Posted on February, 2, 2022 at 08:40 am
Agricultural extension officers were also among residents who have benefited alongside animal feed manufacturers in Molo Ward, Nakuru County where National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP) has pumped Kshs. 14 million for training and procurement of animal feed formulation machinery and equipment for cooperative societies to help boost profitability in milk production.
The venture which is part of the Kshs. 21 billion NARIGP aimed at supporting 21 counties also aims to get rid of unscrupulous animal feed traders and manufacturers who have been selling adulterated feeds.
Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at NARIGP Dennis Chumba singled out the high cost of animal feed as one of the biggest challenges the dairy subsector has been grappling with ,which he indicated makes the venture non profitable.
“Animal feed constitutes 60 to 70% of total cost of livestock and aquaculture farming. Through NARIGP’s partnership with Elburgon Progressive Farmers’ Cooperative Society and Ngathi Fari Feeds Processors, farmers and Agricultural extension officers were equipped with skills to formulate feeds from maize germ, sunflower, wheat bran, cotton seed, coconut pollard, boma rhodes and brachiaria grass. They have received extensive training on fodder establishment and conservation and silage making,” said Chumba.
NARIGP programme, which is a partnership between the National Government and the World Bank, seeks to increase agricultural productivity and profitability leading to improved livelihoods and reduced vulnerabilities of targeted rural communities in Nakuru, Turkana, Makueni, Meru, Kitui, Embu, Kilifi, Kwale, Narok, Kirinyaga and Muranga counties.
Others are Trans Nzoia, Nandi, Vihiga, Kisii, Nyamira, Migori, Homa Bay and Bungoma.
The beneficiaries, according to Chumba have also been equipped with additional skills on value addition and business development which help them have profitable and successful agribusiness ventures.
“The quality of feed keeps on changing and most farmers always want to get high quality animal feeds at all times for their animals. The training was focused on educating farmers on how to use available feed from plants including maize to formulate valuable feeds for their livestock. This will help improve the quantity and nutritive value of the milk produced hence more profit,” stated Chumba.
He said the targeted group was currently yielding 7,000 litres of milk per day as opposed to the previous 3,000 litres before NARIGP’s intervention and added that the training was also key in cushioning farmers during dry seasons as they will be able to make their own feeds to supplement the commercial ones adding to reduction in production costs.
Chumba pointed out that besides inhibitive costs of feed, thousands of dairy farmers in Nakuru County are counting losses running into millions of shillings due to persistent adulteration of animal feeds in the country.
“The financing component enabled smallholder animal feed manufacturers to buy machinery and equipment. The situation has been aggravated by the fact that most feed manufacturers, especially small-scale ones do not have proper equipment, lack basic training feed formulation, animal nutrition and feed production processes,” the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at NARIGP noted.
The Kenya Bureau of Standards and agriculture ministry officials estimate that over 80 per cent of the feed in the market is contaminated with substances like sand, ash and sawdust.
Chumba stated that besides averting the adulterated feeds menace Kenyan farmers can cut down on the cost of buying feeds for their animals by 50 per cent by making their own feeds at the farm level.
He added “Adulterated feeds are a threat to dairy cows and other animals. They increase disease burden, lower milk yields, stunt growth and in severe cases cause deaths of animals doubling cost farm inputs,”
Dairy farmers in Nakuru earned Kshs. 11.7 billion from the sale of 300 million litres of milk last year. Nakuru is the third leading devolved unit in milk production in the country with 381,600 dairy cattle after Kiambu and Murang’a counties.
Willy Kirui, a second-generation dairy farmer and a beneficiary of the program keeps 8 dairy cows on his six acre land. He said the venture was timely considering the costs of animal feeds have been on a steady rise since last year, driven by expensive raw materials that have even made it difficult for those who used to make their own feeds to continue.
A few weeks ago, he noted the cost of feed went up by Kshs. 100 across all the animal meals following a steep rise in maize prices.
“The price of a 70 kilogramme bag of dairy meal has gone up from Kshs. 3,400 in December last year to Kshs. 3,500 currently, chick marsh is retailing at Kshs. 4,300 from Kshs. 4,200 while layers is now selling at Kshs. 3,900 from Kshs. 3,800,” he observed.
Mr Kirui indicated that most farmers in his village were cutting back on commercial feed because it was no longer economical.
“I have reduced commercial feeds and learnt from the training to substitute the protein requirement with Lucerne grass, which is rich in protein,” stated Kirui.
Ngathi Fari Feeds Processors Chairman Ezekiel Karanja said farmers were now able to access high quality and affordable dairy meals from the firm after it procured modern equipment and machinery through funding by NARIGP.
“We give farmers animal feeds on credit through their respective cooperative societies which they pay a month later after making sales. Our main challenge is shortage of raw material regionally,” Karanja stated.
Kenya relies on imports of sunflower, soya and cottonseed cake to meet the needs of feed manufacturing.
However, the shortage of these ingredients and restriction by some of the source countries has created a serious shortage of these major supplements locally.
The Government of Zambia dealt the feed industry a blow with suspension in exports of soya bean meal and sunflower seed cake last year.
Source: KBC