Smart farms

: 11 July 2018; Hits: 14759

Removal of VAT from animal feeds’ ingredients by the government, relief to farmers and investors

poultry chicken feed

The move by the government to remove Value Added Tax (VAT) from animal feeds’ ingredients in its 2018/2019 budget if fully implemented will see livestock farmers and investors in the agriculture sector find it easy to manufacture own feeds lowering buying costs.

More than 50 per cent of the feeds’ ingredients are imported from the regional neighbours, especially Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda and the prices of the materials keep on increasing depending on their availability, according to experts.

However, with the removal of VAT on the raw materials, players in the sector are set to save 16 per cent from the overall cost of the materials though an increase in price in some other key ingredients will quickly wipe out such gains.

For Esther Ng’ang’a, a dairy, pigs and poultry farmer from Gathiga, Kiambu County, the cost of her animal feeds has been an issues. For 38 years she has been in the venture, Esther recalls how animal feeds were available an affordable some years back.

“When I started serious farming in 1980, two 70kg bags of poultry feeds was sold at Sh1000 and they were of quality as compared to Sh3000 per 70kg bag of the feeds that I buy today whose quality is also compromised,” said Esther.

According to a research published last year by a Kenyan NGO, Kenya Market Trust, out of 200 feeds manufacturers in Kenya, only 10 per cent are able to consistently manufacture feeds that meet quality standards. There are genuine reasons for that.

Esther retired as a secretary from the Ministry of Works in 1980 to focus on farming within her one acre piece of land which is currently accommodating over 800 birds, 20 pigs and 28 piglets, five dairy cows and five calves.

Esther sells her fully grown pigs weighing between 65 and 70 kilos at 260 per kilo to Farmers Choice. She also milks over 84 litres of milk per day which she takes to Kabete Dairies Cooperative at Sh350 per litre.

However, she says that getting the litres of milk is not easy as there are other supplements such as maize jam, yeast, molasses, salt and flour that must be added in the cows’ diet to up milk yields.

“I buy 20 bales of hay at Sh300 per bale that last for about a week but the grass only cannot give me the desired outcome, I have to supplement it with other ingredients to suit the animals’ diet,” said Esther.

In other countries like the US farmers grow cereals and other ingredients for largely livestock but in Kenya, 98 per cent of maize grown is for human consumption. This is why when there is scarcity, human food gets preference over the animal feeds

With Kenya’s GDP growing at 4.5 per cent, the population growing at 3 per cent annually and urbanization soaring, these are metrics enough to proof that demand for protein sources will increase tremendously in the future. More milk, more eggs, more poultry, beef, and pork will be required to feed the growing middle class.

These trends put the industry in a pole position both for national food security and investment. The government is therefore racing new efforts towards removing bottlenecks that would discourage investment in this sector.

Seaboard Corporation, from the USA, has shown strong desire to increase their interests in Unga Holdings. In 2016, Land O’ Lakes, the fifth largest feeds manufacturer in the world, also from the USA, bought half of Bidco Africa’s feeds company.

Since then, they have invested Sh14m in ultra-modern laboratory and are now building Sh1bn feed mills in Nakuru. New investments in the sector will sure improve quality, production efficiencies, and offer better value to farmers.

New investments are also happening in commercial production of quality fodder like alfalfa to supplement animal feeds. However, not much investment and attention is being given to growing of animal feeds specifically cereals, that would ease competition with human food. In most developed countries, the increase in production and consumption of cereals for both food and feeds occurs together

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: 09 July 2018; Hits: 9902

EU launches new project to improve women’s fortune in agribusiness in Nairobi

women in agribusiness

Women farmers meet at a farmers’ congress to exchange knowledge. Photo: Annette Massmann.

The European Union through the Center for Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) last week Thursday launched a new project that targets to improve the fortunes of women in Agri-business in ACP countries of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions.

The project dubbed Value for Her (Value4Her) is aimed to build the capacities of women in the entire agriculture value chain and make them competitive, efficient and productive.

The project, which was launched in Nairobi seeks to create opportunities for women on three key areas of access to finance and other productive resources, access to market, access to knowledge and skills.

Importantly, it is designed to rope women into the world of technology, especially digital technology to afford them an opportunity to be competitive in their agribusiness and enterprise.

