The 2023 World Milk Day celebration has brought to light the investment potentials in Nigeria’s dairy sector. Stakeholders have called for more investment and development of indigenous dairy breeds; JOHN OBA reports.
The World Milk Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to recognize the importance and contribution of the dairy industry to nutrition, livelihoods, and the environment.
Since its inception 22 years ago, celebrations have varied in theme and content globally.
In Nigeria, stakeholders in the dairy industry have used the platform to reflect and consider strategies to pursue in order to attain sufficiency in milk and dairy products.
2023 celebration
This years’ celebration was mega as several big time players in the industry came together to mark the day. They elucidated the importance of the sector in the economic life of the nation.
It all started when the Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria (CODARAN), Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nigeria (ACCI) and SAHEL Consulting, Agriculture and Nutrition Ltd, all indicated their interest to mark the day, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, then advised that all should come together to make the celebration mega with the invitation of Agriculture Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ACAN).
The two-day event with the theme “Sustainable Dairy, Good for Planet, Good for you”,drew participants from the MDAs, State Governments, research and academic institutions, professional bodies, private and international organizations, and the media including industry practitioners, policy makers, and development partners.
The event presented opportunity for the sensitisation of students from various schools and other stakeholders on the nutritional benefits of milk and creation of awareness on the practice of animal husbandry in primary and secondary schools and the importance of appropriate financing of the sector.
All the stakeholders acknowledged the importance of the world milk day held in Abuja and the nutritional benefit of milk in human diet, its socio-economic importance in national development, the need to evolve indigenous technologies for self-reliance and called for support for every move to ensure safe and sustainable dairy production in Nigeria.
The Discussions at this year’s celebration centered on “Pathways to Financing Nigeria’s Milk Revolution”
Nigeria’s diary potential
Stakeholders acknowledged the importance of the world milk day and the nutritional benefit of milk in human diet, its socio-economic importance in national development, the need to evolve indigenous technologies for self-reliance and the need to ensure safe and sustainable dairy production in Nigeria.
The critical roles of milk and milk products in food and nutrition security and how it eliminate malnutrition in children; while the huge potentials of the dairy sector for national sufficiency, wealth and job creation and export was noted.
Speaking during the opening celebration, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe, said the investment potential of the sector is evidenced in the call by the federal government for all Nigerians to take a commercial look at agriculture generally and dairy in particular for its inherent benefits in animal protein self-sufficiency, improvement in household incomes, job creation and reduction in food importation.
President of the Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria (CODARAN), Alhaji M.D Abubakar, said the Nigerian dairy industry holds huge economic potentials saying it is a goldmine of investment opportunities that assures optimal returns for investors.
“These opportunities exist within the broad areas of milk production, aggregation, storage, processing, and marketing. However, within the value chain, there are numerous challenges which have contributed to the low performance of the sector when appraised in line with its potential.”
According to the National President, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Hussaini Bosso, Nigeria would not need to import any raw or powder milk if it properly harnessed the huge number of cattle in the country.
He said with over 60 million cattle within the country, the sector with appropriate investment would create millions of direct and indirect jobs.
Developmental efforts
The Permanent Secretary said attempts by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and its partners to intensify backward integration, look inwards and develop the country’s indigenous dairy industry in line with government policy on increased use of local content has started yielding positive results.
He said the ministry under the Dairy Development Programme is collaborating with National and International Stakeholders such as Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, L & Z, Milcopal, Sebore, Delifrost, Kano Dairies, FC – WAMCO, Arla Food Ltd, Danone Ltd among others to promote commercial and peri – urban small holder dairy production while not losing sight of improving the productivity of pastoralists that still form the bulk of our milk production in Nigeria.
“This collaboration in particular is yielding fruits with the increased interest in modern milk production in Nigeria.”
