The World Bank estimates that between 2015 and 2050, Nigeria's population is expected to double to 402 million. The anticipated population growth is envisaged to have a far-reaching impact on the demand for livestock and livestock products as a critical source of food.
As of now, agriculture contributes about 24 per cent of the nation's GDP out of which livestock accounts for 8.1 per cent amounting to over N33 trillion. It is the sector that presents a veritable growth opportunity for the country if the size and inherent potential can be harnessed.
The indigenous breed of livestock in the country has the highest cattle genetic resources in the world that must be protected given the onslaught of genetically modified crops and products. After all, Nigeria possesses the most nutritious and high-quality natural milk.
Therefore, the creation of a livestock ministry by the federal government is not only a welcome development but must be seen as an opportunity to rejig the whole livestock production system by not only the government but all stakeholders to ensure the full potential of this critical sector is achieved.
The challenges faced by the sector in the light of climate change and the farmer/herder conflicts as well as the increasing population require innovative and adaptable technologies, increased crops-livestock integration, the establishment of smallholder and commercial dairy and beef farms, the establishment of pastures and feedlots as well as management of livestock migration and peace-building mechanisms.
The quest, therefore, for a separate ministry for livestock arises due to poor resource allocation to this sector over the years and the need for a professional stand-alone ministry to deal specifically with the needs and demands of a modern-day livestock production system.
What happened in the last eight years under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme where over N500 billion was disbursed but livestock received less than N15 billion is unacceptable.
Reforming the livestock sector in Nigeria, which is the 14th largest in the world, is now critical in job creation, social cohesion, rural infrastructure, and national security through a robust value chain. Meat, dairy and pasture production will transform the rural economy, which is key to transforming the nation's industrial growth.
It's now important for the government to create additional research institutes for dairy, beef and pasture production as well as raise the capacity of existing institutes as a strategy for expanding funding and enacting policies to strengthen backward integration in the livestock value chain.
In the last decade, efforts to transform the livestock sector have been dogged by unnecessary controversy because of the conceptual framework of the Ruga and the livestock transformation plan (NLTP) programmes which failed.
Both the Ruga and the NLTP were seen by ethnic jingoists as a purely Fulani business and were meant as instruments of land grabs to benefit pastoralists.
Now that the ministry has been created, the stakeholders expect that the insufficiency of data that had been a bane in the industry will be fully addressed. The last time a livestock census was conducted in the country was in 1990. Data is key in planning and it should be prioritised.
The movement of livestock, ownership, and health conditions and the precarious outbreaks of diseases that can easily be treatable and preventable with adequate veterinary care must be on the front burner.
It's time for the federal government to provide legislation to regulate the transportation, tagging, and marketing of livestock in the country. The lack of tagging makes it difficult to trace stolen or infected livestock.
The most important function of the new ministry is to come up with a national breed to meet the demands of quality milk and beef of Nigerians.
The other critical factor is that of attracting the requisite personnel, training of existing staff, and enforcement of best practices among workers.
The absence of range managers in the management of our forest and grazing reserves resulted in their total degradation.
The only institute that was there for the training of range management up to HND level is in Mando, Kaduna, and has since ceased to offer the training, and those trained have retired from service. It now behooves the new ministry to find a way of training critical manpower to manage and produce nutritious fodder in commercial quantity for commercial and small-scale livestock farmers.
The delivery of essential services including veterinary, health care, extension services, and access to information and training to provide needed skills and capacity to move the sector from its current traditional to modern livestock production system in all tiers of government.
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The new ministry together with stakeholders should work out practical mechanisms for increased and viable private sector investments as well as give support to pastoralist organisations, cooperative societies, and other producer associations for improved productivity.
It's the expectation that with a ministry like this, livestock products will drive the export of Nigerian goods to earn foreign exchange. The skin obtained from Sokoto red goats has the best quality leather in the world and therefore should get the attention it deserves.
This new ministry should be structured in such a way as to produce results and not be tied to bureaucracy and red tape that make changes take ages to be effective.
It's the hope for those involved in livestock production and the value chain that this new ministry must be seen to perform and to produce the desired objectives in no time as the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu wants to see immediate results.
Toro is the Director of Strategic Planning for MACBAN
