Feelers from the agriculture ministry indicate plans of 200 artificial insemination centres across the country all aimed at boosting the livestock need of the country as JOHN OBA reports.
At a recent meeting the Federal Government and Ireland Republic expressed strong commitment to partner on improved cattle breeding to address dairy deficits such as milk, meat and other dairy products.
This is even as the Nigeria government has also disclosed that it will establish about 200 artificial insemination centres across the federation as part of efforts to improve on livestock production.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh during a meeting with delegation of the Ireland Trade Mission to Nigeria and Ghana, who visited the ministry in Abuja said the government would establish the centres through Public Private Partnership (PPP) and kick start irrigation fields to reduce cattle migrations.
Ogbeh harped on technology transfer from the delegation, stressing that such partnership would encourage youths into agriculture.
Said he: “The area we want your partnership is the livestock. We have cattle breeding problem. We need to improve the breeding of cattle. Our cattle produce less than 1 liter of milk. So we will embark very seriously on artificial insemination inputs. We will start as a public private programme with at least 200 canters across the country including the south east and south west.
“We also need to address cattle migrations because it is causing real problems in the country. The cattle are moving around from north to the south, across the desert encroaching at 2 kilometers per hour. We are looking at massive irrigation of fields, plant particular kinds of grass to prevent real migration.”
The minister who decried a situation where cattle produces one or less litre of milk per day in the country, said 37 percent of Nigerian children was said to be malnourished according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). He noted that the present administration was ready to collaborate with the developed countries particularly the Irish government in its effort to move the Agricultural sector forward.
He said various initiatives and technical programmes would be introduced to attract young people who form the highest population in the country into agricultural sector, noting that the sector had hitherto been left to the older people.
According to him, about 17 million cows roam around the country, adding that the nation would appreciate further supports on cattle processing.
He stated need for an increased livestock production considering increasing population of the country.
Earlier, the Irish Minister of Food, Marine and Defence, Mr. Simon Coveney said Ireland was ready to partner Nigeria to develop local capacity on food production and its value chains.
“I have never seen a country in the world in terms population growth and great fertile land as it’s the case here. So it is a question of organization, partnerships and skill service that I hope will be shared.
He said the Ireland republic would soon become the world largest producer of dairy products in the next 10 years, thus ready to share knowledge with local farmers.
Coveney said: “On beef, we have more beef cattle than we have people in Ireland and we understand properly more about our cattle than we understand our people. Let the truth be told. We have traceability system that as soon as cattle is born, we know in the department of agriculture and we follow through its life cycle.
“So if you buy Irish piece of meat, we can tell you from the label what farm yard it was produced in. So that type of livestock management can certainly be replicated in templates and modules here.
That can attract young men into the industry. These are valuable lessons we can share.
“I will like to see our companies work in partnership with Nigerian
companies thereby learning from the mistakes we made. Don’t forget we moved from a country that could not feed itself to a country that now produces food 10 times than its population.
“Ireland has become agriculture and food technology specialist in the European Union and globally. We want to share that knowledge of technologies through our companies and in agriculture. For instance, we will like to invite, if any of your officials want to come and work with us for about six months on agriculture knowledge about food safety, food controls, import and export controls and supervised by someone in my department to ensure quality safety standards.”