Animal feed is too expensive and continues to be a major constraint on poultry productivity, farmers have said.

Speaking to The New Times, Andrew Butare, the Chairperson of Rwanda Poultry Industry Association, said that for instance, feed for layers costs Rwf560 a kilogramme currently, an increase of about 65 per cent from Rwf340 it used to cost three years ago.

"High livestock feed cost is the major concern for us poultry farmers,” he said, indicating that feed accounts for about 70 per cent of the inputs required in poultry production.

Butare said that the expensiveness of feed has effects on poultry productivity and consumption of its eggs and meat as animal protein sources, among the population.

"This (high feed cost) increases the cost of production, which makes poultry products expensive. As a result, fewer people can afford them, which narrows the market base,” he indicated.

Indeed, an egg costs Rwf200 in some parts of Kigali, from Rwf100 three years ago.

Talking about the reasons for the feed price hike, Butare said these include limited maize and soybean supply on the local market, and the Russia-Ukraine war which triggered a hike in fuel prices and transport costs.

Mathilde Mukasekuru, Ag. Director General in charge of livestock at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, said there has been improvement in farm productivity in Rwanda though there are still challenges especially associated with costly feed.

Also, she said, "there are challenges in terms of farmers’ access to market for their poultry produce [including eggs and meat] because its price is somehow high as a result of expensive feed.”

Mukasekuru was speaking on Tuesday, October 4, during a programme on Radio Rwanda about Poultry Africa 2022, a continental poultry exhibition taking place in Rwanda from October 5 – 6.

Jean Baptiste Musabyimana, General Manager of Agri-Business Solutions (ABUSOL Ltd) – a Bugesera-based poultry farm with over 100,000 chickens that produces over 70,000 eggs per day – said that professional/commercial poultry farming is relatively new in Rwanda, indicating however that it is growing.

Musabyimana, who is also the coordinator of Poultry Africa 2022, pointed out that feeding livestock is the main issue affecting farmers currently, linking the high cost of feed to the expensive raw materials needed to make it.

He cited that maize costs Rwf600 a kilogramme, while that of soybean is Rwf900.

"I think there are other strategies that should be devised to contain animal feed prices,” he said.

Efforts to bring down feed costs

Mukasekuru said that the costly animal feed issue has been present for long, and it keeps rising as time goes by.

She indicated that even the food for human consumption is costly yet it is what is used to make feed for livestock. These include maize, soya, rice, and sardine (fish).

"All those ingredients are currently expensive and that is among the factors which make animal feed costly,” she said.

Among the measures to address that problem, Mukasekuru recommended an increase in agricultural production and the feed storage capacity especially at the industrial level.

"It is to encourage animal feed factory owners to set up enough storage facilities so that in case of bumper harvest, they can collect it and store it for long in order to get the needed raw materials to make the animal feed,” she said.

Also, she indicated that other strategies can include linking poultry farmers and financial institutions so that they provide them with loans at low interest rates to help them get animal feed.

Moreover, she said that the Government waived the 18 per cent value-added tax on imported raw materials for feed production purposes.

"All those are measures meant to lower the costs of animal feed, and ultimately the livestock or poultry products,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mukasekuru said that there is an ongoing effort to use black soldier fly larvae as an alternative and affordable source of protein for poultry feed in the country, and there is hope for productivity.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources show that animal feed factories in Rwanda currently produce over 60,000 tonnes of commercial poultry feeds per year.

Also, the country now has 27 large commercial poultry farmers rearing between 20,000 and 70,000 layers, 258 medium poultry farmers with 5,000 – 20,000 layers, and 265 small commercial poultry farmers keeping between 1,000 and 5,000 layers.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com