The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a new livestock feed manufacturing facility in Ethiopia
The facility has been developed through USAID’s grant to Ethio-Feed PLC and will enable suppliers, processors, cooperatives, exporters, financial and service providers to access high nutrition content at subsidised prices, according to local reports in Ethiopia.
Low-cost ingredients from agricultural by-products will be used, such as maize cobs, sugarcane tops and cactus pads. The facility has a daily capacity of 50 quintals per day per shift, and is currently producing 4,000 quintals of processed feed. This will be distributed to smallholder farmers that work out of drought-affected areas in the country.
USAID representative John Edgar said, “The livestock feed manufacturing equipment provided to Ethio-Feed will enable 8,000 farmers in the three woredas to access affordable and nutritious livestock feed. This investment is particularly timely given this year’s drought conditions.”
The newly-opened facility is only second to the one that was launched in the Oromia Region by USAID back in 2014, in partnership with Anno Agro-Industry Farm PLC.
