Sinetemba Gebashe turned storm loss into success for her poultry enterprise

High costs for feed threaten poultry producers, but according to Ishmael Sungi, CEO of the South African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (Sacau), this situation could serve as a catalyst for creating a new generation of youth-led enterprises in the production of maize, soy, and feed.

Every increase in poultry feed prices is quickly reflected from the farm to the consumer's table. Producers are forced to reduce volumes, small businesses lose profit, and buyers have to pay more for eggs and chicken.

In many African markets, the problem boils down to a simple fact: feed constitutes the largest expense in poultry farming, often reaching 60–70% of total production costs. When yellow maize and soy become expensive or scarce, it inevitably leads to higher poultry prices.

However, perhaps the real problem is not the high cost of feed, but that Africa has long allowed this obvious market opportunity to remain underdeveloped. Every price jump in feed sends a clear signal: there is a need to increase the production of yellow maize, expand soy cultivation, improve aggregation, build more storage facilities, expand feed production capacity, refine formulation skills, strengthen quality control, establish logistics, and professionalize the entire feed system.

In other words, the poultry feed crisis is not just a cost problem; it is an entrepreneurial gap that a bold young generation of agri-entrepreneurs can fill.

Poultry farming is one of the most accessible ways to enter agribusiness in Africa. It can rapidly create jobs, support women and young entrepreneurs, strengthen rural and suburban economies, and provide affordable protein to millions of households. Nevertheless, poultry farming cannot develop with a weak feed system.

The opportunity lies not in endlessly condemning feed prices, but in creating businesses capable of lowering those prices. Africa must initiate a targeted, large-scale campaign to support youth-led enterprises in the production of yellow maize and soy, feed ingredient aggregation, small-scale feed production, oilseed processing, quality control, sourcing alternative feed ingredients, and last-mile distribution.

However, reliance solely on youth is insufficient. Many youth agricultural programs fail because they romanticize entrepreneurship while ignoring the harsh realities of access to land, finance, mechanization, irrigation, raw materials, storage, quality standards, and markets. If young producers are left to struggle in isolation, most of them will remain at the subsistence level.

A more sensible model involves linking youth enterprises with existing commercial farmers and basic infrastructure. Commercial farmers can provide support through mentorship, mechanization, irrigation, production planning, raw material procurement, drying, storage, quality control, and structured market access.

Young producers bring the ambition, energy, innovation, and urgency of a generation striving to find viable economic paths. Together, they can transform the bottleneck in the feed sector into a full stream of new enterprises.

This is not charity, but sound economics: commercial farmers benefit from expanded production areas, better utilization of equipment and infrastructure, strengthening local supply chains, and more reliable raw material supply; youth enterprises gain access to potential that would otherwise take years to build; poultry producers benefit from improved feed availability; consumers benefit from stabilized prices; and governments benefit from job creation, food security, and strengthening domestic value chains.

For this to work, policy must become much more practical. Governments and development partners must lower the entry barrier for youth enterprises in the feed sector through targeted tax incentives, VAT exemptions, or discounts on critical equipment and raw materials, accelerated depreciation for irrigation and storage assets, grants for feed production aggregation centers and infrastructure, and exemption from tariffs on specialized equipment unavailable locally.

These incentives should not become unlimited handouts. They must be conditional, time-bound, and results-dependent. Support should be provided to youth-owned and managed enterprises that possess credible business plans, real production or sales agreements, participate in approved producer clusters, adhere to quality standards, and demonstrate measurable contribution to local feed ingredient supply. Public funds should attract private investment, not replace it.

The financial system also needs changes. Standard credit products rarely suit agriculture. A young maize or soy producer cannot repay an agricultural loan as if they were working a monthly salary.

Financial instruments for youth agribusiness must incorporate seasonal repayment schedules, preferential rates, deferrals aligned with harvest cycles, and provide working capital, equipment leasing, and credit guarantees. With verifiable sales agreements in place, banks should finance the entire value chain, not just collateral.

Financing through commodity notes can radically change the situation. Instead of forcing young producers to sell grain immediately after harvest at low prices, certified storage and electronic commodity notes allow them to use stored maize or soy as collateral for short-term loans. This improves cash flow, reduces forced sales, strengthens negotiating power over prices, and makes the grain system more formalized and attractive to banks.

Large commercial farmers can also act as wholesale financial intermediaries. Since they often have stronger balance sheets, credit histories, and banking relationships, they can secure larger lines of credit and channel raw materials, mechanization, and working capital to young contractors on a transparent basis.

Debt repayment can be tied to product deliveries, which reduces risks for creditors and increases discipline across the entire value chain.

Digital tools must support the entire system: farmer registration, raw material vouchers, mobile payments, harvest verification, production monitoring dashboards, electronic commodity notes, as well as loan applications and alternative credit scoring systems based on supply data and repayment behavior.

This is how youth agribusiness moves from declarations to real scale.

The stakes are high. If Africa does not solve its feed system problems, poultry producers will remain vulnerable to fluctuations in grain prices, climate shocks, import dependency, and weak local processing capacity. The result will be rising food prices, reduced corporate profits, and missed employment opportunities.

But if action is taken boldly, the same pressure can unleash a wave of youth business in production, processing, aggregation, logistics, consulting services, and digital coordination.

The message is simple: high feed costs should not be viewed only as a poultry industry problem. They should be seen as a challenge for entrepreneurship, a challenge for industrialization, a challenge for youth employment, and a challenge for food security. Then, policies, financing, and partnerships must be created to meet these challenges.

The youth of Africa do not need new slogans about agriculture being the future. They need structured opportunities in real markets. The poultry feed market is one such market. It is large, urgent, and commercially significant.

With proper support, youth enterprises in maize, soy, and feed production can reduce costs, strengthen poultry value chains, create jobs, and make protein more accessible.

The feed crisis has already arrived. The question is whether we will continue to experience it as a constraint or use it as a trigger for a new generation of youth agribusinesses that will feed the poultry sector, feed the economy, and help feed the continent.

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