Crop failure fuels sharp price hike for livestock fodder

By Nicholas Waitathu

Kenya: A shortage of commercial feeds has hit livestock farming hard. As a result, farmers are increasingly paying more for fodder — a situation agriculturalists warn is likely to compromise the industry’s growth.

Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) has warned the livestock sector is headed for dismal performance, as the market runs short of the raw materials used in the production of the feeds.

Acute shortage

Speaking yesterday during the launch of the African Livestock Conference and Exhibition (ALICE 2013), EAFF President Philip Kiriro said there is an acute shortage of animal commercial feeds owing to a deficit of cereals — mainly maize and wheat.

“Farmers will increasingly pay more for the feeds as the country continues to face a shortage in the supply of grains and an inability to grow oil crops such as cotton, soya, sunflower and lint seeds,” Kiriro said.

Between January and May this year, the prices of the animal feeds have increased by between 16.6 per cent and 58.3 per cent respectively.

Mr Francis Macharia, a dealer in Murang’a County, said the prices have increased sharply for the last five months that some farmers have had to scale back the quantity of fodder they buy.

“I was selling wheat bran at Sh600 in January but the same has since increased to between Sh930 and Sh950,” Macharia said.

The price is even higher for maize jam superior feed, which is retailing at between Sh1,400 and Sh1,500 from below Sh1,200 in January this year.

The effect is spreading fast – hitting livestock, poultry as well as fish keepers.

 Kiriro attributes the problem to the country’s failure to invest adequately in production of oil crops, which equally contribute to production of animal feeds.

Another factor said to be contributing to the increase in prices of fodder is high demand of cereals occasioned by the surging population and an urban lifestyle that is seeing a shift to foodstuffs requiring less energy.

 According to the Economic Survey 2013, the country produced 162,700 tonnes of wheat in 2012 accounting to a 53.6 increase from 105,900 tonnes produced in 2011.

More imports

However, the increase was not sufficient to satisfy domestic market. To bridge the deficit, the country upped imports of the commodity by 4.2 per cent from one million tonnes in 2011 to 1.04 million tonnes in 2012.

Despite its recent growth as source of livelihood and net contributor to the economy, the livestock industry faces a myriad of challenges.

According to the Executive Director of Eastern and Southern Africa Dairy Association Peter Ngaruiya, the industry’s is yet to reach its full potential.

 This is partly due to diseases, shortage of feeds, underfunding of the sector as well as inadequate market access for livestock farmers.