‘Experimental Grazing In 11 States Will Improve Dairy Production’

Grazing

It is lamentable that despite the huge need for diary and milk consumption Nigeria can barely produce its daily needs as a result of differing ecology and poor production.
The result is the shortfall which has led to some of the high import dependence and bills in milk Nigeria has slided into. As a result the federal government has indicated an urgent need to begin experimental grazing in 11 states of the federation to improve dairy production, Ruth Tene Natsa writes.

Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja recently, the minister for agriculture and rural development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, listed the states for the experimental grazing to include Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Katsina, Taraba, Niger, Adamawa, Jigawa, Sokoto and the Federal Capital Territory.

This is even as he announced that the shortfall in dairy production was costing Nigeria about $1.3 billion annually in imports .

In recent times the clashes between herdsmen/farmers has left many wondering what the reasons for this clashes were, and while some have alleged poor ecologies in the north, some have blatantly blamed governments for failing to create grazing routes to meet the herdsmen demands.

Sadly, some states, out of fear of attacks, have pointedly opposed any efforts to create grazing routes/reserves in their states even though, beef, cow skin (pomo), intestines, milk and various other benefits of cattle products are eaten by both children and adults in almost all parts of the country; this is aside the benefits of hides and skins which are a huge economic resources to dealer, particularly in the north.

Stakeholders have also argued that the experimental grazing is necessary if the national school feeding programme is to succeed as currently the country is not producing sufficiently to meet the demands when the programme commences nationwide. They are optimistic that the project will generate the demand and the market for farmers who are into cattle and egg production.

Ogbeh  observed that  despite the 2011 National Agricultural Sample Survey on Animal Census, which had indicated that Nigeria was endowed with an estimated 19.5 million cattle, 72.5 million goats, 41.3 million sheep, 7.1 million pigs and 28,000 camels,  the nation was lacking in terms of protein and milk production. Additionally, he hinted that the country had 145 million chickens, 11. 6 million ducks, 1.2 million turkeys and 974,499 donkeys, noting, however, that “this impressive statistics which had made Nigeria number one in livestock in Africa had neither met the national demand for animal protein nor contributed to the gross domestic product over the years.”

He was, nonetheless, optimistic that the challenges can be redressed through improved agriculture, poultry and dairy production among other efforts and assured that government is set to commence the experimental grazing in 11 states towards improving production.

Decrying the low milk production where a cow in Nigeria produces one litre of milk a day while a cow in Saudi Arabia or Brazil produced 30 to 40 litres, he said, “The federal government is set to begin experimental grazing in 11 states where lands worth 55,000 hectares had been volunteered for the purpose.

Saudi Arabia produces 4.7 million litres of milk daily while Nigeria imports about $1.3 billion worth of milk annually to make up for the deficit. The way forward to improving our livestock and dairy industry is to intensify efforts on adding value to the industry along the respective livestock value chains,” he said.