The Mi-Yetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has said the country spends more than $1.7 billion annually on milk importation due to poor attention given to the livestock sub-sector.
The association called for adequate budgetary allocation to boost the livestock sector of the economy to save the nation of a huge foreign exchange.
MACBAN National President Baba Ngelzarma said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja.
Ngelzarma said there was no budgetary allocation for livestock while agronomy always gained priority attention annually in terms of robust budget.
“The livestock sector has not and never received the needed attention from the government. The only support we have got is vaccination of cow.
“The aspects of livestock production, marketing, transportation, processing, among others, are left in the hands of the pastoralists. The entire value chain of cattle is not harnessed by the government.
“Nigeria has the largest population of livestock compared with neighbouring countries; yet we produce lesser milk due to neglect of the sector,” he said.
Ngelzarma noted that if the sector was accorded due attention, the nation would be the hub of milk exportation as well as other value chain in livestock.
The MACBAN president said cattle business in the country was doing the little it could to stimulate the economy.
He added that when given the deserved attention, it would contribute immensely to the agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
On the state of livestock sector in the country, Ngelzarma frowned at the poor attention given to the sector by the government, saying it was not right that every attention was channeled towards the agronomy sector while issues regarding livestock were left unattended to year in year out.
The MACBAN president urged the government to give due attention to livestock subsector of the economy to boost the nation’s foreign income.
“If the sector is well harnessed, it can unlock a lot of employment opportunities in the country considering its huge investment, foreign exchange among others,” he said.
Ngelzarma said it would be difficult to practise ranching in the country.
According to him, such a model is alien to pastoralists in the country since it was borrowed from foreigners.
The MACBAN president said the model could not suit the peculiarities of pastoralists in the country who he described as primitive, adding that they still roamed about while looking for pasture.
He said a number of the pastoralists in the country were not educated, stressing that between 70 per cent and 80 per cent were smallholder farmers who could not afford ranching because it is capital intensive.
According to him, they are nomadic farmers who are used to open grazing system, and lack training in modernised farming methods.
