TETFUND Boss Advocates R&D To Drive Dairy, Livestock Production
Laments $1.3bn waste on powered milk importation
BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI, ABUJA – The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro says spending a whooping $1.3 billion (about N624 billion) annually to import powdered milk for reconstitution into various products remains a huge drain on the nation’s resources.
He therefore believes a well coordinated and decentralised Research and Development (R&D) driven national programme on dairy and livestock production will change things for good and give Nigeria the needed boost forward.
Prof Bogoro however said visionary and robust approach will surely bridge the existing gap between Nigeria’s current domestic production of 526,000 litres of dairy products and its annual demand of about 1.2 million litres.
The TETFUND Chief Executive stated this position in his keynote presentation at the 9th Joint Annual meeting of Animal Science Association of Nigeria (ASAN) and Nigeria Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) in Abuja
Speaking on the theme ‘Reclaiming Nigeria’s Laggard Livestock Subsector: A Modern Dairy Value Chain In Perspectives’, Prof Bogoro canvassed effective deployment of R&D to change existing narratives and boost domestic production.
He said obvious solution to this unhealthy development lies in mounting a sustainable campaign for the production of dairy products using R&D intervention to improve the dairy value chain and also save huge revenue for the country.
Professor Bogoro also challenged food scientists to explore the “use of milk and milk derivatives to enhance the quality of our national diets, meals and recipes.”
According to him, “There exists nowadays biotechnologies and digital solutions that can fast track the development of the Nigeria’s dairy Sector towards being globally competitive.”
He said it is therefore important to establish a private sector led but government supported livestock Specie/breeds for sustainable livestock development in Nigeria.
Furthermore, Prof Bogoro said relevant institutions must fast track the completion and signing of the National Livestock Breeding programme to ensure effective regulatory national framework for the practice of livestock breeding in the country.
For the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, there is an urgent need to have a paradigm shift in the nation’s agro pastoral programme given the emerging climate change challenge.
Nanono said to meet its growing domestic consumption needs, Nigeria must aggressively promote technologically driven process in the production of livestock, while also sustaining enlightenment campaigns for pastoralists to embrace new ways and improved methods in the sector.
