Feed/Fodder policy to boost Nigeria’s Animal Herds to 398.9 Million

The Nigerian government says the National Feed and Fodder Policy document will boost livestock business and increase the number of herds in the country to 398.9 Million.

The Minister of Livestock Development, Mr. Idi Maiha stated this at a stakeholders meeting to validate the National Feed and Fodder document in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

He said Animal feeds and fodder are the lifeblood of any sustainable livestock production system, yet, across Nigeria, the sector continues to face challenges related to inadequate feed and fodder supply, poor quality control, weak regulatory frameworks, and limited private sector participation.

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According to Mr. Maiha, the policy document seeks to address these challenges, noting that it provides a comprehensive framework for improved feed and fodder production, encouraging investment, supporting research and development, ensuring quality standards, and enhancing coordination among stakeholders.

“This policy document, which we are here to validate, represents a strategic and inclusive response to these challenges. It provides a comprehensive framework for improving feed and fodder production, encouraging investment, supporting research and development, ensuring quality standards, and enhancing coordination among stakeholders”

“A structured policy in the feed and fodder sub-sector both in production, supply and market access and investment is instrumental in the drive by the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development to double our national herd to 398.9 million heads and drive the current contribution by livestock to the national GDP from $32 Billion to $74 Billion by 2035. In this drive feed and fodder development stands as one of the main pillars” He added

Mr. Maina assured stakeholders that the policy document will be presented to the National Executive council for speedy consideration.

The Director Ruminant and Monogastric Development of the Ministry Mrs. Winnie Lai-Solarin said feed and fodder, accounts for over 70% of production costs in any animal agriculture venture and lack of its availability is a cause of farmer herders conflict in the country.

She said the policy will address the issues of herders/farmers conflicts in the country.

“The feed and fodder, first I’ll start by saying that feed and fodder, as we know, accounts for over 70% of production costs in any animal agriculture venture that you want to go into. And over the years in the country, we have always had farmer-header clashes that we can point to feed and fodder as one major reason why we have that conflict”.

She noted that this will be the first time the country is getting a feed and fodder policy that would guide production processing and marketing and utilization of feed and fodder in Nigeria.

President of Nigerian Food and Fodder Multi-sector Platform, Professor Maikano Ari, called for private sector funding noting that the government cannot fund everything.

“One is the private sector participation. It is important that the sector has a lot of private sector funding. We cannot continue to depend on government to drive everything”

“And most importantly too, we are beginning to have data-driven sector intervention. These are all provisions that are very, very key. We as stakeholders believe that they are very important for the sector to grow”.

He noted that there is the need to engage with the fodder sector, because it is the bane of the Nigerian security situation.

“We have a lot of crisis between the fodder and the farmers, basically because of the feed resource, which is basically grass. We have to invest in grass; we have to invest in re-fertilising our reserves, so that at least there will be a lot from the fodder sector”.