The Bat algorithm assumes that all bats use echolocation and bats fly randomly and that the loudness varies from positive to a minimum constant value. The bats emit a loud sound pulse and listen to the echo bouncing from the surrounding objects. Microbats are believed to use echolocation in most of their time to detect prey and avoiding obstacles. The Bat algorithm was first introduced by Yang and the algorithm is inspired by the echolocation behaviour of bats. Implementation of the Bat algorithm, results, and discussions are presented in Section 4 and conclusions are drawn in Section 5. In Section 2, a review of the Bat algorithm is presented and in Section 3 formulation of the MIP is presented. The remainder of the paper is arranged as follows. In this paper, researchers seek to formulate a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem for the feed ration formulation with the objective of finding the optimal quantities of Moringa oleifera inclusion in the poultry feed ration to substitute, to a certain level, soyabean which is expensive as compared to Moringa oleifera. Optimisation algorithms have been also used, to a limited extent, for animal diet formulation such as genetic algorithm (GA) and evolutionary algorithm. Variability of price of the ingredient due to changes in price of the ingredients makes the feed formulation problem complex. Ingredient variability due to varying, fluctuating, and unstable nutrient components has made it difficult to find optimal solution of the feed mixing problems. Most of these methods have been found to have difficulties in finding optimal solutions because of the following variables. Several mathematical tools have been used to solve feed ration formulation problems such as Pearson’s Square method, goal programming (GP), multiobjective goal programming (MOP), multiobjective fractional programming (MOFP), nonlinear programming (NLP), chance constrained programming (CCP), quadratic programming (QP), risk formulation (RF), and linear programming (LP). Vast literature exists that deals with the formulation of feed ration and modelling of these formulations. Feed mixing can be classified as an hard problem. Most economies of developing countries are agro-based and this study is likely to improve the livelihood of farmers in poultry production.įeed ration formulation is a particular challenge especially if new nutritive mixtures are involved. to substitute soyabean as source of proteins by Moringa oleifera. The research has been motivated by the success of the experiment carried out by Gadzirayi et al. In this research, an attempt to cut down the costs of poultry feeds is carried out. It is important to develop methods that can effectively cut down the costs of feeds.
If a farmer manages to reduce the cost of feed then a significant amount of profit can be realised.
The cost of feed significantly contributes to the profitability of animal farming and has been estimated to constitute of the total costs of poultry production. Results revealed that there is a significant economic benefit of Moringa oleifera inclusion into the poultry feed ration. Results also show superiority of the Bat algorithm in terms of execution time and number of iterations required to find the optimum solution as compared with the results obtained by the Cplex solver. The results show that the farmer is likely to gain US 0.89 more if Moringa oleifera is included in the feed ration. The study used findings of previous research to investigate the effects of Moringa oleifera inclusion in poultry feed ration. An attempt to find the optimal quantities of Moringa oleifera inclusion into the poultry feed ration was done and the problem was solved using the Bat algorithm and the Cplex solver. In this paper, a feed ration problem is presented as a mixed integer programming problem.