The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: livestock

  • Livestock sector, an investment worth N33tn to Nigeria’s Economy

     

    Nigeria’s livestock sector has the potential to add N33tn worth of investments to the country’s economy, the Federal Government has said.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, who said this to the media in Abuja on Saturday evening, stated that the Federal Government was working hard to ensure the release of this huge investment into the economy.

     

    He said, “Just this week in Kano, I inaugurated the pilot scheme of the National Livestock Breed Improvement Initiative aimed at increasing the diary potential of our indigenous dairy cows and meat yield of our national herd.

     

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    “The livestock sector has a huge economic potential netting N33tn which should be explored and harnessed.”

     

    He said the goal of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was to facilitate economic diversification from an oil based economy to an agro based economy.

     

    Nanono stated that to achieve this, the FMARD had commenced the implementation of agricultural mechanisation aimed at massive cultivation and output.

     

    He said, “This will ensure that we have more than enough to feed the population and export to neighboring countries. We are also deepening our extension services to grow the agricultural sector and make farming an informed profession.

     

     

    “We’ve inaugurated a compact and viable livestock subsector capable of sustaining the supply of beef and dairy demands of the nation for consumption, processing industry and export.”

     

    In another development, the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association raised an alarm that the activities of uncertified animal care givers were slowing down the growth and development in the livestock subsector.

     

    NVMA is regulated by the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

     

     

    Speaking on the side-lines of the association’s leaders’ summit in Abuja, the Acting National President, NVMA, Ibrahim Shehu, told journalists that the livestock sector had been having problems with quacks.

     

    He said, “We have been having issues with quacks, people parading themselves as veterinary doctors but are not licensed to practice by the Veterinary Council of Nigeria and are not registered with the NVMA.

     

    “They have been giving us problems in delivering quality animal healthcare services for the adequate development of livestock in the agricultural sector.”

     

    Shehu said this posed a great danger to the Nigerian economy as quacks were giving wrong prescriptions for animal care, leading to recent resurgence of anti-microbial resistance in the livestock subsector.

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.punchng.com

  • Cattle Breeders Association Criticizes herders census in the country

    Cattle Breeders Association Criticizes herders census in the country

    An association of pastoralists, the Kulen Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, has criticised the proposed herders/livestock census in the country.

    The association, in a statement on Monday by its National President, Khalil Mohammed, said the proposed census agreed to by another group, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, was in bad light.

    Mohammed alleged that the MACBAN leadership initiated the herders/livestock census during a meeting with some southern governors in Akure, Ondo State.

    He stated, “Though we are not objecting to people’s freedom of speech/expression of their opinions in all matters of national interest as stipulated in our well cherished constitution and in the United Nation Charter of 1945, but as one of Nigeria’s pastoralist stakeholders, who are keenly interested in anything related to the nation’s pastoral occupation, we strongly oppose and reject in totality anything to do with isolationism or exclusive counting of any tribe in Nigeria through the herders/livestock census as opined by one of our sister association.

    “Our condemnation and strong objection to the said whimsical or myopic proposed counting has to do with the following tentative reasons: It is the first time in the history of Nigeria that a single tribe out of over 200 tribes initiates to be singly counted for a reason only known to itself; the herders will be cocooned and marooned in their fatherland by restricting their free movement in their struggle for survival in search of animal pasture and water points for their livestock.”

    Mohammed lamented that the proposed census negated the nation’s constitution, which stated that no tribe name would be mentioned during conduct of any census.

    He added that the counting and documentation of herders and their livestock at this time of serious unrest would make them to be seen as criminals in the eyes of other Nigerians.

    Mohammed, while stating that the outcome of the census would be disputed by everyone, said, “Above all, according to Nigeria’s rigid constitution, it is only the National Population Commission that is responsible for carrying out population census and not an individual group.

    “Likewise, it is only the Directorate of Animal Husbandry Services of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development that is responsible for conducting census or estimation of the country’s livestock.”

    Source: www.punchng.com