Lack of sufficient raw materials has been found to be one of the major causes of the shortage of livestock feed in the Horn of Africa.
East African Farmers Federation (EAFF) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Stephen Muchiri said the acute shortage of these essential commodities used in the manufacturing of livestock feed had led to a lack of sufficient feeds in the region, leading to low productivity.
Muchiri noted that various products used in feed production, including but not limited to soybean, maize, and wheat bran, were imported from the neighbouring countries, thus making the feeds unaffordable to most farmers.
He said his organization had assisted farmers to form cooperatives to enable them to produce the raw materials locally.
He cited alternative sources of protein for the livestock, such as rearing of the black soldier fly and creation of feed reserves.
Muchiri said that despite the sector having a huge potential, agriculture has been greatly underfunded, noting that regional governments have, in the past two decades, failed to honor a pledge of increasing funding for the sector.
The official was speaking in Naivasha Tuesday during a workshop that brought together stakeholders from the region to deliberate on the livestock sector feed value chain.
He noted that livestock feed shortages, coupled with poor-quality feed, have greatly affected the dairy sector as a key sub-sector in agriculture.
Singling out marketing as a major challenge in livestock husbandry, Muchiri said dairy farmers were exploited by middlemen while products such as milk and potatoes went to leading to post-harvest losses.
Agriculture has also been affected by climate change, greatly impacting the livestock sector in Kenya and the Horn of Africa, where farmers, particularly in 2022, lost millions of livestock to drought and were followed by floods in 2023 and 2024.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, an estimated 2.5 million animals in Kenya were lost due to drought that ravaged the region for nearly two years in 2022, occasioning a loss of half a billion US dollars; hence, availability of feeds would cushion livestock in the events of prolonged drought.
Additionally, data from the ministry shows that Kenya requires 55 million metric tonnes of dry matter animal feed annually but currently produces only 40 percent, leaving a huge supply deficit of 33 million metric tonnes.
Out of the 40 percent dry matter feed produced in the country every year, half of it goes to waste due to post-harvest losses, making the country to rely on imports from the region, which may not be sustainable.
But the government of Kenya is working with development partners to introduce feed investment planning and has prioritized 10 feed value chains totaling 2.2 million acres around the country, which is expected to produce 4.3 billion bales of hay every year through an investment of 3.4 million dollars (Sh. 480 billion) spread over 10 years from 2022 to 2032.
The national government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, has initiated an ambitious programme of introducing feedlots in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) in a bid to promote the growth of livestock fodder in those areas, which will in turn spur livestock productivity.
The programme is a direct mitigation response to the effects of climate change and will be implemented in 23 counties through partnerships with county governments and other partners under the Public Private Partnership (PPP).
The Ministry has also come up with a National Feed Policy after it also emerged that Kenya’s livestock sector was facing a 26 per cent malnutrition rate, which has caused stunting and low productivity.
Nakuru Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Agriculture Leonard Bor said the county had prioritized the dairy value chain to address market access challenges and had rallied farmers to join cooperatives to facilitate farmers training on best practices in feed storage.
He added that the country made strides in value addition after the production of milk powder and ultra-high-temperature (UHT) treated milk, saying the sub-sector faced challenges of market access.
Dr. Katali Benda from the National Animal Genetic Resource Centre (NAGRC) in Uganda said they were focused on breeding and multiplying farmers’ preferred breeds in the dairy sector and conservation of indigenous breeds like the Ankole cows in order to increase milk production.
By Mabel Keya