• There is no shortage of chicken feed on the market, feed is available in plenty numbers.
• Maize bran is used by the traders that are selling broilers to sustain the chicken before it is sold.
• The challenge is on number three meal.

Poultry Association of Zambia (PAZ) says there is no shortage of commercially produced chicken feed on the market but limited supply of the number three meal, also called Gaga, or maize bran.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Association Executive Director Dominic Chanda explained that maize bran is used by the traders that are selling broilers to sustain the chicken before it is sold, while the feed that poultry farmers use to grow the birds is readily available on the market.
Mr. Chanda attributed the number three meal challenge being experienced by chicken traders to lack of adequate maize being taken into the mills as Gaga is a by-product of mealie meal production.
“There is no shortage of chicken feed on the market, feed is available in plenty numbers. The challenge is on number three meal, which is called Gaga. The number three meal challenge that we have seen is because there is no plenty maize being taken into the mills.”
“When you take a kilogram of maize into a mill, you have 80 percent of that which is about maybe 800 grams mealie meal and then the 200 grams which is a 20 percent is the number three meal, but the feed itself is available in all outlets,” Mr. Chanda stated.
And Mr. Chanda said lack of maize bran has no effect on chicken prices but the only implication is that the chicken will start losing weight on the market because traders will keep it for one or two days before selling the bird, hence the need for traders to buy commercial feed.
“There is no implication of not having Gaga as long as the feed is available, the only thing that we may see is that, because traders will keep the chicken for one or two days before they sale, definitely if the chicken doesn’t have that gaga to sustain it as an alternative to the commercial feed, it will start losing weight on the market and not from the farm.”
“So the traders now should go and buy commercial feed and put in the crates because commercial feed is there. Gaga is not a very good feed in itself to feed the chickens because it is not a complete feed, what is needed is to give the chicken complete feed which is commercially produced,” he added.
Mr. Chanda was commenting on reports suggesting that there is a shortage of chicken feed on the domestic market.