Underutilized Tropical Legumes as Feed Resources: 4 Review

Abstract

The application of underutilized legumes as a good protein source makes them to be attracted to the poultry and livestock industry in general for the same purpose. The utilization of underutilized legumes as animal feeds will help to balance the competition between humans and animals who commonly share the same feed resources. Literature search reveals that there are several species and varieties of under-utilized legumes with relatively comparable amount of protein with that of the commonly consumed legumes by humans. However, their utilization as animal feed faces challenges in terms of presence of antinutritional factors and limited literature documentation. There is need for conducting and reporting more studies so as to get economically viable and alternative sources of livestock feeds. The tropical climates are abundant in many underutilized legumes with seeds and foliage that are rich in proteins and antinutritional factors. However these underutilized legumes have potentials as feed resources when adequate processing techniques are applied to reduce or eliminate the potency of the antinutritional factors. This review is therefore presented to elucidate the different underutilized legumes utilized as sources of animal feeds and create awareness among livestock farmers and researchers.