By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian federal government, together with its advancement partners, have actually proffered a roadmap to minimize the cost of production and the impacts of perpetual cost volatility in the animal feed market.
This was a core message provided by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, at the second National Animal Feed Summit kept in Abuja just recently.
He said that the top, with the style Harnessing Alternative Feed Resources for Sustainable Animal Feed Supply, lined up with the goals and program of the federal government to enhance the animal feed policy, feed worth chain, feed quality assurance and safety, and nationwide tactical feed reserve, among others.
Mr Abubakar explained that “the role of animal feed in Nigeria’s agriculture sector was critical as it would provide essential nutrients and support for livestock and production”.
He kept in mind that the animal feed market was defined by a mix of little and big scale, standard and modern-day techniques combined with obstacles such as absence of access to credit and markets, low financial investment in research study and advancement among others.
Speaking even more, the Minister mentioned that to satisfy the increasing need for animal feed in Nigeria, there was a requirement for development and innovation to establish sustainable and effective production techniques which would support small and rural neighborhoods.
He, for that reason, charged stakeholders to ponder on a single platform, and methods and develop a robust implementable nationwide animal feed policy.
On his part, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Ernest Umakhihe, represented by the Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mr Imeh Umoh, revealed that the animal feed market in Nigeria was far from conference nationwide sufficiency in production.
He said the factor was that Nigeria was understood to produce approximately 5.5 million tonnes per year consisting of 85 percent poultry feeds and has the prospective to grow not less than 50 million metric tonnes per year if the industrial ruminant and swine feeding sub-sectors were utilized.
He worried that the feed sector had the prospective to engage over 20 million Nigerians, as the market was yet to reach 25 percent of its market size.
Mr Umakhihe kept in mind that, Nigeria’s animal feed sector stayed underdeveloped due to the high cost of components and other production aspects, which led to market dislocation and hindered access to items, thus disallowing a typical farmer out of supply web, keeping in mind that these obstacles have actually demanded the requirement for the National Animal Feed Summit.
