An
important part of raising chickens is feeding. It makes up the major part of
cost of production; hence, good nutrition is reflected in the bird's
performance and its products. Compounded feed production in Sri Lanka commenced
with the establishment of government owned feed mill under Ceylon Oils and Fats
Corporation at Seeduwa in late 1950’s with the intention of catering poultry
sector. Although, there were a few private feed mills operating during early
days, there production was small and producing mainly customer mixed feed for
selected farms. Poultry feed ingredients include energy concentrates such as
maize, oats, wheat, barley, sorghum, and milling by-products. Protein concentrates
include soybean meal and other oilseed meals, cottonseed meal, animal protein
sources, grains, and legumes.
In
early sixties, there was only one commercial feed mill in the country but, at
present, there are about fifteen large and medium scale feed mills and
registered compounded feed manufacturers. However, the main portion of
compounded poultry feed marketed in the country is produced by five large scale
and nine medium scales feed millers. This reflects how far, the feed
manufacturing sector is commercialized and organized. Therefore, proper
planning and implementation to develop feed ingredients towards self-sufficiency
is of utmost importance. This objective can be achieved through intensification
of local raw material cultivation and production, identification and production
of substitutes from non-conventional feed ingredients in adequate quantities at
competitive prices. Sri Lanka has already taken initiative effort to cultivate
and produce some of the raw materials locally in order to meet the requirements
of feed millers.
Feed is the main input in the poultry
production system, which occupies almost 60% to 90 % of the production cost. Selection
of the feed ingredient, chemical composition of the ingredients, and the
nutrient requirement of the bird depending on the purpose are the main criteria
in formulating a ration. At
present, the total requirement of compound poultry feed is manufactured
locally. A few large-scale feed manufacturing plants currently supply around 55
percent of total compound poultry feed requirement of the country. Due to high
cost of production and fluctuating farm-gate prices of eggs during the recent
past, there is an increasing trend towards self-mixing of layer feed. There are
over 400 self-mixers in the major poultry processing areas in the Northwestern
province.
Since,
poultry requires concentrated feed of high quality, poultry farmers are highly
depended on commercial compounded feed. Because of rapid expansion of the
poultry sector, the compounded poultry feed production is also increasing with the
demand. Ninety per cent of the total compound feed
production in the country is for the poultry industry while five per cent is
for dairy and the balance five percent for all others in the species. No
increase has been reported in the feed industry for sub sectors other than
poultry .
The
current poultry feed production of Sri Lanka is approximately 499,600 MT
annually in 2010. Either for self-mixing or for commercial production, substantial
amount of raw materials used, are being still imported. Actual compound poultry
feed production by registered feed manufacturers up to 2010 is included in following
table.
Poultry
feed production ('000
MT) 2001- 2010
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
|
426.8
|
440.0
|
465.0
|
460.0
|
450.0
|
462.0
|
480.0
|
464.0
|
454.0
|
499.6
|
Source:
Dept. of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka Customs, Dept. of Animal Production
& Health, 2011
