Grass imports: Minister surprised says NAPRI boss

Executive Director, National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) Prof. C.A.M Lakpini

The Executive Director, National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) Prof. C.A.M Lakpini has said that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh was surprised to learn the imported grasses by the ministry were available in the country saying he has instructed his centre to embark on establishing a pasture farm in three states of the federation for the purposes of generating feeds for animals with other facilities. Read his excerpts in an exclusive interview with Food Farm News.

Can we meet you sir and what type of grass do we have in Nigeria?

I am Prof.A.M. Lakpini, the Executive Director of the National Animal Production Research Institute, Ahmodu Bello University Zaria. We have a lot of grasses, we have those that are indigenous in the nature and we have those of them that are imported from different parts of the world, over 30 to 40 years ago, from Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and other parts of the world as we have carried out some agronomic studies on them with evaluation in terms of germination and nutritional values to animals in the different parts of the country. We have done all these evaluation and those that are successful have been well established in different part of the country. And those that have not done well, we have discarded them because not all species of grasses can do well in all areas of the country.

During the Minister of Agriculture’s visit to Zaria we learnt that the issue of grass is brought to the know of the Minister, what was his reaction?

Honestly he was surprised, he never knew we had those grasses and he was really impressed and wished he had visited NAPRI much earlier than now. He said we would have been able to make contribution towards preventing the problems that we have been facing between the livestock farmers, herdsmen and the crop farmers. So he expressed regret that he didn’t come earlier to see the potential that can be used to solve this problem, especially by providing pasture feeds for the animals. In fact he has commissioned us to establish pastures in three states on small level, and we have already been in contact with him,giving him estimates and we are still talking, preparing to go into action, looking at what is required to be able to establish the pastures.

What are we doing as regards having a milk collection centre in the country?

Well the issue of milk collection centres involve creating awareness among the pastoralists, making them to know that they have more benefits in coming together as small groups or what you may call clusters, having centres for them to bring their milk for sale and payment  instead of hawking the milk around. So the first thing is to create awareness.  Second to organize them into cooperative groups and thirdly to provide storage for the fresh milk as you know that milk is highly perishable.  There is need for cold room where you will keep the milk and you must have refrigerated vans to transport the milk from collection points to processing points.

How soon will the livestock modern farm in NAPRI start operating?

This depends on funds, and the sooner we have funds the sooner we get starting with the project. This is because we have already had everything, land is available but fund is the limiting factor. We need machinery to clear the area, constructions to be made for the animals that are going to be housed, the site is already surveyed, and fund is what we are waiting for to kick off.

How much are we looking at to situate the mega farm?

It is a lot of money, because it is going to be an integrated system, which will accommodate three animals, the beef animals, sheep and goat, and the poultry. We are going to plant pastures and we intend to revive the dam which has been broken down for the purposes of irrigation, and it’s not going to be possible to take off at the same time, but it can start in phases, for the beginning we might be talking of 1.5 to 2billion naira to be able to take off and the other things can gradually follow.