Integrated Farming: KFL Launches Low-cost Goat Feed ‘Kerala Feeds Regular’

KOLLAM:
Kerala Feeds Ltd (KFL) today made a new presence in the goat feed market by launching a low-cost product as part of the public sector company’s efforts to encourage goat farming in the state.

KFL Chairman K S Indusekharan Nair formally released ‘Kerala Feeds Regular’ at a function here, taking forward the PSU’s aim to promote a farming culture that combines activities such as vegetable growing, fisheries and poultry amid raising of cows and goats. The new product, manufactured at KFL’s plant in nearby Karunagappally, costs Rs 480 a bag.

A brief video on KFL’s activities was screened on the occasion.

KFL Managing Director Dr B Sreekumar, addressing the gathering, said goat raising was gaining importance today amid widespread encouragement to integrated farming. “We have launched ‘Kerala Feeds Regular’ to offset the absence of a low-cost product in the market. It contains nutrients essential for the growth of goats, their breeding and milk production,” he pointed out. “Already there is ‘Kerala Feeds Malabari Premium’ in the market, but that is to raise goats for their meat.”

KFL, with actor Jayaram as the brand ambassador, is giving cattle feed at low rates to the farmers interested in integrated farming and chosen under the company’s Entrepreneurial Vigour Project. The 1995-founded PSU has undergone several ups and downs, and is today a catalyst in the state’s cattle-feed market. It buys 90 per cent of inputs from outside Kerala, yet regulates the market price by checking steep climbs in the rates of products, Dr Sreekumar said.

The company succeeded in getting close to its turnover target of Rs 500 crore in the last financial year, clocking Rs 496 crore despite the floods that year and subsequently the Covid-19 outbreak. From a cumulative loss of Rs 64 crore in 20161-7, KFL made a profit of Rs 2.37 crore in 2017-18. In the current fiscal, the PSU is running in a profit of Rs 12 crore after the first three quarters, the MD revealed.

Indusekharan Nair highlighted the opening of a plant in Thodupuzha (Idukki district) and fixing three shifts for KFL’s production unit in Kozhikode as the PSU’s recent achievements. The company’s daily production of cattle feed rose from 950 tonnes to 1,750 tonnes in the past five years, he added.

KFL faced the pandemic-time lockdown boldly, reaching out cattle feed to farmers across the state. “We proved to the nation that distribution of cattle feed is an essential service. When several families across the country remained shut, we regulated shifts and went ahead with our operations,” the Chairman recalled.

Raw materials from other states stood still along the roadways during last summer, prompting intervention from Kerala’s Forest Minister K Raju, who is also in charge of Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Milk Cooperatives. Raju talked to ministers of neighbouring states and resolved the stalemate, enabling a long queue of stuck lorries to enter Kerala, the KFL Chairman pointed out.

KFL distributed cattle feed to farmers in 2018 and ’19 when floods affected their livelihood. Similarly, the company reached its products to farmers who struggled to carry out dairying following the outbreak of the coronavirus, he added.

The PSU, which is not solely profit-centric, found 53 fresh distributors last year when its listed sources showed a reluctance to send raw materials. Today, by adhering to e-tender guidelines, any entity can distribute raw materials to KFL, Indusekharan Nair informed.

With focus on improved milk yield and breeding, KFL comes up with high-protein products which undergo a four-phase quality testing from the company gate to the manufacturing plant. The company’s specialties include a state-of-the-art bypass protein plant and an efficient network system across all the 14 districts of the state.

KFL, which is headquartered in Kallettumkara near Irinjalakuda of Thrissur district, produces three varieties of cattle feed, besides feed for goat, hen, rabbit and mineral-rich Keramin and haystacks.