The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Feed

  • Federal Govt to train stakeholders on feed, fodder data collection

    Federal Govt to train stakeholders on feed, fodder data collection

    To address the ongoing shortage of feed and fodder that has fueled tensions between farmers and herdsmen, the Federal Government is set to train key stakeholders on effective data collection for feed and fodder management.

    This training, known as “feed balancing,” is aimed at gathering comprehensive data on feed availability across the country, enabling the government to make informed decisions to strengthen the feed and fodder subsector.

    Speaking during a capacity-building workshop on the Feed and Fodder Data Ecosystem, Collection Mechanism, Ground-Truthing, and Validation in Nigeria, organised by the African Union Inter-Africa Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-toIBAR) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Director of Animal Husbandry Services at the Ministry of Livestock Development, Mrs. Winnie Lai- Solarin,  underscored the government’s commitment to improving feed and fodder production.

    Lai-Solarin noted that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development are prioritising feed and fodder.

    She noted the newly established Ministry of Livestock Development has  created a dedicated department for animal feed and fodder.

    She said: “Without accurate data, we cannot effectively manage feed and fodder. It is crucial for everyone involved to showcase their expertise to benefit the subsector. For Nigeria, this is a moment to take this challenge seriously and lead the way forward.”

    Read Also: Lagos seeks cooperation for data collection

    Also, an Information Systems and Data Analytics expert with the AU-IBAR, Leonard Muganda noted that the project, initiated two years ago, focuses on engaging stakeholders in the feed and fodder value chain to gather essential data for the sector.

    According to him, the project targets two main areas: knowledge and analytical ecosystems.

    The goal, he said, is to leverage data to support decision-making across the feed and fodder value chain.

    The Country Representative of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Tunde Amole, highlighted the importance of feed inventory, estimating livestock numbers, and balancing feed resources as part of Nigeria’s national feed balance strategy.

  • Christmas : Church feeds 4,739 needy people in Ogun

    Christmas : Church feeds 4,739 needy people in Ogun

    Over 4,739 needy residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State  capital, thronged the Treasure House of God on Christmas Day for the church’s annual “Jesus Feast,” meant to cater for them.
    The church located on Quarry road, beside Agbeloba area of the town,  distributed liberally, raw beef and rice to each of the 4,739 less – privileged  – comprising widows, widowers, youths, students and physically challenged to make the Yuletide a worthwhile one for them.
    The exercise which was made seamless through efficient crowd control and use of  tags as gate passes  for the beneficiaries, was preceded by a short service presided over by the Church’s Associate Pastor, Lenus Taylor.
    Taylor told journalists  that the gesture was part  of the church’s ways of sharing the love of God in Christ with the indigents during the Christmas as initiated by the General Overseer, Seye Senfuye.
    “The programme is necessitated by the love of God and the love for humanity that the founder of this ministry, Pastor Adeseye Senfuye have for the people and the Christ.
    “It is scriptural that we should extend our hand of fellowship to the less-privileged. We have 4,700 gifts for people and the content of a package is meat and rice. We don’t discriminate whether you are a Christian or Muslim.
    “No political undertone. This is why we are distributing it in the church.  We have been doing it for some time now and it increases yearly. Last year, 1, 000 people benefited. This year, it is about 5,000. By the grace of God next year, it will get to 50, 000.
    “My advice for the people is to continue to pray for those in government so that they will do what is right. Once they do what is right, everyone of us will definitely enjoy it,” Lenus said.
    A beneficiary identified as Mrs Olutoyin Adeyemi lauded the church for the gesture.
    Olutoyin urged the government, other churches and well-meaning Nigerians to remember the needy members in their midst and assist them.
     “Nigerians should be their brothers’ keeper. Those that have should give to those who don’t have. People should stop accumulating wealth for themselves because it would be useless when they die,” she said.

  • Niger can feed Africa, says Osinbajo

    Niger State has the capacity to produce assorted crops that will feed Africa, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said.

    He spoke in Minna, the Niger State capital, where he declared open a two-day Niger State Economic Submit with the theme: Impact investment for advancing agricultural economy and innovation.

    The conference, which attracted economic experts, industrialists and manufacturers and some state governors, was organised to attract investors in various sectors to boost the state’s economy.

