The African Union-Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) has joined efforts with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to transform the animal feed sector into an industry.

The efforts are folded under a new project dubbed: Evidence Driven Short Term Solutions to Build Resilience and Address the Adverse Effects of Crises on African Feed and Fodder Systems, commonly referred to as Resilient African Feed and Fodder Systems (RAFFS) project.

According to Agriculture Ministry Assistant Commissioner Animal Nutrition/Principal Rage Ecologist Denis Mulongo Maholo, the project is aimed at helping six African countries develop a conducive environment for transforming the animal feed sector into an industry.

“By an industry we mean, there could be a clear movement of goods from one point to another and in such an industry, we expect things like contract farming, contract supplies with enough feeds supplied to the consumers at the right time,” he said.

Under the project, Maholo said they expect and aspire to eliminate the seasonal animal feed shortages the countries have been experiencing which have led to most of the farmers especially the poultry farmers to collapse out of business.

For the dairy farmers, he said they have not been able to meet the targets which they have been wanting due to these shortages.

“Because of the loopholes in the value chain, we have had some of our exports being banned, because we cannot meet the quality demands of the market where we are taking the commodities.

These together with government interventions in enhancing food security and export, we believe through the project, we shall have to come up with solutions based on statistical evidence,” he said.

According to Maholo, the recent assessment conducted in 2022 indicated that Uganda has the potential to produce feeds from just the crop source without the feeds from the lakes and animal products.

“Uganda has the capacity to produce 121.7 million metric tonnes of feeds in a year, out of that, around 48 million metric tonnes is the one people deliberately say is for livestock, while the rest goes to waste. When quantifying the wastage, it indicates that 38% of feeds go to waste. With this wastage, we believe that this project will tap into these areas of weakness by turning wastage into value and also provide the much-needed nutrients in the feeds countrywide," he said.

The Assistant Commissioner-Animal Nutrition/Principal Rage Ecologist, Denis Mulongo Maholo, Speaking during the launch of the project. (Photo by by Agnes Nantambi)

Fisheries state minister Hellen Andoa, while officiating during the launch of the project at a four-day meeting at Mestil Hotel on Wednesday said despite the progress made in the production of animal feeds and fodder, it is still insufficient to meet the growing demand from the livestock and fisheries farmers.

This she said results in increased costs of productivity especially in the dry season.

She highlighted major challenges as being distribution bottlenecks, quality controls, price volatility and climate change, among others.

AU-IBAR director Dr Huyam Salim in a speech read for him by Dr Sarah Ashanut Ossiya, the Project Coordinator (RAFFS) at the African Women in Animal Resources Farming and Agribusiness Network (AWARFA-N) Secretariat, explained that the last four years have proved very challenging with multiple global crises ranging from COVID-19, climate change and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia that occurred in quick sequence and with compounding effects, highlighting vulnerabilities in Africa’s livestock systems.

“Feeding constitutes sixty to seventy per cent of the total cost of animal production and Africa’s feed and fodder resources have been greatly affected by the global triple C crises. The massive loss of 9.5 million livestock, worth over $2 billion in the recent drought in the Greater Africa region, underscores this vulnerability and is untenable, and needs to be seen beyond the landscape,” he said.

The RAFFS project he said will support formal registration including consolidation of its five-year strategy and resource mobilization plan. At this Workshop, the Chapter will engage with financial and insurance institutions to begin the process of strengthening women in the animal resources access to tailored credit and insurance services and undertake some capacity building.