In spite of the fact that, Nigeria is host to about20 million cattles, its spends a whopping $1.3 billion in the importation of milk annually, analysts at Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited have lamented.
Nigeria is a major producer of livestock (cattle and goats) in Sub-Saharan Africa but is the largest importer of milk in the region, with an annual importation bill of $1.3 billion.
“The country’s cattle population is estimated at 20 million. However, only 2.3 million cattle (11.5 per cent) are utilized for dairy production”, said FDC.
Enhancing cross-breeding capacity, improving access to pasture and water and setting up of milk collection centers are some strategies that could be adopted to increase milk production. This would help the country achieve self-sufficiency in milk production and support the on-going economic diversification agenda.
The reason for the low production of milk is that cows in Nigeria produce just about 1.5 to 2 litres of milk per day compared to cows in Kenya which produce up to 30 litres per day and cows in Israel which produce between 45 and 60 litres of milk per day.
In Israel, there are over 520,000 sheep and goats, and the standards for ruminant dairy farming are just as high as the standards for cows. Israel’s goats produce over 11 million litres of milk every year.
Similarly, in August 2018, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization introduced a new high yielding goat breed (Galla Buck) that can produce up to eight litres of milk a day, four times more than what other goats yield and is good for meat production. For Nigeria, unfortunately, virtually nothing in terms of milk comes from Nigerian goats and sheep while many countries are exporting cheese.
