Prof. Eustace Iyayi |
Can
you give a rundown of your mandate?
The Institute has a major mandate to
regulate all issues related to animal husbandry practice in Nigeria. Our core
mandates are three viz; Professional Regulation (Professional resource
Verification and Accreditation of Animal Science Departments in Nigerian
Universities); Industry Regulation and Advocacy. For Industry regulation, we
regulate all the processes involved in the production animals. This includes
feed, housing, specialized equipment's and transportation of animals. For
advocacy we liaise with the relevant stakeholders in the livestock industry
through organized workshop to let them know the advantages of adhering to
standards in their operation and also to best practices.
What
role can NIAS play in the mitigation of pastoralist-farmers clash?
NIAS supports the resuscitation of
existing grazing reserves and actually making them functional. The maintenance
of existing pasture corridors and establishment of new ones after due
consultation among all stakeholders can help. But more than these the establishment
of ranches perhaps is the long term solution to the problem. The pastoralists
need to be educated on the need to sedentarize their animal rearing practices.
This will enable them benefit from the new techniques for fodder production
such as hydroponics (growing fodder in solution in green houses) or vertical
fodder farming (growing of fodder in stacks, which are built up like a story
building). Both require the use of very minimal land and ensure the production
of fodder that can feed large herd of animals. NIAS has been involved with the
Federal Ministry of Agric and Rural Development in the past in the
resuscitation of grazing reserves. The Institute also has members who have
expert knowledge in the establishment of hydroponic farming, vertical farms as
well as container farming.
Who,
between the Animal Scientists and the Vets have the absolute right to register
poultry farmers?
The NIAS Acts makes it clear NIAS is
responsible for the regulation of animal husbandry practice in the country. This
includes registration of feed mills (Commercial and Toll millers), feed
business premises, poultry farms and all other farms involved in the production
of other breeds of farm animals. Because the product is as good as the process
producing it, the place where the animals are produced, what they are fed with,
who the professionals are that handle the production of the feed and manage the
animals, the housing type are all regulated by NIAS as mandated in our Acts. We
also register the hatchery that produces the day-old-chicks. We do have the
standard operating procedure (SOP) for hatchery and minimum standards for feed
mills and poultry farms.
No comments:
Post a Comment