PROFITABILITY OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIFFERENTLY PROCESSED BAOBAB SEED MEAL (ADANSONIA DIGITATA) AS A REPLACEMENT FOR SOYA BEANS

The study assesses the financial benefits of feeding broiler chickens with differently processed baobab seed meal at the Poultry unit of College of Agriculture, Garkawa, Plateau State, Nigeria. The experimental diets were control, raw baobab seed meal (RBSM), cooked baobab seed meal diet, (CBSM), toasted baobab seed meal diet (TBSM), fermented baobab seed meal diet (FBSM)and sprouted baobab seed meal diet (SBSM) to replace the conventional soya bean full fat at 10% inclusion across treatments. A Total of one hundred and eighty (180) broilers chickens were used for this study. The six dietary treatments were replicated in a completely randomized design. The economic parameters considered in these study were cost of feed consumed per bird, cost saved, total cost of production, revenue, net income per bird, net income ratio, and return on naira invested. Significant (P<0.05) difference existed in all the parameters except fixed cost, operating cost and prevailing market price across treatments. The revenue of CBSM (₦2533.33) and TBSM (₦2493.33) were significantly lower (P<0.05) than the control diet ₦2826.66 which was comparable to that of RBSM, FBSM and SBSM, (₦2713.33, ₦2560.00 and ₦2634.66). Among the processing methods, this study recommended RBSM, CBSM, FBSM and SBSM as the best since net income (₦/bird) were comparable to the control diet