Recently there has been an increased demand of soybeans which are used as poultry feed in Tanzania,the increased demand for soybeans by China has caused the prices of animal and poultry feed to rise sharply. This has resulted to poultry farmers and poultry feed industry to supplement there formula by using sardines.
With reference to the Citizen article dated October 19 2021 written by Gadiosa Lamtey the price of 50 kilogrammes of starters for broiler-chicks has risen from TSh68,000 two months ago to TSh75,000 today, largely as a result of an increase in soybean prices in Malawi and Zambia from where feed manufacturers in Tanzania import.
As a result, the demand for chicks by farmers has declined because they are unable to buy feeds for them due to rising prices. However, producers have said there is a need for the government to open up more borders so that soybeans can enter the country at affordable prices as producers have for many years relied only on those two source markets
Reacting to that, the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe, told The Citizen recently that “we cannot ban the export of soybean because it is an opportunity for farmers to improve production – and the government to earn revenues.”
He also said that, to increase production, the government is currently promoting contract farming – among other things – whereby it’s time that animal feeds producers looked into the possibility of entering into contracts with farmers so that they can readily get the raw materials they need.
In ensuring that soybean is available in sufficient quantities, the government has increased production of the seeds, and is also expanding new areas for farming, including in the Lindi and Mtwara regions. But, researchers are at work doing soil analyses so that they can correctly advise farmers accordingly.
Prof Lekule who is an renoewed researcher from the College of Agriculture said that the agents who buy soybeans on behalf of Chinese traders also moved to Zambia and Malawi where they buy large quantities and export them using the Tanzanian brand. But when the two source countries of Zambia and Malawi found this out, they hiked their selling prices as a matter of course.
“Right now, some producers of animal and chicken feeds have turned to using sardines as soy beans substitutes. But, this is a new challenge because sardines transmit many diseases and the farmers are more than likely to incur losses,” Prof Lekule said.
This increase in prices is an opprtunity for farm feed producer to adopt new feed formulars which will have a lower cost