By Adedapo Adesanya
In its bid to boost local production of milk, the federal government on Saturday inaugurated a mini milk collection centre in Tassa Village in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area of Kano state.
The event was supervised by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Sabo Nanono, who said that the center would help alleviate the plight of milk producers and improve their business in the country.
Speaking at the event, the Minister said that this was one of the first batches of the government’s plan and that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration would establish additional centers in other states of the federation in order to further improve the economic well-being of the people.
“Additional collection centers would be establish in Gujungu and Ringim is Jigawa so as to get fresh and hygienic milk,” he said.
He further said that the federal government was still looking into the need establish Fulani settlements in order to settle the herdsmen in one place to eliminate herders/farmers clashes.
This measure, according to Mr Nanono, would also help to improve the business and economic life of the herders in the area.
”I recently visited Bauchi and Gombe states on the issue and the government is committed to the project,” he said.
He, however, said this would not be possible if there were clashes and then called on Fulanis in the state and other parts of the country to leave in peace with farmers and other people in their host communities.
He noted that this was not the only problem posed and identified the lack of Quarantine and Produce Inspectors as some of the major problems facing the export market.
“We have a situation where exportable commodities cannot be exported because of adulteration and misuse of fertiliser.
“We are thinking of having a Quarantine in Dawanau International Grains Market, the biggest grain market in African because about 75 percent of export commodities pass through the market.
“The quarantine will help us to overcome some of the problems and it will help in ensuring that standards are met in the market for export of our commodities so that we avert this kind of problem affecting our operations and export,” he added.
On the shortfall of labour, the Minister said that the inadequate extension workers was one of the challenges faced by the nation’s agricultural sector as there were only 14,000 agricultural extension service workers that attend to the needs of the huge number of farmers across the country.
There was an appeal by the stakeholders to the Federal Government to provide additional warehouses, silos, tractors and machines, among other facilities, in the agric market to enhance their output.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had earlier this year restricted the sale of forex for the importation of milk from the Nigerian foreign exchange market so as to be able to provide the needed finance to enable investors who want to engage in milk production.
