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Cameroon: Nation to Boost Milk Production in Six Years
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Lukong Pius Nyuylime
Stakeholders in the dairy sector in Cameroon met in Yaounde last Friday under the guidance of the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries to work out a strategy to step up dairy production with particular focus on milk.
The experts were invited to examine with diligence the feasibility study financed by the European Union. According to the study, milk consumption in Cameroon is extremely low with only 14 kilogrammes of the product being consumed per inhabitant annually. The study blames the situation on low production in the country and the expensive nature of imported dairy products.
The programme dairy production programme piloted by the government will ensure food security, enhance the fight against poverty by increasing the revenue of cattle breeders and most importantly reduce considerably the importation of milk products which have become excessively expensive. In effect, this programme seeks to help Cameroon to remove the constrains that prevent the country from producing enough to feed its population and sell to neighbouring countries. "Our animals produce barely two to three litres a day per animal", Teleu Ngandeu Emil, an expert in the dairy sector and Director of Studies, Statistics and Cooperation at the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries told pressmen. The major task, he said, is to improve the productivity of the animal and this is highly related to the feed resources. "Our Pasture land is fast disappearing and the project will work on that aspect", he said.
One of the problems identified in the study is that small scale grazers are spread all over the country with many producing milk in far off places where there are no storage or processing facilities. "We need to work out a strategy on how to collect and preserve the milk", Teleu said..
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The programme consists in building up a conservation and genetic improvement project for cattle species in the country. This essentially concerns genetic crossing of different species, increasing the male population through buying and station breeding, opening up seed production farms for feed closer to breeders, etc. The seven year program will cost over CFA 22 billion. The Secretary General at the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, Ouli Ndongo Monique, presided at the Yaounde meeting.
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