Africa’s poultry feed crisis could create a new youth agribusiness opportunity

AFRICA – Africa’s high and volatile poultry feed costs could become an opportunity to expand youth participation in maize, soya and feed businesses, according to Sacau CEO Ishmael Sunga in an opinion article published by Food for Mzansi.

Sunga argues that rising feed costs are putting pressure on poultry producers while exposing a wider need to strengthen local production and supply of key feed ingredients.

Feed is one of the highest costs in poultry production, meaning increases in the price of yellow maize and soya can quickly reduce producer margins and limit expansion. 

For small and medium-sized poultry businesses, unreliable feed supply can add further pressure to already challenging production economics.

Rather than treating high feed costs only as a constraint, Sunga proposes using the challenge to develop new agribusiness opportunities for young people across the feed value chain.

Building local feed ingredient supply

The proposal centres on increasing youth-led production of yellow maize and soya while strengthening aggregation, storage, oilseed processing, feed milling and distribution.

Sunga argues that young people need more than short-term agricultural training or entrepreneurship programmes to enter these businesses. 

Access to land, inputs, mechanisation, irrigation, finance, storage, buyers and technical support would be required to establish commercially viable enterprises.

Commercial farmers could play a central role by becoming anchor partners for youth producer groups, he suggests. 

Rather than operating only as mentors, established farmers could provide access to machinery, irrigation, storage, input procurement, crop production planning, quality control and market aggregation.

Such partnerships could also help address one of the major barriers facing young agricultural entrepreneurs: access to finance.

Sunga proposes that established commercial farmers could use their stronger balance sheets and banking relationships to access larger credit facilities and support youth outgrowers through inputs, mechanisation, working capital and post-harvest services.

The model could give lenders greater visibility over production, repayment and market arrangements while allowing young producers to build their own credit histories and businesses.

Finance and policy support

Sunga also calls for governments, development finance institutions and private lenders to develop more targeted financial and fiscal incentives for youth-led feed value-chain businesses.

These could include concessional production loans, credit guarantees, seasonal financing, longer repayment periods and risk-sharing mechanisms. 

He also highlights warehouse receipt finance as a potential tool for allowing grain producers and aggregators to use stored crops as collateral while avoiding forced sales immediately after harvest.

Policy incentives could extend to investment in irrigation, storage, mechanisation, oilseed processing and feed milling, according to the proposal.

The approach would also need safeguards to ensure young producers retain ownership and economic agency. 

Sunga stresses that youth participants should have transparent contracts, fair payment arrangements, skills transfer and opportunities to build their own assets and market relationships.

The opportunity extends beyond maize and soya production.

Youth-led businesses could also develop around feed milling, ingredient aggregation, oilseed cake supply, alternative feed ingredients, feed advisory services, quality testing, logistics and distribution.

Sunga argues that developing these businesses could help strengthen domestic feed supply in the African feed industry while creating employment and supporting more affordable animal protein production.

The proposal ultimately positions the feed-cost challenge as a potential catalyst for a more integrated, youth-led feed economy, linking crop production and feed manufacturing with poultry production, finance, logistics and markets.

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