MALAYSIA TO EXPLORE ALTERNATIVES TO GRAIN CORN

CURRENTLY THE RISING PRICE of chicken in Malaysia was driven by the increase in cost of chicken feed, warrants creative solutions to the problems and relying heavily on feed ingredient imports is no longer a viable choice.  In Kuala Lumpur reported by NST in which the rising prices of chicken, driven by the increase in cost of chicken feed due to the problems and relying heavily on feed ingredient imports is no longer a viable choice. As for Universiti Putra Malaysia's Department of Animal Science and Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security former director Professor Datuk Dr Zulkifli Idrus said feed comprised 70 per cent of broiler production costs and with other inputs being identified as labour, medication and vaccines, as well as utilities. There is an upward trend in the feed cost and it will remain that way for a while. It has gone up from RM2,100 per tonne in January 2021 year to RM2,700 last month May 2022. In addition in which Malaysia reported has one of the highest per capita consumption rates for chicken. He said that it is the third highest poultry meat consumer in the world for about 50kg per capita. Many of us definitely feel the pinch when there is an increase in chicken prices. The price of grain corn in which makes up about half of the feed mix, has gone up from about RM700 per metric tonne in March 2017 to RM1,900 per tonne this month in May 2022. Meanwhile reported the other components for the protein ingredient of chicken feed include Soybean meal (25 per cent of the mix) which it cost about RM1,500 per tonne in March 2017 and compared with RM2,900 per tonne in May 2022. Zulkifli said the soaring prices of animal feed were caused by the surge in farming input costs, including fertilisers used for crops, as well as oil and gas, inevitably eating into chicken producers' profits. Even with the government subsidies on chicken and eggs, some farmers reported that they could barely survive and were forced to shut down operations as he said.

Chicken farmers in Malaysia depend heavily on imports of grain corn and soybean meal and making the poultry industry very vulnerable. While the government has announced its plan to explore grain corn farming and it is a costly venture that could be heavily subsidised. There is a need to start exploring alternatives to grain corn, the main carbohydrate source in the feed mix as claimed by Zulkifli, whose expertise areas are poultry production, as well as animal stress biology and welfare. He said a poultry integrator had shown interest in collaborating with UPM in researching and developing de-shelled palm kernel cake (PKC) to make it less fibrous, which would be easy on chickens' digestive system. It may or could substitute a certain percentage of the grain corn ingredient in the feed mix. Malaysia's oil palm plantations produce huge supplies of PKC, but most are for exports, catering mainly for the European cattle industry. The government might have to review its trade policies should it decide to utilise PKC for domestic use. Zulkifli's past researches included the impact of feeding fermented PKC and high dietary fat to broilers, as well as boosting performance of broilers fed with palm kernel expeller feed fortified with supplements. He had also advocated the use of black soldier fly larvae as a source of protein in chicken feed. Black soldier flies are different from house flies as the former feed on nectar. The black soldier fly larvae feed on wastes. In a way, it could also address waste management issues as it could consume twice its body mass.  The consistency of nutritional quality and however, differs depending on the types of waste fed to the larvae, so they should be controlled. The larvae will be processed into powder form before it can be used. Some people would cringe at the thought of using them as part of feed mix, but in a natural setting, chicken also feed on insects (apart from grains and vegetables). He said the issue did not only concern the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, but it also needed a concerted effort from various agencies to ensure the industry's sustainability and the country's food security. Business should not be as usual, even when the prices of chicken stabilise following the implementation of the government's initiatives, like imports of whole frozen chicken and enforcing ceiling prices. They are temporary measures and not sustainable in the long run. Many locals and consumer hope the government will be persistent in seeking long-term solutions, in particular addressing the poultry industry's dependency on imports of feed grain. Thanks...

By,

M Anem,

Putrajaya,

Malaysia.

(Jun 2022).