• Farmers have been getting low quality animal feeds and fertiliser and the board will help regulate this, according to the CS.
• Animal feed millers blame the increase of substandard feeds in the market on maize shortage.
Image: Courtesy
The Ministry of Agriculture will establish a fertiliser and animal feeds board to ensure the quality of the commodities being sold in the market.
This follows numerous complaints from farmers on the subsidised animal feeds in the market, a situation manufactures blame on the shortage of maize.
Agriculture Cabinet secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said the board will ensure there are regulations to address quality.
He was speaking on Thursday during the opening of the Kitale ASK show.
In August, animal feed manufacturers said the shortage of maize in the country had led to the increase of substandard animal feed in the market.
Livestock Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai said currently, there are all sorts of business people manufacturing animal feeds.
“Some are not licensed and they don’t have nutritionists. So we really do not know if they are producing quality feeds. What they are doing is grinding the grains and mixing ratios that are not ascertained. We do not know their formulas so they just say these are animal feeds. The quality of some feeds is questionable,” he said.
He said farmers have complained about this and that is why the CS will put in place the new board.
The board has been allocated funds this financial year.
“Once constituted, the board will be expected to go round inspecting all the premises dealing with animal feeds and licensing. The board will also undertake recruitment of feed inspectors,” Kimtai said.
The PS said the smallscale feed manufacturers are the majority and the ones affecting the quality of animal feeds in the country. “They entice the farmers with some cheap prices yet the quality is not up to date. We want to ensure that farmers get value for their money,” he said.
John Gathogo, the publicity secretary at the Association of Kenya Feed Manufacturers, said the success of the livestock subsector is dependent on the quality and affordable animal feed.
“However, in recent days or perhaps months, there has been a shortage of raw materials. This has led to the presence of substandard feed in the market,” he said.
The feed millers wanted a share of the second batch of 1.9 million bags of maize that the Strategic Food Reserves board released to millers but this did not happen. SFR gave priority to maize meal millers to help avert a crisis.
Animal feeds millers are still grappling with a shortage of maize as they have to compete for the white maize coming from Tanzania and Uganda.
Gathongo said this is expensive for many of the smallscale animal feed millers with a 90 kg bag of maize selling at between Sh3, 500 to Sh2, 700.