Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development
Governor ofKatsina
State
Vice Chancellor
NAPRI Director
Your Excellences
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I do not recall being to a more
beautiful place in Nigeria than today.
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The MoU between NAPRI and Arla is the
perfect examples of successful Public Private Partnership. The MoU is based on
the MoU between Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Arla.
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Inauguration of the Milking Parlour here
at NAPRI is a big step towards business based milk production here in Kaduna
State and Nigeria.
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On our way to NAPRI today most of us has
seen cattle on the fields, which are managed through traditional cattle rearing
principles in Nigeria, which means they are fed from what Nature provides in
the neighbourhood and water from creeks or wells.
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The capacity of milk production from
this production system is very limited, due to lack of feed and water
especially in the dry season.
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Due to the lack of feed, due to the
origin of the feed and waters it is difficult to produce milk which fulfil
international food safety requirements for milk products.
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Changing milk production from a cultural
based herd management into a business model based on data registration is a
huge and challenging task.
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The MoU between the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Denmark, Arla Foods (better nown as Dano Milk) and FMARD is an
agreement on cooperation for changing the local milk production into a business
based milk production format, this in order to be sustainable for both the
farmers and milk processors.
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From the very beginning of the project,
the Danish Government decided to support this transformation for capacity
building of farmers to ensure the profitability for the farmers and hope that
it will make it possible for the herdsmen to settle as farmers in the north.
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The support for the project is given
through anEmbassy programme, called DANIDA Partnership Program, which provide
money for teaching and knowledge sharing with the farmers how to improve milk
production. The project is naked “The Milkyway Partnership” and involves Dano
Milk, Care, SEGES, Food& Agricultural Council.
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At the inauguration today we see the
technical part of the project, which is a Milking Parlour, which makes it
possible to milk the cows and keep the milk in a closed environment,cool it
directly after the milking. This process is essential factors for producing high
quality milk, which to be processed into milk products of international
standard.
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But the milking is just the “harvest” of
many factors, which have to be created on a dairy farm. NAPRI is already
working with a number of the factors, which gives a good milk production.
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The farmer needs to be aware of having
the right cows. Meaning cows with a great milking potential.
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The capacity program will teach farmers
how to select the best cows and then improve the cow breeds through selection
and cross breeding with cattle with higher milk potential and it will show
farmers how to feed their cows in both rainy and dry season, to ensure milk
production all year around.
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The Milking Parlour is a key instrument
in this development, due to the fact that milk yield for every cow is registered
every day. This means the plans for feeding and reproduction of the cows can be
based on data registered in the system, so optimal conditions can be achieved
for the cows.
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The capacity building is very much about
settling the cows for milking Ana avoid migrating cows, to ensure that the feed
and water intake comes from controlled resources of good quality.
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At today’s inauguration here at NAPRI, a
lot of the element can be seen in action, and we will be looking forward to see
the system expanded in the near future.
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We are working with the National
Livestock Transformation Programme to develop milk models for farms, to have
herdsmen settle as farmers, in order to minimize grazing from cows in
agricultural areas.
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We are pleased to see a lot of these
activities are performed through a number of local partnerships with FMARD,
Kaduna State, Milcopal, NAPRI, Zaidi Farms, CORET, Propcom Ma-Karfi and more to
come.
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One of the key
objectives for the programmes are to create a sustainable livelihood for the
men, women and children of Nigeria and thereby humbly contribute to peace and
stability in this beautiful country.
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