Joseph Musonye, a fish farmer in Ruai on the outskirts of Nairobi, is making feeds using such ingredients as fishmeal, maize germ, cottonseed cake, and wheat bran.

He now makes feeds himself to cut production costs, as are many other farmers keeping poultry, dairy cows, fish and pigs, the majority of whom after attending feed formulation classes.

\"This has helped me cut costs by 20 percent,\" Musonye said.

He bought the drum mixer for an equivalent of 200 U.S. dollars.

Feeds usually account for up to 40 percent of the production costs in livestock keeping, and the farmers can cut that to 25 percent by making their own feeds.

\"It costs 25 dollars for a 50kg bag of fish feeds. For my 1,000 fish, I need at least a bag and a half a week or less. This is very expensive if I buy commercially formulated feeds,\" Musonye said.

He now buys feeds ingredients in kilos, with a 2kg tin of fishmeal going for 1.3 dollars and the rest of the ingredients at between 0.20 dollars and 0.40 dollars.

Source: Xinhuanet News // Original Article