World Milk Day Celebrations 2023: Advantages for Nigeria’s Dairy Industry by Dianabasi Akpainyang

The first of June every year is set aside by the United Nations as World Milk Day to celebrate the global dairy industry’s contribution to nutrition, livelihoods, and the environment. Since the inception of the commemorations in the Year 2001, celebrations have varied in theme and content globally.

In Nigeria, stakeholders in the dairy industry have used that platform to reflect and consider transformational strategies to pursue and attain sufficiency in milk and dairy products. 

This year, in keeping with the tradition of World Milk Day Celebrations, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), in collaboration with the Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria (CODARAN), the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition Limited is organising mega celebrations to showcase the critical role of the dairy industry in sustaining livelihoods and economic development.

The Nigerian dairy industry holds huge economic potentials. It is unarguably a goldmine of investment opportunities that assure optimal returns for investors. These opportunities exist within the broad areas of milk production, aggregation, storage, processing, and marketing. However, within the value chain, there are numerous challenges which have contributed to the low performance of the sector when appraised in line with its potential.

There are significant challenges at the milk production level – the upstream sub-sector of the dairy value chain. The productivity of local cow breeds mostly managed by pastoralists is low at 0.5 to 1.5 litres of milk per day, compared to a global average of 6.6 litres per day by cows managed by pastoralists. The output from Nigeria’s managed pastures – an average of 8 litres per day is also a far cry from the global average of 30 litres per day. These are according to a recent (2019) report on the dairy sector published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Lactating cows are also poorly fed by smallholder dairy farmers. These largely nomadic herders traverse the country in search of available forage and water sources and pay little or no attention to the nutritional content and suitability of the feed and water their cows consume. Poor nutrition translates to low milk quality and quantity, leading to low income.

Other challenges within the milk production space are poor animal disease management; with pastoralists lacking access to proper veterinary services for their cattle. There is also the low adoption of technology in production as the pastoralists stick to outdated animal husbandry practices and do not possess the financial capacity required to adopt new technology.

The Midstream Sub-Sector – Nigerian Dairy Sector’s Weakest Link

The most crippling challenges in the dairy sector are found in the midstream sub-sector of the dairy value chain. This, in practical terms refers to all the activities that take place after the milk is extracted from the cow to when it gets to a processing facility or the open market. These activities include milk collection, aggregation, storage, and transportation. The level of public and private investment in this important part of the dairy value chain is abysmally low. To state the obvious, even if the capacity of the upstream (production) sub-sector is enhanced and increased, the inefficiencies of the midstream sub-sector would still cause wastages and keep Nigeria largely dependent on imported milk – spending over $1.5bn (according to a report by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2020) to import about 70 percent of its milk needs.   

Lack of organised milk collection schemes, high cost of milk collection and cold chain facilities, poor transportation infrastructure, unstable or non-existent electricity supply, pervasive insecurity, and low access to finance are some of the challenges that affect smooth operations in the midstream aspect of the dairy sector.

The processing and marketing aspect (downstream) of the dairy value chain also faces the threats of low investments, poor access to finance and a weak regulatory environment.

World Milk Day 2023 – Opportunity to Address Dairy Sector’s Crippling Pain-Points

The annual World Milk Day celebrations have been used by stakeholders to raise awareness on the nutritional value of milk and to celebrate the contributions of the dairy sector to sustainability, economic development, livelihoods, and nutrition. On May 31, 2023, this is exactly what the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the other stakeholders will seek to achieve with the full-day event with school children in Abuja. Lectures on the need to consume milk and the nutritional value that the product offers will be delivered by nutrition experts to the children. They will also be taken round the exhibition stands where representatives of livestock and dairy companies would be on hand to provide further information on the value of milk and dairy products.

Furthermore, on June 1, when the world will unite in celebrating the value of milk, stakeholders led by the Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria (CODARAN) will converge to make recommendations on how to address one overbearing challenge of Nigeria’s dairy industry – access to finance. Under the theme: Pathways to Financing Nigeria’s Milk Revolution,” experts, dairy industry practitioners and policymakers will recommend practical funding options that would work for Nigeria in the quest to achieve self-sufficiency in milk production. The challenge of low access to patient capital to cater for the long term nature of dairy investments stalls investment activities within the entire dairy value chain. 

From lack of long term funds for startup of new dairy businesses and for existing businesses to expand production activities, to lack of capital for commercial fodder production, breed improvement, animal health management, purchase and maintenance of farm equipment, storage and cold chain facilities, there remains a yawning gap within the sector which only strategic financing can fill. The World Milk Day Conference will offer the platform to recommend and adopt these strategic financing models for Nigeria.

The venue of the two-day event is Abuja Trade and Convention Centre, KM 8, Airport Road, Lugbe, Abuja and interested participants should register at www.codaran.org/wmd2023 to attend. Another moment of great impact beckons.