Abstract
Composition of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) Plant Harvested from the Volta Lake in Ghana and its Potential Value as a Feed Ingredient in Rabbit Rations
Highlights
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), belonging to the family Pontederiaceae, is a prominent fresh water plant found throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world
This implies that water hyacinth meal (WHM) may not be suitable for use as feed ingredient for non-ruminant livestock species, but will likely better suit ruminant and pseudo-ruminant species like rabbits (Pond et al, 1995)
The crude protein content of up to 20% in the leaves, and about 10% in the leaf-sheaths is comparable to those of feed in
Summary
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), belonging to the family Pontederiaceae, is a prominent fresh water plant found throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It presents as a floating biomass, with long round spongy stems and leaves (Reza and Khan, 1981). The plant reproduces by means of runners or stolons, which eventually form daughter plants; and when this decay, the process leads to depletion of dissolved oxygen in the water, often killing fish and other aquatic organisms (Coles and Kabatereine, 2008). Several means such as spraying with herbicides, and occasional desilting of the water bodies in which they grow have been tried to control its rapid growth and spread, but these have not yielded any meaningful result due to its var-
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