    Osinbajo praised Governor Abubakar Bello for organising the conference, noting that it would assist in attracting investors, especially in the agricultural sector.

    He called on state governments to assist farmers with alternative sources of power, to enable them to process and preserve their produce.

    The Acting President said the Federal Government was ready to partner with state governments willing to rehabilitate federal infrastructure in their areas.

    “Niger State government is collaborating with the Federal Government to complete Baro Port,” he said, noting that such projects would create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

    Osinbajo said Niger was hosting three major hydro dams, adding that renewable energy was the way forward to increase the capacity of villagers and farmers for agricultural investment.

    He said there was also the need to improve on road infrastructure for enhanced agricultural development in the state.

    Bello said the state had large deposits of natural resources, such as hydro carbon at the Bida Basin, gold, copper, tin, iron ore, tantalite, kaoline and clay.

    He said the potential in the mining sector were untapped and open for investment.

    Similarly, there abound tourism sites, such as the Zuma Rock, Bark Empire Hills, Nagwamatse Well, Mongo Park Cenotaph and Gurara Waterfalls.

    Bello explained that the state government had developed a road map on some cardinal investment potential such as Banana Free Trade Zone, Garam Industrial Park, Baro Port and Suleja New Smart City.

  • Poultry farmers moan over feed cost

    With feed accounting for between 60 and 70 percent of production costs, poultry farmers are struggling with  high costs, Group Head, Policy & Strategy, Amo Byng Nigeria Limited, Francis Toromade, has said.

    He noted that corn and soybean meal — two key ingredients that make up almost 80 per cent of poultry feed — are volatile commodities.

    A tonne of locally-produced maize, he said, sells for N130,000 while the imported ones goes for N105,000. Because of this, he said poultry farmers had resorted to importing corn.

    Speaking in Lagos, Toromade said the industry’s challenges were unprecedented as the business was more complex, with the challenge of increasing corn export to neighbouring countries.

    The impact, according to him, has led to a drop in profits, pushing some farmers out of business. Eggs and chicken are among the cheapest and most-widely consumed protein staples in Nigeria.

    In the meantime, the Coordinator, Natnupreneur, Mr. Gbolade Adewole.  said his organisation was working with local farmers to increase domestic poultry production.

    According to him, a spell of bad weather or shortage in production wyll send corn and soybean meal prices rocketing.

  • Oyo to feed 168,450 pupils

    Oyo to feed 168,450 pupils

    The Oyo State Government has announced that it will feed 168,450 pupils through the state’s Home Grown Feeding programme, an initiative of the Federal Government.

    Governor Abiola Ajimobi, disclosed this yesterday at the official launch of the programme held at the House of Chiefs, Secretariat, Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

    He explained that 2,408 public primary schools and 2,578 medically certified trained vendors would benefit from the programme, which is a collaborative effort of the federal government and some state governments.

    The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Moses Adeyemo, explained that the programme was part of the Federal Government’s social intervention scheme aimed at aiding the provision of basic education through feeding.

     He said the project was a welcome development especially during this period of recession when three meals per day have become increasingly rare in many homes.

    Ajimobi said that a report by the Food Consumption and Nutrition Survey in Nigeria captured the poor nutritional status of Nigerian children by revealing that 42 per cent of Nigerian children are stunted, 25% per cent underweight, nine per cent wasted, 29.55 per cent suffer from Vitamin A deficiency, while over 27 per cent are at different stages of iron and iodine deficiency.

    He stressed that the decision of the state to embrace the school feeding programme was a further demonstration of his administration’s commitment to tackling the problem of malnutrition among school age children in the state, pointing out that food items for the programme would be bought locally with attendant benefits to local farmers and the whole community which will enhance its sustainability.

    “It is apt to note that the Oyo State Agricultural initiative (also known as AgricOyo) which was recently put in place by our administration, is aimed at providing food for all as well as creating employment opportunities and reducing dependence on food importation,” Governor Ajimobi said.

  • Transforming cassava leaves into livestock feed

    Transforming cassava leaves into livestock feed

    Efforts are being made to transform cassava leaves and waste into livestock feeds. This will be a big business for farmers, writes Daniel Essiet.

    Cassava is a staple food, which plays a major role in the food system. Its tubers are rich in carbohydrates, calcium and ascorbic acid.

