Nigerian government pledges support to livestock business

ENE OKWANIHE, ABUJA

The Nigerian government says it is committed to providing incentives and needed support to feed millers and agribusiness companies in the country to ameliorate the effects of high cost of feed to boost the livestock subsector in the country.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr. Ernest Umakhihe disclosed this at the first National Animal Feed Summit 2021 organised by the ministry, held in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital with theme “Developing a Roadmap for Animal Feed Security in Nigeria”

He stated that the government is making budgetary provision for capacity building on Alternative Ingredients to boost production in the feed industry.

“Government will also step up on its development plan to provide incentives to feed millers and agribusiness companies to locate in rural areas where feed ingredients are largely available, improve on the level of education of farmers on modern animal and feed production techniques, support various research institutes in developing alternative feed ingredients in providing animal feeds to ameliorate the effects of high cost of feed”

In his keynote address the Minister said the summit is a platform that should be used as a foundation to set the desired pace and unlock hidden potentials in the subsector.

He further stated that the summit would be developing a Roadmap for Animal Feed Security in Nigeria.

“The focus of this Summit is developing a Roadmap for Animal Feed Security in Nigeria. We must therefore, utilize this platform as a foundation to set the desired pace and unlock hidden potentials”

“So, the National Animal Feed Summit is an excellent platform to develop a roadmap for each area of focus, generate a blueprint for further interventions in the animal feed sector in Nigeria, provides direction for the multiple value chains of animal feed sector and proffers the way forward for their development”

“It will also enhance strategic implementation plan for National Animal Feed Policy, National Strategic Feed Reserve and Alternative Feed Ingredient for proper follow-up” he added

The minister reassured that achieving food security in the country would be his priority and top of his agenda.

On his part the Chairman Senate committee on agriculture who was represented by Senator Haliru Jika highlighted some of the challenges of the sub-sector while calling for them to be tackled so that the potentials of the subsector can be properly harnessed.

He urged the summit to look into the production of small and large ruminant feeds in line with some state government policies of promoting ranching by enacting anti open grazing laws in their state, noting that such states have huge potential.

Senator Jika said he believes that the summit would achieve its objective of developing a roadmap for the feed industry while calling on participating stakeholders to utilize the opportunity to proffer solutions to the many challenges bedeviling the subsector.