Shortage of maize germ makes feed formulation costly

What you need to know:

  • I enquired from the millers why there was a shortage, and I was informed it was partly due to the Tanzanian General Election, which affected maize supply. I found the reason unconvincing.
  • The second reason, which was also unconvincing, was that there is maize glut in the country following a bumper harvest, and when this happens, consumers find it cheaper to buy whole maize and grind for themselves.

I left the office the other Friday at 1pm and travelled to Thika to buy maize germ for my chicken feed formulation, but I returned to Nairobi at 7pm empty-handed.

Since I work from 7am to 5pm daily, I normally leave the office early on Fridays to have time with my chickens. One of the lessons I like passing to people who want to join me in farming is that if you are the anal-retentive type who works best on schedule and wants things go as planned, you should either loosen up or forget about it all together because there are lots of disappointments.

If you are formulating your own chicken feeds, you may be aware that for over a month now, there has been a shortage of maize germ, the key ingredient in making animal feeds.

In my case, feeds account for between 60 to 70 per cent of the total cost of producing eggs or meat in poultry. This means that the only way to reduce production costs and make some profit is if I make my own feeds. On average, I save between 30 and 50 per cent on a 70kg bag.

Apart from maize germ, the other ingredients I use are sunflower cake, soymeal and wheat bran. I also add pre-mix (minerals and vitamins) and essential amino acids (methionine and lysine).

For chick mash, maize germ comprises 74 per cent (51kg) of the bulk for a 70kg bag, soy meal 12kg and sunflower cake 6kg. Digestible Crude Protein, premix, lysine, salt and methionine take up the rest. For growers, maize germ comprises 71 per cent (49kg). For layers, it comprises 61 per cent of the bulk. I don’t use wheat bran in chick mash because they are not able to digest it.

You see, maize germ is a source of carbohydrates and it provides energy. Energy and protein requirements take up to 95 per cent of the cost of feeds. Therefore, if the cost of maize germ goes up from Sh18 to 24 per kilo as is the case now, it becomes uneconomical to make own feeds.

I have had to switch to commercial feeds because the savings on home-made feeds have become minimal.

I enquired from the millers why there was a shortage, and I was informed it was partly due to the Tanzanian General Election, which affected maize supply. I found the reason unconvincing.

The second reason, which was also unconvincing, was that there is maize glut in the country following a bumper harvest, and when this happens, consumers find it cheaper to buy whole maize and grind for themselves.

As a result, millers are not able to process enough refined maize meal from which the germ is obtained.

These are symptoms of a problem which requires high level policy intervention by the government to save farmers.

Why does a 50kg bag of layers mash retail at Sh2,300 here and Sh1,800 in Uganda?

You see, most of our raw materials for making livestock feeds come from neighbouring countries and this has cost implications. To me, it makes little sense for the government to levy an additional 16 per cent value added tax on these raw materials because this has a negative effect on producers and consumers of eggs, meat and maize meal.

With the raw materials being expensive here, it is no wonder eggs from Uganda retail at Sh10 even after adding transportation costs.

I wish I could have a face-to-face meeting with the incoming Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Willy Bett, and tell him the plight of farmers. But I know he may be reading this piece.

However, if I get a chance to meet him, my advice would be, “If you want the poultry industry to thrive, allow millers to import yellow maize duty-free for use in making animal feeds. This way, whole maize, a staple food also used to make animal feeds, will not compete with human food, and this will lower costs dramatically.”

I am told prices of the raw material has began to come down in some parts of the country.

I hope it will continue to do so in the coming weeks, but as a small farmer I can only wish because those who control the market might decide the shortage persists.

Obwogo is a poultry farmer, a medical doctor and a senior quality improvement adviser in health policy and systems strengthening.