    Today, cassava has multiple uses and markets, ranging from consumption as food to processing into wet and dry starch. It is also processed into higher value food and industrial products, such as noodles, glucose, and maltose to textile starch, pharmaceuticals, cardboard, and glue. Starch extracted from it is used by a wide variety of industries—food, pharmaceutical, paper, adhesive, textile, mining and others.

    In the past four years, the government has tried to ensure cassava flour is substituted for wheat flour in baked products to reduce wheat import.

    Altogether, the market demand for cassava and value-added products are so strong that many Nigerians are  encouraged to grow it as a cash crop. Besides, the  multi-purpose cassava has attracted many projects and programmes working on its value chain. Several organisations are involved in processing to help drive industrial development while delivering higher incomes to smallholder farmers.But its use as a livestock feed has also been investigated. It  can be used as a substitute for feed grains as its leaf meal contains at least 20-percent protein.

    Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) is at the forefront of getting farmers and processors to explore income opportunities from using cassava leaves for livestock feeds.

    Consequently, ARMTI is exploring ways of processing cassava leaves to provide a sustainable source of animal feeds, increase incomes for farmers and boost food security.

    Its Acting Executive Director, Dr Olufemi Oladunni, sees the potential for further scaling-up improved livestock feeds with cassava leaves as huge.

    He believes use of cassava leaves as animal feed can reduce the high cost of feed, increase livestock production and create job opportunities.

    Addressing a seminar on “Unlocking the potentials of cassava leaves as livestock feed” in Abuja, Oladunni said the mission of  ARMTI was  to identify and analyse problems and needs and develop appropriate interventions.

    As such, generating a new feed resource from cassava leaves will lead to a reduction in the spate of conflict between crop farmers and herdsmen.

    One of the projects Oladunni has in the mind to boost this campaign is a feed mill where livestock feed made from cassava leaves could be packaged and sold in markets.

    Right now, there are few or none of such special feed mills across the country.

    Where they exist, they should produce poultry, pig, fish and dog feeds, using  cassava leaves. Promoting the establishments of such mills, Oladunni believes would not only enrich the farmers financially, but will also help other poultry or livestock farmers in accessing feeds at their door step.  ARMTI will be ready to assist  would be investors with training, technical services and advice.

    But the institute  is not alone in this project. The Federal Government is showing support, believing it can help to curb farmers-herdsmen clashes. It has huge potential once there is a functional   cassava leaves value chain geared towards processing such leaves into livestock feeds.

    Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world with a production figure of 50 million metric tonnes. “Cassava is a major food crop in Nigeria. “It is strategically valued for its role in food security, poverty alleviation and a source of raw materials for agro-allied industries in Nigeria with huge potential for export market. “It provides livelihood for over 30 million farmers,’’ the minister said.

    Represented by Dr Egejuru Eze, the Director, Animal Production and Husbandry Services in the ministry, during  the seminar in Abuja, Ogbeh said  the livestock industry had been bedevilled by some practices hence, the clashes.

    He said livestock could increase productivity, including milk yield and body weight, when fed with cassava leaves.

    According to him, cassava leaves have been found to be a good source of crude protein when made into silage.

    Lufarmco Investment Managing Director, Prof. Dolapo Lufadeju  and a consultant to the institute on the project  said Nigeria had not been able to move from pastoralism to domesticating cattle due to lack of feed.

    He said pastoralism had practised all over the world, especially in the United Kingdom, United States, and Russia, adding that it was after such countries had developed their livestock industry into a business that they began to domesticate cattle.

    He said they succeeded because they had all the feed their cattle needed. “Here we don’t have anything on which our cattle are based upon and development is fast catching up with the system of pastoralism. That is the reason for the conflict between farmers and herdsmen. What we are looking at is a major cattle industry that needs to be developed as a business. Crop production has advanced, but nothing has happened in terms of development of livestock in this country,’’ he added.

    Lufadeju maintained that cassava leaves could be used  for livestock feeding. His  words: ‘’Cassava hay or cassava leaf meal  have been used as a protein supplement in goats, sheep or cattle fed on poor quality diets have positive effects on animal performance.’’

    The Lufarmco Investment chief explained that one important constraint of cassava leaves for livestock is the  abandonment of the leaves on farmlands after harvest.

