Annual animals’ vaccination is a waste of government fund

The usual highly celebrated animals’ vaccination and inseminations across some states in the country has been described as a charade and waste of government resources, an anonymous source told Foodfarmnews.

 

A senior government official under anonymity told FoodFarmnews that the millions of naira annually expended on animals vaccinations and inseminations across the federation are waste of Government fund without accountability, saying it was a professionally error to animals’ management to give profitability.

 

He added that how can any professional justify vaccinations and inseminations of roaming animals in terms of productivity to milk production or even early multiplications in terms of birth towards  giving back value for money running to billions of naira.

 

According to our source ‘’ i want anybody that will give me concrete evidence on the amount of returns the annual money of the Federal and states’ government on the vaccinations and inseminations of animals have given back since the beginning of the jamboree in the name of animal vaccinations. How can any professional justify agronomically the vaccinations and insemination of animals emergently gathered from their roaming for the purpose of the vaccination when such exercise is usually meant for animals that are stationed? Let me tell you professionally, vaccinations and inseminations of animals are meant for stable animals not the ones that are roaming about’’

 

He demanded for the dividend returns of such exercise since inception to justify all they had spent in the past years which no body is asking.

 

Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Mohammed Abubakar has said that Nigeria is yet to achieve annual target of 1.6 billion litres of milk due to continuous movement of animals in search of pasture, adding that the situation adversely had affected animals’ productivity against food security.

 

Dr. Abubakar who was speaking at the launched of National Pasture Development Programme (NAPDEP), Paikon Kore, Gwagwalada, Abuja recently advocated for increased pasture production to checkmate usual animals’ movement about that most time usually resulted to conflict between the pastoralists and farmers due to farmland invasions.

 

“It is therefore, very necessary and top priority that all players in the industry focus on meeting the huge demand for pasture. This will give a great opportunity to unlock the potential of the livestock industry and the development of its rich value chains,” He said.

 

The minister announced that June 28 every year has been set aside by the government as the National Pasture Planting Day, adding that NAPDEP is one of many steps and interventions by the government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to mitigate the conflict, improve the sustainability of food security, national economy and export of livestock products.

 

Ibrahim Nuhu, a herder who spoke with Foodfarmnews stressed that the flag off and distribution of pasture to herders would help against animals being roamed about in search of pastures, adding that the centre must be replicated across the communities having similar issues.