Low body weight affects livestock exports

Livestock during farmer's exhibition at KALRO centre in Naivasha. [File, Standard]

Low body weight of animals has hampered government's efforts to export livestock to various countries mainly the Middle East, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Andrew Karanja has said.

Dr Karanja has challenged farmers to invest in breeding and feed production so as to produce animals that could meet the demand of the lucrative livestock market.

This emerged during the Kenya National Feed and Fodder Emergency workshop in Naivasha which is meant to prepare for the projected adverse weather conditions.

In a speech read on his behalf by Prof Abdi Guliye, Advisor, Livestock and Rangeland Management, the CS said that the government was keen to reap from livestock exports.

"The Government has secured various international markets for livestock but unfortunately, we are unable to meet the market demand due to the low body weight of our animals," he said.

To address the challenges, the CS said that the Government was supporting production of more feeds by encouraging promotion of various feed value chains.

"During the last financial year, the Government gave out 500 tonnes of sunflower seeds to producers across the country in addition to the subsidized fertilizer," he said
He said that the government was encouraging conservation of available feeds to reduce post-harvest losses which had adversely affected livestock production.

Karanja disclosed that the Government was in the final stages of developing a policy for land commercialisation which would help avail idle government land for investors to produce.

"This initiative that is underway will greatly contribute in reducing the feed deficit and make our country's animal feed secure," he said.

The CS noted that the animal feed industry has been relying on imports for protein feed ingredients for animal feed manufacturing.

"Most of these ingredients are sourced from neighbouring and South African countries and they come with unpredictable customs and border tariff regime," he said.

State Department for Livestock Development Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke assured that the government was keen to reduce the cost of animal feed.

The PS announced that the ministry was supporting producers in adopting suitable technologies to increase animal feed production and reduce the national deficits from 60 to 40 percent.

"To reduce feed imports, the government is finalising plans to make public land available for commercial fodder production under Public-Private Partnership arrangements," he said.

Mueke noted that around 75 per cent livestock are found in rangeland where there was massive degradation through invasive species.

"These invasive species require management even as we support rehabilitation of rangeland through reseeding to increase the biomass available for feeding livestock," he said.