Education to improve India’s feed sector

Realizing the importance on need for animal feed topics and knowledge a short
course on Feed Technology is being organized by Assocom India
Pvt Ltd in association with ASA-International Marketing
and Department of Grain Science and Industry, Kansas State University from June
23-27.

The five-day long feed manufacturing course is comprehensive and
will cover sections on ingredients, feed formulation, feed manufacturing,
process controls and the feeding of animal feeds. Some problem solving
exercises, videos and panel discussions will also be included to facilitate
interaction and better understanding.

Lectures are given by faculty of
Kansas State University (KSU), Department of Grain Science, resource persons from American
Soybean Association-International Marketing and representatives for the feed
industry and academic institutions.

Huge internal market
The
livestock industry in India is the second largest contributor to Gross Domestic
Product (GDP), after agriculture, and accounts for 9% of the
total.

Consumption of animal products will substantially increases in
coming days and this is driven by lifestyle changes and a growing
economy.

Milk consumption will increase from 240 to 450 g per person per
day; per capita eggs from 40 to 100 per year; and per capita broiler meat from
1,000 to 2,000 g per year.

In view of the expected rise in per capita
consumption of chicken meat, eggs and milk, livestock production has to grow in
large strides to meet demand.

Feed industry to improve
For
this, feed is obviously the major component involved in terms of technology and
cost. The feed industry thus plays a major role in providing the balanced feed
for increasing the animal productivity.

The Compound Livestock Feed
Manufacturers Association (CLFMA) from the feed sector have a total installed capacity of
over 10 million metric tonnes per year and produce about 4 million tonnes of
animal feed per year.

The total estimated requirement of balanced feed in
the country is around 60 million tonnes.

Layer feed
chances
While the broiler feed segment is at technological threshold and
requires creative solutions to improve further, there is relatively greater
scope for feed improvements in the layer segment.

As for livestock,
animals are fed with a small quantum of concentrates and feeding of productive
animals, though relatively better, they still have to be fed with balanced
nutritious diets to harness full potential.

Shrimp feed, like the
broilers is on a better scale of development while the fish feed market holds
good scope for use of formulated feeds.

Therefore the Indian Feed
Industry is all set to grow in order to catch up with growing demands of
livestock production and combat rising prices of raw
material.

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