FG flags off input redemption for livestock farmers in FCT

Represented by Dr Abubakar Ganiyu, the minister said the beef value chain is designed to meet the national demand of beef and to create more jobs in the livestock subsector.Earlier in his address, FCT Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gwagwalada, Dr. Charles Momo said the ministry is poised to create employment and […]

Represented by Dr Abubakar Ganiyu, the minister said the beef value chain is designed to meet the national demand of beef and to create more jobs in the livestock subsector.
Earlier in his address, FCT Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gwagwalada, Dr. Charles Momo said the ministry is poised to create employment and add wealth to the citizens.
“An obviously precarious scenario stares us in the face. The traditional means of cattle rearing has given us very little to be excited about. Productivity and yield have been very low. Health issues have also been difficult to track,” he stressed.
 Dr Momo said each benefiting farmer is expected to select two bulls from his cattle to be confined for fattening for three months. The farmer is entitled to 38 bags of fattening concentrate at 50 percent discount of the total cost of N68, 400.
For the Cow-Calf Scheme, they target adequate nutritional care for pregnant cows to assure quality gestation. Farmers under this scheme get 11 bags of cotton seed cake valued at N31, 736 to be given to them at N15, 868.
The Federal Capital Territory Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Olvadi Bema Madayi, represented by Dr Garba Zayyan said the Beef Value Chain is to provide quality meat in the domestic market and to increase the national meat market by 650,000 metric tons annually; to raise the average slaughter weight from 250 kilogrammes to 350 kilogrammes and national herd growth rate from 1.4 to 3.3 percent.
One of the farmers, Abdullahi Mohammed who spoke with Daily Trust said they are happy with the flag off of the input redemption for livestock farmers, adding that they will mobilize livestock herders to register in order to benefit from the scheme.