A new scientific study from Ethiopia has identified roasted finger millet as a potentially effective alternative to maize in broiler chicken feed, highlighting opportunities to diversify poultry feed ingredients and improve production economics.

Published on November 5, 2026, in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, the research examined how replacing maize with roasted finger millet (Eleusine coracana) affects nutrient intake, growth performance, feed efficiency and profitability.

The study was conducted by Yilkal Tadele and Negasi Ameha, researchers affiliated with Arba Minch University and Haramaya University in Ethiopia.

Maize is a major energy source in poultry feed, but its cost and availability can create challenges for producers. The researchers investigated whether locally available finger millet could serve as an alternative cereal ingredient.

The experiment involved 240 day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks divided into five dietary treatments.

Maize was replaced with roasted finger millet at levels of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, with three replicate pens assigned to each treatment.

The feeding trial continued for 42 days.

Researchers evaluated nutrient consumption, body weight, feed conversion ratio, mortality and economic returns across the different dietary groups.

The results showed that total dry matter intake did not differ significantly among treatments during the starter and finisher phases.

However, crude protein and metabolizable energy intake varied significantly between dietary treatments.

Growth performance improved as the proportion of roasted finger millet increased.

Birds receiving the maize-based control diet reached an average final body weight of 1,501 grams, compared with 1,619 grams in the group receiving complete maize replacement.

This represents an increase of approximately 7.9% in final body weight.

Feed conversion ratio, an indicator of the quantity of feed required to produce body weight gain, also improved.

The ratio declined from 2.96 in the control group to 2.74 in the full-replacement group, indicating more efficient feed utilisation under the experimental conditions.

Importantly, the researchers found no statistically significant difference in mortality among the dietary treatments.

The economic analysis also indicated potential advantages.

Estimated net income increased from 152.16 Ethiopian Birr per bird in the control group to 167.71 Birr per bird when maize was completely replaced with roasted finger millet.

The findings suggest that finger millet could offer poultry producers an additional feed ingredient where its availability and price make it economically attractive.

For millet-growing regions, the study also points to opportunities beyond direct human consumption.

Finger millet is widely associated with traditional foods, but its possible use in animal feed could create additional demand across agricultural value chains.

Nevertheless, the findings should be interpreted within the study's experimental conditions.

The research evaluated roasted finger millet in one broiler production setting over 42 days. It does not establish that complete maize replacement will produce identical results across different poultry breeds, feed formulations, processing conditions or market environments.

Further research would be useful to examine performance under commercial farm conditions and assess how variations in millet prices affect profitability.

For the global millet industry, the study provides experimental evidence that roasted finger millet may have value as a poultry feed ingredient while contributing to cereal diversification in livestock production.