The livestock sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has risen to N3.23 trillion, the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, has said.
Maiha disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking on Trust TV’s Business Daily programme.
He said the Federal Government created the Ministry of Livestock Development to formalise and modernise the sector and unlock its economic potential.
According to him, the government has consolidated existing livestock policies into the National Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy, which has 10 pillars, while a National Livestock Master Plan with a 15-year trajectory has also been developed.
‘The livestock sector is about $32 billion,’ he said, adding that the government was working to increase productivity and develop the different parts of the livestock value chain.
Maiha said the number of states with dedicated livestock ministries or agencies had increased from three to 21.
He said the government was also promoting Livestock Development Centres through partnerships among the federal and state governments and the private sector.
‘The concept is to have a partnership between the federal government, the state government and the private sector,’ he said.
Maiha said the centres would focus on areas including genetic improvement, feed and fodder, animal health, biosecurity, processing and other aspects of the livestock value chain.
He said open grazing and nomadism were no longer sustainable, adding that the movement of animals over long distances affected productivity and contributed to conflicts.
‘Nomadism, free-open grazing is no longer sustainable. It is conflict-ridden,’ he said.
The minister said Nigeria had about 417 grazing reserves, many of which had not been rehabilitated and had been affected by encroachment.
He said the government was therefore working with states that were willing to provide land for livestock development centres and settled production systems.
Maiha also said the government planned to introduce identification and traceability systems for livestock using ear tags and radio-frequency identification.
‘We are going to have radio frequency identification, microchipping and ear tagging of every four-legged animal,’ he said.
He said the system would help the government track animal movement and establish reliable data on the country’s livestock population.
According to him, the data would also support disease control and vaccination planning for diseases including foot-and-mouth disease, peste des petits ruminants, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, anthrax, rabies and African swine fever.
Maiha said improving livestock production, processing and traceability would help Nigeria derive more economic value from the sector.