Sago and cassava blend offers corn alternative for Indonesian poultry

The team states that this blend can help mitigate the rise in feed costs that has been plaguing the poultry industry in the country over the past year.

Under laboratory trials, native chickens fed a mix of sago and cassava – described by scientists as a ‘corn analogue’ – performed just as well as those fed conventional corn feed. The corn analogue reportedly has similar nutritional value but comes at a lower cost.

The price of corn keeps rising

Dr Heri Ahmad Sukria, a lecturer at the Faculty of Animal Science at IPB University and the project head, stated: “About 50% of poultry feed comes from corn. Indonesia cannot yet meet its national corn needs from domestic production and is currently not allowed to import.”

As a result, corn prices have continued to rise, reaching a minimum of Rp 5,500 (US$0.34 per kg). Even in months outside the harvest season, corn prices can reach Rp 7.000 (US$0.43) per kg in some areas, especially in remote areas or islands. “This has a direct impact on the high price of chicken feed and chicken prices in the market,” he explained.

Unlike countries such as the United States and Europe, which use a variety of materials as sources of feed energy, Indonesia is still very dependent on corn.

Alternative protein sources for chicken feed

According to researchers, Indonesia has around 5 million hectares of sago plantation in the Papua region. “Sago can be harvested directly from sago plants, but we must pay attention to the environmental balance of the sago plantation area, so it has great potential as an energy source for animal feed to replace corn,” he said.

In addition, researchers have developed new cassava varieties that could be effectively used in feeding poultry.

“To make cassava an economical feed material, its productivity must reach a minimum of 40 tonnes per hectare, and several superior varieties from IPB University are currently able to meet this target,” he said.

Making chicken more affordable

This year, the project received funding from the Community Empowerment Program of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia to support wider promotion of the new product among farmers. With a larger production scale, corn analogue is expected to be a viable solution for small farmers, according to the scientists.

Dr Heri concluded that lower feed costs will reduce chicken production prices, which will also benefit consumers with more affordable prices.