Ecowas Ministers in Charge of Livestock, Trade And Security to Meet in Bamako

8 March 2011
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Mali - Bamako — Regional Ministers responsible for livestock, trade and security in ECOWAS Member States will meet in Bamako, Mali on Thursday, 10th March 2011 to endorse the draft Strategic Plan for the Development and Transformation of the Livestock Sector.

The strategic plan is designed for the transformation and economic value addition to the cattle, meat and dairy sector in order to provide sustainable food security, reduce poverty and provide decent income for those working in the sector while preserving our natural resources. More specifically, it aims to improve production systems and support product transformation, provide food security from livestock-livestock products, reduce poverty, provide decent incomes to producers, preserve indigenous livestock genetic resources as well as improve veterinary governance.

The ministers meeting is being preceded by a session of experts, who are fulfilling a ministerial directive from a meeting in Niamey, Niger in February 2009 that the ECOWAS Commission draw up a specific strategy for the development of livestock farming as part of the framework for the implementation of the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP). The ministers' guidelines include strengthening of veterinary governance, support of production and gradual intensification of production systems, promotion and/or enhancement of intra-regional and international trade in livestock, meat and dairy, improvement of pastures and protection of grazing lands/transhumance routes and promotion of public-private partnerships. They also include strengthening of data collection, management and dissemination structures, strengthening of research and training as well as supporting the transformation of products, using science and technology.

At the opening of the experts meeting on Monday, 7th March 2011 in Bamako, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Ousseini Salifou, highlighted the importance of the livestock sector which, he said, contributes about 44 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides livelihood for millions of people in the region. He said it was in acknowledgement of the importance of livestock sector, that the regional ministers called for a strategic plan to be developed so as to beef up the various components of the sector.

The Commissioner also referred to the ECOWAS Regional Animal Health Centre in Bamako and expressed the hope that the centre would become a specialized animal health institution for West Africa. Similarly, the Minister of Livestock and Fisheries of Mali, Mrs.Diallo Madeleine Ba, expressed the importance of livestock in Mali's economy, disclosing that Mali had a population of nine million bovine, 11.8 million sheep, 16 million goats and 35 million poultry, contributing some 30 per cent of the country's livelihood. She reiterated the critical importance of the sector in the region, hence the decision of the Niamey meeting of ministers to develop a strategic action plan for the development and transformation of the livestock sector.

The Minister also commented on the contributions made by the Regional Animal Health Centre to the animal health delivery services in the region, and added that it was part of the commitment of the Government of Mali to give the centre a working framework to promote poverty reduction, food security and economic growth. While addressing the meeting, the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development also underscored the importance of the meeting, noting that livestock plays a vital role in the region.

The Minister who was represented by the Director of BBB MMM, Dr. Ibrahim Gashashi Ahmed, said it was gratifying that ECOWAS was developing a master plan for the development of the livestock sector in the region and called for uniformity of actions as well as compliance with ECOWAS regulations for the success of the plan. He expressed gratitude to development partners such as the African Union International Bureau of Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and others who have made significant contributions to the development of the livestock sector in the region.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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