According to him, the ministry is engaging in capacity building and empowerment programmes for dairy farmers on hygienic milk production and processing; construction and equipping of milk collection centres in areas with comparative advantage for dairy, feed-milling facilities for production of ruminant feeds, pasture collection centres, animal handling centres, cattle feedlots, climate smart poultry and goat houses, among others.
He said the ministry also organised and supported capacity building on pasture production, processing and conservation nationwide; support artificial insemination of dairy cows to improve milk production and cattle breeds under the National Livestock Breed Improvement Programme (NALBIP); hand holding of pastoralists to form groups/clusters to increase volume of milk.
Also, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Director, Development Finance Department, Mr. Philip Yila Yusuf, said the apex bank had invested over N40 billion in dairy sub-sector from 2020 till date.
He said the bank made the investments through its various intervention programmes in the dairy value chain.
Yusuf who was represented by Mr. Hassan Tom, Assistant Director, said the country is currently producing 600,000metric tones of milk while the local market demand is 1.7million tonnes, leaving the supply gap of 1.1million metric tonnes.
He stated that such interventions by the Apex Bank in facilitating funding for numerous projects include the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), Agribusiness Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMElS), Real Sector Support Facility-Differentiated Cash Reserve Requirement (RSSF-DCRR), among others.
He noted that the Bank engaged local and international partners to implement its “Dairy Value Chain Development Initiative” towards ensuring value chain linkages by facilitating private sector led project financing for dairy sector development.
CODARAN president revealed his organisation has been at the forefront of creating an enabling and business-friendly environment for the dairy sector in Nigeria.
“The World Milk Day Conference is the flagship event of our dear Association, and over the last two years, we have been consistent in using it as a medium to bring stakeholders in the Nigerian dairy ecosystem together to reflect and consider transformational strategies for pursuing and attaining sufficiency in milk and dairy products. The stakeholders’ resolutions at these conferences have served as input to impactful policy advocacy undertakings, and dairy development activities that the Association has embarked on,” he said
Challenges
Stakeholders during the conference highlighted the numerous challenges confronting the dairy industry including the seasonal fluctuation in the availability and quality of animal feeds; poor transportation network between milk collection and processing centres, lack of access to finance by smallholder dairy farmers, paucity of adequate data on available dairy resources in the country, underdeveloped processing and marketing system, insecurity, climate change among others.
According to the CODARAN President, within the value chain, there are numerous challenges which have contributed to low performance of the sector when appraised in line with its potential.
“The most crippling challenges in the dairy sector are found in the midstream sub-sector of the dairy value chain. This, in practical terms refers to all the activities that take place after the milk is extracted from the cow to when it gets to a processing facility or the open market. These activities include milk collection, aggregation, storage, and transportation.
“The level of public and private investment in this important part of the dairy value chain is abysmally low. To state the obvious, even if the capacity of the upstream (production) sub-sector is enhanced and increased, the inefficiencies of the midstream sub-sector would still cause wastages and keep Nigeria largely dependent on imported milk – spending over $1.5bn (according to a report by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2020) to import about 70 percent of its milk needs.
“There are significant challenges at the milk production level – the upstream sub-sector of the dairy value chain. The productivity of local cow breeds mostly managed by pastoralists is low at 0.5 to 1.5 litres of milk per day, compared to a global average of 6.6 litres per day by cows managed by pastoralists. The output from Nigeria’s managed pastures – an average of 8 litres per day is also a far cry from the global average of 30 litres per day. These are according to a recent (2019) report on the dairy sector published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
“Lactating cows are also poorly fed by smallholder dairy farmers. These largely nomadic herders traverse the country in search of available forage and water sources and pay little or no attention to the nutritional content and suitability of the feed and water their cows consume. Poor nutrition translates to low milk quality and quantity, leading to low income.
“Other challenges within the milk production space are poor animal disease management; with pastoralists lacking access to proper veterinary services for their cattle. There is also the low adoption of technology in production as the pastoralists stick to outdated animal husbandry practices and do not possess the financial capacity required to adopt new technology.”