FEEDING THE FUTURE! NAGRC Unleashes AI Revolution in Animal Feed Production on Govt’s 17 Ranches

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By our reporter

The National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank (NAGRC&DB) is an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries that spearheads animal breeding activities countrywide.

Over the years, the agency has provided farmers, farmer groups, youth groups, women groups, etc., with appropriate breeding stock of poultry, piggery, goats, dairy cattle, beef cattle, and fish through its Community-Based Breeding Outreach Program (CBBOP) to support their efforts to engage in profitable livestock-based agro-enterprises.

However, if you have ever dared to start a livestock farming business, then you know that one of the most challenging issues is ensuring that your poultry, pigs, cattle, or goats are consistently well-fed all year round.

This challenge has been further exacerbated by climate change, which is now characterized by prolonged droughts and unpredictable rainfall patterns.

“Animal nutrition is the highest single-cost driver in livestock-based agro-enterprises and in some instances, accounts for up to 85% of all production costs met by livestock farmers,” says NAGRC’s Executive Director.

In August of 2022, NAGRC was one of the government agencies identified and approved to engage in large-scale animal feed production under the food and animal feed security program by H.E. The President of the Republic of Uganda.

With limited mechanization and no irrigation, the agency went on to produce up to 51,692 metric tonnes of corn silage, 9,263 metric tonnes of corn grain, and 192 metric tonnes of soybean from a total of about twelve square miles of its land at Aswa, Got Apwoyo, Maruzi, Lusenke, Kasolwe, Rubona, Ruhengyere, Sanga and Nshaara ranches.

Whereas NAGRC’s Community-Based Breeding Outreach Program has always availed high-value breeding stock of poultry, piggery, dairy cattle, beef cattle, goats and fish to farmers in the form of live animals, semen and/or embryos, more often than not, before H.E. The President’s program of food and animal feed production, beneficiary farmers would experience financial stress and strain in meeting the nutritional requirements of this improved breeding stock, with some instances resulting in failure of promising livestock-based agro-enterprises.

“H.E. The President’s food and animal feed security program supported us to produce 756,400 bags of assorted compounded animal feeds and 51,692 metric tonnes of corn silage that not only made us self-reliant but also empowered us to avail high-quality animal feeds to farmers at subsidized pricing including compounded poultry, piggery and dairy cattle feeds at UGX 1,500 per kg, corn silage at UGX 500 per kg, and a 17kg bale of Chloris gayana hay at UGX 10,000,” expounds the NAGRC Executive Director.

Against this backdrop, NAGRC has set out to further intensify its animal seed multiplication efforts by engaging in highly mechanized animal fodder and feed production.

To this end, the agency has acquired and commissioned heavy-duty agricultural machinery that includes three (3) heavy-duty wheeled agricultural tractors (155hp), six (6) tipper trailers (10-tonne capacity), three (3) heavy-duty primary disc harrows (26 discs), three (3) heavy-duty secondary disc harrows (58 discs), three (3) heavy-duty precision row planters (520kg – maximum seed capacity, 1600kg – maximum fertilizer capacity), three (3) long-range boom sprayers (18m working width), three (3) forage harvesters (3-row) etc.

“This state-of-the-art agricultural equipment will be used in large-scale production of critical animal feed ingredients like maize and soybean that will then be used in the formulation of high-quality compounded animal feeds at our processing plants especially our plant at Kasolwe that now runs at an impressive capacity of 75MT/day,” says the agency’s agricultural engineer.

NAGRC is now focused on rapid multiplication of animal seed supported by large-scale animal feed production.

“With this machinery, we can massively produce feeds for our accelerated livestock breeding programs and our beneficiaries, the livestock farmers. At the moment, we cannot only provide our farmers with improved breeding stock of poultry, piggery, dairy cattle, beef cattle, goats, and fish at subsidized pricing. We have to also avail free feeds to them for the first six months of their agro-enterprises, after which, they should be stable enough to purchase our highly subsidized feeds” the agency’s Executive Director further explained.

He added: “The annual numbers of improved poultry, piggery, cattle, goats, and fish that we are looking to avail to our farmers will be achieved through rapid multiplication of animal seed which in turn requires mechanized production of animal feeds on a large scale to meet the nutrition demand.”

In fact, through its Community-Based Breeding Outreach Program (CBBOP), NAGRC intends to annually offer six (6) million day-old and brooded multi-purpose chicks, 100,000 fast-maturing piglets, 2,000 appropriate dairy cattle crosses, 2,000 appropriate beef cattle crosses, 8,000 appropriate meat goat crosses, and ten (10) million fish fingerlings at subsidized pricing.

“I salute NAGRC, the Ministry of Agriculture, and H.E. The President of the Republic of Uganda for these developments,” said The Minister of State for Animal Industry is Hon. Lt. Col (Rtd) Bright Rwamirama.

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