State banks on livestock genetic improvement to scale up production

KISUMU

Thursday, October 26, 2023

KNA by Chris Mahandara

Animal production specialists have been asked to embark on genetic improvement of livestock in the country to scale up milk, leather, and meat production.

State Department for Livestock Principal Secretary (PS) Jonathan Mueke said despite having one of the largest herds in Africa, Kenya’s production along the three value chains remained low.

Genetic improvement, he said, was critical to come up with the right breeds across the regions as the government moves to secure markets for the products on the international market.

By having the right breeds, he said the country stands to benefit immensely from the livestock sector.

The State Department, he said, has set in motion various interventions to scale up production across the three value chains.

“The livestock sector is very key in our Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) which is about creating jobs, reducing poverty, and giving our young people an opportunity to get better livelihoods,” he said.

Through the interventions, he said the state department projects to increase earnings from the leather value chain from the current Sh. 16 billion per year to Sh. 100 billion by the year 2027.

This he said will also see the number of jobs in the sector increase from the current 20, 000 to 100, 000 during the same period.

In the dairy value chain, he said the State Department projects an increase in milk production from the current 4.6 billion liters to 11 billion liters by the year 2027.

On the meat value chain, the state department, he said projects to increase the production from the current 250, 000 metric tonnes per year to 600,000 metric tonnes by the year 2027.

Speaking during the annual Animal Production Society of Kenya (APSK) symposium in Kisumu, the PS pointed out feed production as the biggest challenge affecting livestock production in the country.

The cost of feed, he added, remained high, having a ripple effect on the cost of production making it difficult to compete effectively regionally and on the international market.

He challenged stakeholders in the sector to take advantage of the vast arid and semi-arid land in the country to scale up feed production so the cost of livestock production in the country to come down.

“On feed production, we have a 60% deficit. Out of the 40% that we produce about 20% is lost in post-production,” he said.

The PS further called for collaboration with the county governments to ensure proper animal husbandry.

County governments, he said, must increase resources allocated to animal health and ensure the animals are vaccinated to fetch good prices on the international market.

Courtesy; KNA