    He attributed it to the logistics involved during the collection of the product to obtain sufficient quantities.

    He said the aggregation of cassava leaves from scattered small farms is of  importance. To consolidate the use of cassava leaves, he  urged  the government to put  in place a system to harness all available cassava leaves for value addition.

    He  added: “ This way, cassava leaves would be efficiently integrated into the cassava value chain as livestock feed resource. This is, particularly, important at this juncture. If cassava leaves must be part of the livestock feeding strategy, it must be made available all year round.’’

    Lufadeju added that there was the  constraint of lack of technical knowledge on how to use cassava leaves in livestock feed. He said: “There is also the constraint of lack of knowledge and technical know how required particularly on; frequency of leaf harvest, quantity to be harvested without compromising root yields, the optimal period for harvesting, and the quantity to be fed to cattle , sheep or goat, either as supplement or as complete feed. While information is available in parts of the World especially Southeast Asia ( Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia), there is dearth of emperical research in Nigeria on feeding cassava foliage to ruminant livestock.”

    Meanwhile, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ibadan has developed a technology to process fresh cassava peels into high-quality cassava peels with better shelf life and nutrient profiles.

    This is the outcome of a multi-centre Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research( CGIAR) collaboration, which involved ILRI, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Potato Centre (CIP).

    The cassava peel processing technology began in late 2014. Through it about 50 million tonnes of peels that are being wasted yearly and treated as environmental nuisance will become  livestock feed commodity. It can add about 15 million tonnes of quality feed, creating $2 billion yearly in Africa, and  helping the livestock sector besides other multiple benefits, such as creating employment and incomes for processors, mostly women in the unorganised sector.

    The main factors contributing to the rapid development of this technology are that the processes involved are quite simple, using machinery and techniques that cassava processors are already aware of, and wide dissemination through multiple media and visits of the potential entrepreneurs to the ILRI pilot processing plant at Ibadan.

  • Farmers decry high feed prices

    Record-high feed costs this year have not been kind to many farmers who raise poultry, livestock and those in the feed processing business.

    A significantly lower than anticipated supply of corn (maize) has continued to drive an increase in corn prices.

    As a result, domestic prices have increased per tonne. Consequently, poultry producers are struggling to maintain operations due to inflated feed prices.

    Speaking with The Nation, Vice–President, Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON), Mr. Stephen Oladipupo,  said higher maize costs and low quality products have forced livestock farmers to consider a multitude of various ingredients for animal feed. Some  farmers, he explained, now  use  a mixture of products, including oil seed products and house hold wastes.

    Corn and Soybean prices, he noted, have soared following the prospect of higher-than-expected demand. Farmers across the country, he added, would struggle to achieve profitability this year with high prices of corn and soybeans.

    He said the poultry industry is confronting great challenges as feed accounts for roughly 70 per cent of production costs. He expressed concern that what the industry is witnessing is not an occasional spike in corn and soybeans.

    As a result, Oladipupo said producers have continued to face persistent tighter profit margins. He said producers are seeking alternatives to corn feed with limited success. Some farmers, he maintained, are using low-quality feed as they cannot raise domestic prices for poultry to offset feed costs.

    With increased production of livestock products, farmers have expressed fears that the industry will be confronted with decreasing supply of animal feeds across the country. Minimum poultry production costs, which encompass primarily, feed and energy expenses, have increased.

    A prolonged rise in their prices has squeezed farm income, forcing some producers to cut spending or turn to their banks for help.

    Oil seed product is now prominent  as farmers are constantly seeking ways to boost poultry production at a cheaper cost. But they cannot drop prices because the most essential input in the quality and quantity of raising animals is animal feed.

    On average, poultry feed accounts for 70 per cent of total production costs.

  • Olam diversifies into animal feed business

    Olam International Limited has announced that its grains platform plans to expand into animal feed and related businesses in Nigeria.

    According to its Head, Corporate and Government Relations, Ade Adefeko, the expansion involves investments in setting up poultry and fish feed mills as well as hatcheries to produce day-old-chicks. “These investments are consistent with Olam’s strategy to selectively invest in prioritised platforms, which includes the grains platform,” he said.

    He further highlighted that “the global animal feed industry is a large and growing part of the agri-commodity complex with attractive returns and a strong growth outlook, particularly in emerging markets’’.