RELATED ARTICLE: Women group spins income with silkworm rearing

Richard Lesiampe, Agriculture Principle Secretary for Agriculture, recognized the role women play in agri-business.

“The Government will thus help women with opportunities such as access to credit/ financing, technical know-how of agricultural production and value addition,” said Lesiempe.

He has lamented the low rate of women in land ownership putting it at 2 per cent and those who jointly own with their husbands to 5 per cent.

“This hinders women led agriculture due to lack of access to financing and land utilization rights.”

Stefano-Antonio Dejak, Head of Mission, Head of Delegation European Commission reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to support the ACP concept and more so more women into agribusiness and enterprise.

“Agriculture is the engine of growth in Africa. To grow their economies and create jobs, countries will have to transform agriculture to be modern, inclusive, productive and profitable, ” noted CTA Director Michael Hailu.

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: 05 July 2018; Hits: 13171

Digital farming technologies can grow farmers’ annual profits by up to 70 per cent

new mobile app

A mobile app that can help diagnose crop diseases is being field tested in Tanzania. Photo credit: IITA

Kenyan farmers adopting the use of digital farming technologies for their different farming activities such as in keeping records, monitoring crop and livestock health can increase their annual profits by between 7.1 per cent and 76.3 per cent, according to 2015 research conducted by UK innovation foundation, Nesta.

Such technologies which include mobile applications enhance farming activities and improve yields. Therefore, government institutions such as the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and industry experts are driving adoption of these tools in a bid to reduce post-harvest losses through provision of timely and accurate information directly to the farmers’ phones.

Eska, a mobile app developed by botanist and biochemist, Samuel Kamya, is used to detect crop diseases and deficiency of important nutrients such as phosphorus. It was launched in August 2017, at a time when Sh150bn worth of produce went to waste last year in the country due to pest infestation and inadequate market access.

“As a botanist, I understand the problems that farmers go through in order to benefit from farming; they have to overcome pest infestation, attack by diseases and a lack of nutrients. These problems can be solved by using software, so we developed an app that is powered by artificial intelligence,” said Kamya.

Once installed on an android smartphone, the user taps its icon, which accesses the smartphone’s camera. When pointed to a plant under investigation, it displays the results on the screen. By monitoring their crops, they are able to quarantine and deal with the infection decisively. They can choose to destroy infected plants before they spread the disease any further sparing the uninfected crops.

In order to monitor the health of poultry such as chicks, a digital brooder can come in handy. Arinifu, a technology company based in Nairobi develops the devices.

It is made up of a small analogue computer, some sensors and infrared lamps that can be used to monitor chicks brooding space and relay real-time information to the farmer through short message services (SMS).

This enables farmers to monitor the condition of the chicks and adjust them accordingly, predict the risk of disease infection, as well as suggest the right time for vaccination. In this, farmers are able to prevent any infections or unfavourable conditions for the chicks.

“Currently, we only deal with farmers in some Nairobi estates and Kiambu County targeting about 40,000 poultry famers as we look for more means to spread our services in the whole country,” said George Chege, an agronomist at Arinifu.

Besides monitoring health, these digital advancements can also help farmers source for markets for their produce. Soko+, an online digital commodity trading and information system has linked more than 16,594 Meru farmers to bulk buyers across the country enabling them to earn more income and improve their livelihoods.

“We encourage farmers to aggregate their produce in bulk through formation of groups so as to improve their bargaining power in the negotiation process and earn better prices by reaching into desirable markets,” said Martin Murangari, the Operations Manager, Soko+.

However, as much as digital farming is beneficial towards increasing quality, quantity, sustainability and cost effectiveness of agricultural production, farmers still face some challenges that limit their access to these technologies.

In rural areas, where a majority of farming in the country is practiced, there is a lack of smart phones and internet access.

“We have released many farm management mobile applications for use by our farmers to guide them in their agriculture activities but we have realised that these apps are frequently accessed by users in developed countries such as Russia, India, UK and the US instead of Kenya farmers due to a lack of internet access,” said Simon Mulwa, ICT officer at KALRO.

According to Mulwa, over 60,000 users were recorded to have downloaded the applications; Dryland Crops, Indigenous Chicken and Range Pastures Seed Production launched in April last year with more than 50 per cent of the users from countries other than Kenya.

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