While Rwanda is moving towards incentivizing commercial production of animal feeds as a way of increasing productivity of the country’s livestock sector, experts in Uganda are using technology to impart knowledge to farmers on how to mix feed concentrates at farm levels. This is especially critical to ensure proper animal diets, for a country that is reported to be marred by commercial production of sub-standard feeds which are sold to farmers at exorbitant prices.

Despite an abundance of energy and proteins raw materials for feeds formulas in Uganda, farmers have been subjected to high prices of commercial feeds which are of poor quality. This not surprising as a recent study revealed that there is neither a feed quality regulation policy nor a certification framework for actor in the animal feed value chain in Uganda. Therefore, as a coping strategy, livestock farmers in Uganda have resorted to formulation of homemade feeds in spite of glaring lack of knowledge about the process and animal requirements (Lukuya B. et al., 2013). In such an unregulated market, it is thus critical to empower especially small-scale livestock farmers whose livelihoods largely depend on farming to control costs and quality of feeds. It is against this backdrop that a recent capacity building exercise for non-technical feed experts, private and public extension workers in community-level pig feeds formulation facilitated by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Uganda is a step towards the right direction if increased productivity of the livestock sector that contribute nearly 2% of the country’s GDP ((Lukuya B. et. Al. 2013) is to be achieved. The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) is a systematic method used to assess local feed resource availability and use through a participatory approach. The tool uses community’s knowledge on their own resources to design interventions to optimize feed utilization and animal production.

http://www.ilri.org/feast, http://www.thepigsite.com https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/34469/Concentrate%20Feeds%20Supply%20chain%20in%20Uganda.pdf?sequence=1
http://www.thepigsite.com