“Pastoralists are farmers too” – Minister Audu Ogbe
The assertion by many Nigerians that the global best practice for rearing cattle is in ranches is an alternate fact or more appropriately post truth. According to Oxford dictionaries, Post-truth is defined as an adjective relating to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals.The truth is, in Sub-Saharan Africa only between 15-20% of cattle are in ranches.But what even strong advocates of pastoralism know as not post-truth, is the inability of our National herd estimated at 19.5m cattle, to meet thenational animal protein demand.
National demand for meat stands at over 1 million metric ton and ever increasing with economic recovery. Milk and dairy product imports now stand at about US$ 400m annually. Currently about 50% of animals consumed in this country come from ECOWAS and other countries.Lagos State alone slaughters over 6,000 cattle daily. Now add this,Nigeriaby 2025will have anestimatedpopulation of 300million becoming the 4th most populous country in the world. So demand for protein of animal origin will grow exponentially. Therefore, the need to modernize our agriculture especially livestockfor food security and to take advantage of ourhuge internal market is obvious.
Modernizing our cattle production has been a difficult nut to crack. Several attempts have been made,from importationsof purebred dairy cowsin the 1940sto establish dairy farms at Agege and Vom, to the 1970s establishment by State of Livestock Improvement and Breeding Centres (LIBCs)for production of quality heifers,to present day production and salesof crossbred heifers by NAPRI and private farms.These programmeshave not hadthe desired impact.So,there is a need for paradigm shift
Against all odds, Nigeriahas successfully modernizedthe production of onelivestock specie, viz.: poultry.The tipping point formodernisingpoultry was importationand later local production of Day old Chicks (DOC) and improved local production of maize. This wasfurther anchored by the establishment of Parent Stock (PS) and Grandparent Stock (GPS) farms. Other contributory factors, werefavourable bank financing, availability of veterinary healthcare services and alarge internal market.Today Nigeria hasthe biggest commercial poultry in Africa, first in eggs production and fourth in broiler meat. Therural, open range poultry,is also much sought-after for our peppersoup and local dishes.
Thanks to this transformation,commercial poultryis flourishing inevery urban city in Nigeria. Socially, poultry production hasacquiredfederal characterandexistsside by side witha bigger rural poultry. This industry has a combined net worth of over $3b. This remarkabletransformation did not just happen, it was made to happen by deliberate government policies andthe Nigerian spirit of entrepreneurship. But this accomplishment be repeatedwithcattle?
Before that, let’s discuss a relatedbreed improvement programme for another specie, goat.A sharp drop in revenue from tanneries occurred in Sokoto State in the 1970s. This was attributedamongstothers topoor quality of leather due to genetic adulteration of the indigenous Red Sokotogoat. The Red Sokoto goat isfamous for its internationally acclaimed Moroccan leather, which commands a high premium price. To combat this, the State designed aningenious breeding program to improvefecundity of the goats.After obtaining communitiesbuy-in, the State purchased hundreds of purebred Red Sokoto bucks. These bucks termed, Bunsuran gwamnati (Government bucks) werehanded over to Sokoto municipal Ward heads during breeding season.Using Town criers, all goats’ owners were advised to either sell off or castrate their bucks.On an agreed date, these high libido billy goats were set loose on the local does andthey immediately set to work. Although there are no empirical data on actual percentage increase in fecundity, it was generally agreed that theimpactof the programme on productivity was shattering. Bunsuran gwamnatifor years ran around doing their thing, welcomed in many houses and never ended up as Ese-ewu. Those were the days.
Some lessons learnt fromthese twoprogrammes are; (i) with appropriate technology,modern production system can be established. (ii) modern production system can exist side by side,in harmony with traditional(iii) with the right advocacy,traditional producers can accept modern innovationsand (v) failures can be prevailed upon with better planning and perseverance.
Now let us attempt to apply these principles to cattle. Thecatalyst forcattle modernization would be mass productionof quality breeding stock viz;heifers, preferable in-calf (pregnant)and young breeding bulls.These are the equivalent of DOCs in poultry.Of course, such animals can also be flown in, but not in the required quantityand frequency as in the case of DOCs due to size, cost and healthcare issues. So, the best option is local production ab initio and in quantum satis. A critical element for this is a national breeding policy. I haveit on good authority that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is working on a breeding policy.
To produce there are two quick options, the establishment of commercial ranches and big dairy farms. A ranch is defined as an enclosed large area of rangeland where livestock migrate freely within its boundaries, finding their own food and water. Ranches in Africa are located in areas where the rainfall is low or poorly distributed that ordinary crop agriculture is impossible. Botswana for example has an average rainfall of 250-650mm. So, commercial ranches can be established virtually in every part of this country but most appropriately in the arid areas. Unlike ranch animals, dairy cows areliving-factories for conversion of grains, grass and water into milk. Dairy farms should therefore be situated in areas of high grain production with municipal services. According to FAO, 33% of global land is cultivated for animal feeds.
The real challenge is how to establish and successfully ran these farms. I believe thatGovernment should engage special interest groups on this,provide the enabling conditions and leave the rest to private sector. While leaving complex dairy farming exclusively to the Dangotes.For ranches,the Nigerian Army should be included and the idea of the Nigeria Army partnering with Argentine or Brazil in ranching has already been muted. Ranching will fit in perfectly witharmyregular resettlement training programme. The most ideal locations for initial ranches willbe Sambisa grazing reserve (4800ha)and part of Gidan Jaja grazing reserve (365,000ha)in Borno andZamfara States respectively for obvious reasons. Let us see if insurgents, rustlers, rural bandits and local bad boys will stealSoja animals and live in peace.The spin off from this will be food and national security with bonus production of critical skilled manpower for ranching, which is currently absent. The Army, the world over has a history of introducingnew technologies.
On attending particular weight or age, keeping weaners and calves on farms create economic losses.These animals will therefore be regularly harvested in bulk. These animals will go tospecial farms and enterprises where they are fed cheappowered milk and on attending required ageand weight, females are finished as in-calf heifers either through AI, embryo transfer or natural servicing, while young males are sold as breeding bulls or to feedlots. The availability of these breeding stock willstimulate rapid investments insmallholder and large farms start-ups (akaranches in Nigeria),upgrading of existing farms and most importantly,provide manypastoralists an unhinderedaccessto quality breeding stock for genetic improvement oftheir herds.This would not only modernise the cattle industry but completely change it for the better.
Let’s recall history. In the 1960s, to feed the growing population, Government decided to introduce a new foreign crop, maize. Hybrid maize requires mineral not cow dung fertilizer. To promote maize, the countryprocured World Bank loanand establishedAgricultural Development Projects (ADP).The programme succeeded so well that many 50-year old Nigerians now believemaize is an indigenous crop. On the flip side, hybrid Maizedemotedthe prominence of cow dung in crop agriculture,thisirrecoverablydestroyed the symbiotic relationship between pastoralists and farmers,to cap it all, maize alsoappropriated fadama,the livestock dry season grazing and watering area as gyara (gratis).This singular act and climate change are some of the remote causes of current pastoralists wahala.
On a final note, good Minister, Audu Ogbe says, pastoralists are farmers too,with genuine grievances.Sadly, somelocal sheriffssay no,pastoralists are justmarauding pistoleros killingpeople for nothing with impunity. What is needed istough anti-open grazing law. If you don’t like it,too bad,in your own interest skip town by sunset. Adiós.
Dr. Junaidu A Maina, Former Director Federal Department of Livestock
junaidumaina@gmail.com 6th December, 2017
