Where does the feed come from ? visiting the mills

In Hoima, often pigs are fed on maize and rice bran, which is referred to commercial feeds. We decide to visit the goodman mill, and discover where the bran comes from.

Farmers bring their rice to the mills for the milling. They can just pay for the milling services, and take back the rice and the bran. The husk is a waste that has no value.
But often they sell their rice or their bran to the mill and the mill trades it with the intermediaries.
The mill also sometimes organize transport to the farms to pick the rice and mill it.

For both product, the rice and the bran there is no problem to market the products

The mills is quite small, so there is no place for storage which is also why the owners are not thinking to mix own pig feeds. Also they don't seem to be worried about the up-coming big feed production mill (from Devenish), they think they will still get the rice business and anyway the bran is just a business with waste.

Off-rice season, the mill processes cassava and make cassava flour.
The manager told us about her vision. She want to improve on her storage and reach higher quality than now. Higher quality of products will allow her package her products and sell to re-seller directly : so adding value.

Clearly the small mills focus on the main products, rice and cassava, and not on the waste that can be fed to pigs. They don't see their role as feed producer, not now and not yet in the future.