Evaluation of sweet potato vine cultivars as animal feed in Nakuru District, Kenya

An experiment was carried out at KARI-Lanet to test ten sweet potato vine cultivars for dry matter, Crude Protein content and morphological characteristics. The cultivars were planted in an experiment using randomized complete block design on plots measuring 5 x 3m and replicated three times. Harvesting and sampling was done after 90 days for laboratory analysis. Vine and leaf measurements were done using a flexible measuring tape. Data collected was subjected to analysis of variance using Genestat, while means were separated using least significance difference (P<0.01). Dry matter levels (DM) of sweet potato vine cultivars differed significantly. Cultivar K049 had the highest DM content of 18.2% while Kemb-36 had the lowest at 9.7%. Crude protein levels of the vine cultivars tested differed significantly. Cultivar 99/1 had the highest CP content of 22.6% while Kemb-10 had the lowest of 16.4%. However all the ten cultivars had moderate CP content which could be used to formulate concentrate ration for ruminants. Morphological characters differed significantly among the ten sweet potato vine.