Towards zero waste and sustainable food production using human-inedible agroproducts and food loss and waste as animal feed

摘要

Feed production is highly resource-demanding. Most developing countries have extreme shortages of feed resources. Additional feed required to satisfy the projected increased demand of animal products, if met through food grains, risk further exacerbate food insecurity in many countries. Livestock consume about 60 percent of the biomass used for food production. Most of the dry matter consumed by livestock is composed of grass (39 percent) and other human-inedible materials such as crop residues (26 percent) and agricultural by-products (bran, oilseed cakes, etc., 8 percent). Technologies are available that enhance digestibility of crop residues and by-products and also increase nutrient availability from them to animals, i.e. increase feed conversion efficiency. Increase in feed conversion efficiency enhances overall resource use efficiency. This paper will consider such technologies and illustrate "win-win" solutions: increase livestock productivity and income of farmers, decrease environmental pollution and improve social outcomes. Furthermore, approximately 1.3 Gtonnes of food are lost or wasted globally every year. A part of these losses can be converted to animal feed, through technologies such as ensiling, block making and raising insects, without compromising animal product safety and animal and human welfare. Novel human-inedible resources such as insect meals, leaf meals, protein isolates from agro-industrial by-products, single cell protein produced using waste streams, algae, co-products of the biofuel industry, etc. have potential to reduce grain use by the feed industry, further decreasing food-feed competition, and making the livestock sector more sustainable.