Efficacy: Infusing the feed with probiotics to improve chicken health and growth.
- Nutritional Analysis: Ensuring the feed meets poultry dietary needs.
- Feed Trials: Testing the effects of the feed on chicken growth, survival rates, and the nutritional quality of their meat.
During initial trials, the probiotic-infused feed demonstrated promising results, including:
- Improved Chicken Health: Higher survival rates and better overall growth.
- Drug-Free Meat: Reduction of veterinary drug residues in chicken meat.
- Enhanced Safety: Safer and more nutritious poultry products for human consumption.
Transforming the Industry
This innovation doesn’t just solve Zixin Group’s waste problem; it creates opportunities across the agricultural value chain. Sweet potato farmers, food processors, and poultry feed manufacturers stand to benefit from this new approach.
Key advantages include:
- Waste Reduction: Efficient use of agricultural byproducts, reducing environmental impact.
- Cost Savings: Turning waste disposal expenses into revenue through feedstock sales.
- Better Poultry Products: Healthier chickens and safer meat for consumers.
Zixin Group’s proactive outsourcing of waste collection ensures a consistent supply of sweet potato agricultural waste, paving the way for scalable production in January 2025.
Zixin Group’s innovation exemplifies how agricultural waste can be transformed into a valuable resource, benefiting farmers, feed manufacturers, and consumers alike. By addressing waste management challenges and improving poultry nutrition, this patented feed formulation could set a new standard for sustainable agriculture.
