‘Dairy business can get Nigerian farmers out of poverty’

Can you give us a hint about the activities of NAPRI?NAPRI was established even before the university (ABU) was established. It was established in 1928. It was first established as a stock-farm to be able to work on how to improve animals that would be used by our local farmers to improve their breeds. In […]

Can you give us a hint about the activities of NAPRI?
NAPRI was established even before the university (ABU) was established. It was established in 1928. It was first established as a stock-farm to be able to work on how to improve animals that would be used by our local farmers to improve their breeds. In other words, NAPRI was established to bring in improved technology to the local farmers in order to improve their production. As time went on, it became a grassland research station. That became imminent because the bulk of the feed that is required by the animals is grass. So, we started research on different species of grass; many of which were brought from different parts of the country and the world at large. They were domesticated after we found them suitable for different parts of our ecological zones. Since then, we have expanded our mandate. We now have mandate to do research on all domestic animals, including cattle, that is beef and diary, sheep and goats, swine, poultry, particularly the main type.
How can Nigerian farmers benefit from your researches on cows?
We are in the business of distributing improved animals, which include cows and bulls. Our daily research programme involves artificial insemination for improved breeds. We call them crosses. This is a cross between the local breed, that is the Bunaji, and the exotic breed. In the exotic breed, because they are many, we have chosen Tregian. The Tregian crossed Bunaji is what we are popularising. The advantage is that the cross does not require high level of management like the pure one. If you had a pure Tregian and a cross between it and Bunaji, you would see the difference. The management requirement for pure Tregian is higher because it needs cooler place, good environment and good feeding. But if it is a cross, you find that the level of management is lower and still brings good amount of milk. The end result is the milk that a farmer gets. Right now, we have crosses that give 25 to 30 litres of milk per day unlike the Bunaji that gives between two and five, depending on the season.
This is a breakthrough that we are distributing to farmers across the country. The demand is very high. Therefore, we have to ration, and in some cases we give them the bull so that they can use to cross their local and indigenous animals in order to get the cross. The whole essence of this is to increase and improve our milk production and cut down our milk importation. Right now, almost 80 percent of our milk consumption in this country comes from abroad.
Are farmers really taking advantage of this new technology?
Pastoralists and farmers come to the institute to learn all these things. Recently, some farmers from Damau (Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State) visited the institute. They came with their women, and the women were even more in number. This shows that women are now being brought into livestock production, which was not the case before. This gives us a lot of excitement. We visit pastoralists in our neighbouring communities to buy their milk and in return we offer them services in terms of extension service, feed advise and medication at cost recovery. We have animal medication that we give to farmers, especially during outbreak at cost recovery without charging them anything. We think that we should provide free services for the pastoralists to assist them. This would also help them to avoid fake drugs, and we involve ourselves in this area to assist them by providing genuine drugs at cost recovery.
Is this technology also targeted at meeting the beef requirement of the country?
When you breed an animal, the possibility is 50-50, that is, 50 percent chance of male or female upspring. If we have a cross that is a bull, we usually send it for slaughter. We encourage people to also have herds of bulls, which they would fatten. It is easy to fatten an animal that has attained a weight of 250 kilogrammes over a period of 90 days. This is a lot of money and a farmer would require just local materials for feed. You use harawa, crop residue and occasionally add concentrated feed like groundnut cake or soya beans cake for protein. This is one of the ways of increasing meat availability in the country.
A farmer that gets large quantity of milk, how would he manage it?
It is true, a farmer would get large quantity of milk if he feeds his animal very well and give them enough water. These animals have to be zero-grazed, that is, they have to be confined in a house without taking them out for grazing at all. But a farmer can take them out occasionally to exercise their muscles, because they are like human beings that require exercise from time to time. A farmer can get the required milk when he gives his animals adequate feed, medication and water. In fact, water should be there continuously. Once a farmer does that he would get his required milk. In some cases, milk production by cows is genetic. Some animals take the gene of their mother or father. We have recently lost a cow,
Mahaukachia, due to snake bite. This animal was giving us 35 litres of milk per day. So, the animal was such a good milk producer with special qualities. We have now started to trace the offspring and see whether they have taken some of her genes. We are working closely on that and one of the female offspring is pregnant now. We want to see whether she would give us what the mother was giving us. In that line, we would expand our production.
Dairy farming is such an expensive but rewarding venture. Dairy farmers abroad are about the richest farmers in US and UK. Once a farmer starts milking that is when his profit comes and you don’t keep your cows for milking for more than three years, that is, three lactations. If they give birth for about three times, you take them for slaughter and that is money also. Government has been encouraging us to encourage the farmers to be producing milk, and we are doing that.
Are there no challenges in managing the milk?
You can process the milk to different forms. From yoghurt, butter, to cheese and the farmers are doing it to reduce wastage, particularly during the rainy season when there is abundance of milk production. This is especially in the Mambilla and Jos areas where there is a lot of milk but without buyers. We are working on how to do milk powder so that during period of glut, high production period, we can collate and turn them to powder. We are doing the same thing with the Shika Brown, where we are collaborating to be producing egg powder, especially during the glut period where you can’t find market for your eggs.