Farmers making their own feed face jail terms once the Livestock Bill, 2024 becomes law.
Clause 92 of the bill will see any ‘person’ mixing, compounding, manufacturing, importing, or selling any animal feedstuff that the Agriculture and Foods Authority has not approved or does not meet the standards of yet-to-be-disclosed regulations face a Sh500,000 fine and/or a 12-month prison sentence.
Most of the money farmers spend on keeping livestock goes into making feed. According to the 2024 Report on the Cost of Milk Production in Kenya, feeds accounted for 43-58 per cent of the total cost of production for dairy farmers. In poultry, this cost is even higher accounting for over 90 per cent of the total cost of production.
To bring down this high cost of getting milk and eggs from their animals, many farmers have come up with their own innovative feed formulas, many of which we have highlighted. According to the Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, about 720,000 tons, or 90 per cent of the feeds made in Kenya are from unregistered animal feed manufacturers and small-scale manufacturers who process less than one thousand tons of feed every month. This is because most livestock keepers cannot afford to pay the high prices charged by the larger feed manufacturers.
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However, as the bill outlines, the new law will not only be constrained to regulating concentrates or store-bought feeds but as it clearly mentions, “any animal feedstuff”.
Animal feedstuff includes everything that makes up an animal’s diet. These are common grains like maize, sorghum, wheat, oats, and barley and their by-products as well as sources of roughages such as pasture grasses, hay, silage, root crops, straw, and stovers. Legumes eaten by animals for protein like lucerne, desmodium, soybeans, canola, and cottonseed.
Plant sources of oils and fats such as sunflower and copra as well as high-protein oil meals or cakes are also considered feedstuff.
The authority will also regulate the by-products from processing sugar beets, sugarcane, animals, and fish used as feed as well as livestock premixes which are a blend of ingredients used to optimise the food an animal eats.
To manufacture and sell any animal feedstuff you will also need to get a valid license that will run for twelve months from AFA for a fee whose amount is yet to be disclosed.
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Feed manufacturers currently require a county government permit as well as permits from NEMA, public health, and a certificate from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) to operate in Kenya. However, about 40 per cent of the feeds farmers currently buy comes from unregistered animal feed manufacturers.
According to research done by Kenya Market Trust, most feed makers are not licensed because they cannot afford the Sh4,000 fee charged by Kebs for every analysis of their feed. “Only four per cent of feed makers used Keb’s services. 28 per cent had built their own analysis facilities with the rest carrying out no tests on their feeds,” read part of the report.
This has led to a situation where a lot of the feed being sold to farmers is substandard and unable to give their animals the right nutrients to produce well. As Livestock PS Jonathan Mueke noted at the 2024 Akefema Feeds Exhibition held in July, “It’s well known that we have feed manufacturers who make substandard products which are gravely hurting the industry. Farmers are paying high prices but getting no returns from using these feeds.”
To safeguard livestock owners from this huge issue, anyone found selling animal feedstuff with ingredients that are prohibited by the regulations or are over the limit required by the regulations will face a maximum one-year prison term or be forced to pay one million shillings or both.
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The bill also makes it illegal to change the labeling on any container with approved animal feedstuff without express permission from the authority.
The regulations in the new law also give the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary the authority to determine what can be used to make animal feedstuff and what substances can be considered animal feedstuff.