    He said after a detailed study of the sector, the company has chosen Nigeria as its preferred entry market as it ranks favourably on the country selection criteria, which include meat consumption per capita, degree of fragmentation, extent of vertical integration and of commercial feed penetration, scalability potential as well as supply and demand factors impacting the feed raw material trade.

    On the firm’s focus on the Nigerian market, he said: “In Nigeria, increasing urbanisation and a change in consumer preference towards more protein-rich diets is driving a strong demand for poultry and aquaculture products and the commercial feed market is expected to grow at over 10 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over the next five years.”

    The investment is expected to build on Olam’s existing strengths in origination, which in the words of Adefeko “include extracting raw material cost efficiencies, sharing of port infrastructure, sourcing arbitrage, trading, ocean freight and risk management. The company has deep expertise and execution capabilities in Nigeria where it has been successful in executing cost-competitive projects, both brown field and green field, and operating them at world class efficiency levels. For example, Olam has a profitable and growing wheat milling business.”

    Olam will leverage its local procurement network to source a majority of other inputs required for producing poultry and fish feed. This will reduce import dependence, benefit local farming communities and generate youth employment, which are key priorities for the Nigerian economy today.

    There is optimism that the investment will also contribute to the development of the Nigerian poultry and aquaculture sectors by providing competitively priced inputs and technical support to local poultry and fish farmers, thereby improving productivity and returns for the sector.

  • Govt urged to reduce fish feed cost

    Fish farmers have urged  the Federal Government to reduce the cost of feed to make the industry attractive to Small Medium Enterprises (SME) and investors. Feed is said to  constitute  70 per cent of the cost of production.

    Speaking at an aquaculture value chain investors’forum in Lagos, with ‘Reducing the cost of fish production in Nigeria’as its theme, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) Gbola Akande said if the government sponsors long-term and low-interest loans with simplified borrowing procedures, it would reduce the cost of production and stimulate expansion of the fish farming industry.

    He called on the government to look into agricultural subsidy, ensure low interest rate on credits to farmers, and ensure moratorium periods and subsidies on aquaculture inputs especially fish feed.

    He added that government should make available soft loans to fish marketers to make farmed fish affordable to consumers, stressing that there is need to source a local fishmeal to replace the foreign fishmeal.

    President, Lagos State Catfish and Allied Farmers Association (LASCFA), Mr Femi Ajala, called on government to remove all tariffs on agricultural inputs such as extruders, fishmeal and plants, in effort to make locally produced fish feeds to compete favourably with imported ones.

    He said tariffs on fish meal which is key ingredients in the production of fish feeds should be removed.

    Chairman, Lagos State Chapter, Fishery Society of Nigeria, Habeeb Giwa, said the imported fish feeds means a lot of revenue and it drains our naira.

    Giwa called on the government to provide the facilities to produce fish feed in the country and urged other stakeholders to contribute to making the fish feed as cheap as possible.

  • How we plan to feed Nigerians, by Dangote Group

    How we plan to feed Nigerians, by Dangote Group

    The Dangote Group is confident that with its ongoing agricultural projects, Nigeria is on its way of being self-sufficient in  food production.

    The firm said it was determined to support the Federal Government in its effort to revolutionise the agricultural sector and make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production.

    Dangote pledged to continue to invest in fertiliser, rice, tomato paste and sugar production, among others.

    Only last year, the group signed a Memorandum of Association (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to invest $1 billion for the establishment of fully integrated rice production and processing operations.

    The statement said the MoU and the planned investment were  response to government’s reforms of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) launched in 2011.

    The statement said the company has acquired 150,000 hectares of farmlands in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states to be used for commercial production of rice paddy.

    The company will also establish two modern large-scale mills each with capacity to mill 120,000 metric tonnes of rice paddy, while doubling the capacity within two years.

    The statement said this will become the single largest investment in rice production in Africa.

    The rice plants estimated to produce 960,000 metric tonnes, representing 46 per cent of total rice imported into Nigeria.

    Its president Aliko Dangote said during the signing of the MoU that Nigeria “is capable of producing rice that can feed the whole of West African sub region.”

    A statement from the Dangote Group also said it was investing in tomato paste production in Kano, as well as a $2 billion fertiliser projects in Edo State.