Editorial- Need for livestock breeding policy

livestock breeding

 Nigeria has been spending billions of naira on meat and milk importation to complement its short fall demand since time immemorial without a concrete steps taken to checkmate this abnormally despite our ability to structure livestock policy on breeding to ensure maximum productivity. 

This insensitivity to this aspect of Agricultural practice in livestock apart from importation is also posing insecurity challenges to the entire nation as the farmers and the herdsmen are on daily basis fighting and killing themselves for the scarcity of food and water survival for these animals. 

No doubt the long time unpreparedness of Nigeria towards animal feeds and water provision for livestock and husbandry is now taking its toll on our long peaceful existence as none availability of proactive policy on animal production, and general policy somersault in the entire agricultural sector is something of great concern to us especial in this sub sector of agriculture which does not spare breeding policy in the country.

The gap being created by lack of breeding policy is day by day increasing as one of the limitations is limited numbers of animal scientist breeders who are to give professional impetus to livestock in terms of improved production but which reason not too far from no policy could not allow despite the alarming increase in population that is demanding more meat and milk in the face of scarcity.

The importance of effective breeding policy cannot be over emphasized in the increasing productivity of the livestock in the country as the existence of one would promote long term breeding strategies with conservation of the indigenous livestock in the country.

There is no doubt that lack of breeding policy cum funding  has been the reasoning for the dwindling numbers of breeders in many of the research Institutes  as nobody wants to take a carrier where there is no proactive direction due to lack of policy.

We are aware of the call for disbundlement of National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) which many stakeholders in the sub sector believed would create avenue for more funding as about six more Institutes will be created for more specialized specification to productivity as this is another resilience strategy to enhance the sector.

Also the recently organized retreat on livestock and dairy development in the country pondered on  many challenges confronting the sub sector which has necessitated our great concern for the government to speedily respond to having one in order to save the present and future predicament its none availability might cause.

We are not doing ourselves any better by lagging in the operational policy like the Ethiopia who has developed a livestock development master plan to deliberately grow and reposition the sub sector because of its economic potential which Nigeria can as well copy.