Chidimma Uchegbu – Abuja
The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to dairy development programmes in the country with a view to promoting local milk production and reducing importation.
The Minister of Livestock Development Idi Mukhtar stated this when a delegation from the French Development Agency (AFD) led by its Country Director,Xavier Muron and Members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) visited the Minister in Abuja.
The Minister explained that the dairy development programme will be private sector driven, adding that it is one of the pillars of the Nigeria Livestock Grouth Acceleration Strategy (NL-GAS), a guiding document for the Ministry’s operations.
He identified some challenges faced by the local dairy production, such as collection and storage facilities, cost of transportation, and logistics , among others.
According to the statement signed by the Director, Information and Public Relations, Ben Bem Goong stated that Maiha also disclosed that some state governments have already keyed into the transformation plan of the livestock sector in Nigeria, by providing land, a key factor of production required in livestock development.
He emphasized the need for pasturarist to patronise grazing reserves, where arrangements are being made for breed improvement, disease management, pasture cultivation so as to avoid the movement of animals from one place to another inorder to minimise farmer/hearder clashes.
“We don’t want movement of animals from one place to another, due to issues of insecurity associated with the search for grazing land.
He assured the team of the Ministry’s support towards transforming the sector, adding that Nigeria has the market because of the large population of children, which stands at about 47 million
Country Director of the French Development Agency (AFD) Xavier Muron, in his remarks, stated that his Agency has dairy value chain and pasture programmes with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
Muron said, “our objectives are to support local milk production, plans to reduce importation, as well as encourage backwards integration in all West African Countries.”
He disclosed that the Agency is making arrangements towards supporting the local milk producers in the country through grants.
