- Says Nig has highest livestock in W/Afrca
By Chesa Chesa
The Presidential Livestock Reforms Committee has recommended integrated solutions comprising ranching and open grazing in order solve the pastoral challenges affecting the country.
Co-Chairman of the Committee, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said this should subsist while the Federal government promotes long term objective of Intensive livestock production.
He spoke to journalists shortly his committee submitted a 152-page report to the main chairman, President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja on Thursday.
Jega said the policies and frameworks that would accommodate both ranching and open grazing for a period of time while increasing awareness against extensive nature of pastoralism should be encouraged.
“You cannot wake up tomorrow and all you have is ranching because you already have quiet a large chunk of population in traditional pastoral activities. What do you do with them? It is not ‘either-nor’ but any solution that has to be developed now has to be a combination of both
“Why we are promoting long term objective is that we now have intensive live stock production but you know you cannot wake one day and have that, you have to develop policies and frameworks that can accommodate both for a period of time while increasing the objective is to have intensive live stock production not to have extensive in the nature of pastoralism that we have now”, he stated.
“I think some of the challenges we have had in the past that led to the politicisation of the issue is that we are quick to develop a single frame of mind as regards to what the solution is but in a complicated situation that we have to really think interms of incremental positive changes we must to really have time frame within when these will be achieved”, he added.
National Project Coordinator for Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project, Winnie Lai Solari, who also spoke to journalists, stated that recent National Agricultural sample census and the projections by the Federal Department of Animal Husbandry services as quoted by the National Bureau of Statistics 2022, revealed that Nigeria had a total of 563 million poultry, 600 million sheep, 124 million goats, 16 million pigs.
She said that this provides huge opportunities for investors, stressing that “you can imagine the volume of investment you have in the feed industry so investors in the livestock sector, with this pronouncement by Mr President, with this number, Nigeria has the largest number of livestock in West Africa, and we are about about fifth in in the whole of Africa.
“Poultry alone has over 1.7 trillion investment. And what the reforms that we have put in place and the reforms we are proposing will try to do is to move the ruminant side from moving them from 1% in intensive production. Only 1% of our ruminant are read intensively, about 85% extensively. So what does that tell you? 85% are in the hands of of the pastoralists.
“So the reform is to gradually move and spread that production system like we have in the poultry sector, where you have 31% in the intensively, right? If we can balance it, like the co chair has said, is not either or balancing and moving easily so that you have reduced number of animals held extensively and then bringing investors to assure economic growth by investing in these different sectors and the different value chains that you have in the larger sector.”
