Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State has launched the 1, 000 milk farm project in Damau village of Kubau local government area of the state.
The project which is a joint venture between the state government, ArDanish dairy giant Arla and Miyyetti Allah cattle breeders association of Nigeria would help to produce high-quality milk and reduce over-reliance on imported milk.
According to him, during the groundbreaking ceremony, on Friday ‘we regard this as a pragmatic and sustainable solution to security challenges that now accompany the nomadic livestock production. With 2,800 cows per district making 14,000 across the five districts while each livestock farmer will have 5hcs of land complete with a farmhouse, cattle shade and irrigated land.”
He also explained that the project was designed to have facilities like schools, police post and primary health centres stores and market, saying, ‘it is a public-private partnership which will provide solar power and water for the farms.
According to him, the state government signed an MOU on September 9, 2019, with Arlan food to transform the livestock sector in the state noting that both agreed to transform livestock sector in the state both committed change livestock from culture to business.
Kaduna State government with the support of Central bank of Nigeria and Arla of Demark agreed to invest in a project that will create jobs in a livestock sector to promote economic development and help resolve security problems by demonstrating a viable alternative to the itinerant method of rearing of cattle and sheep.
He noted that they will infuse modern technology into the livestock production improve yield and empower farmers and replace strive with prosperity, adding that the same gesture will be replicated in all the gazetted grazing reserves in the state to eliminate nomadic livestock farming and educate the children and empower them economically in modernising dairy production.
He also said that certificate of occupancy will be offered to the 1000 dairy cattle farmers for their farmland, while Arla food will also provide the needed commercial services and will purchase, collect and process and bring the local milk to the market.
In his remarks, Kaduna State chairman Miyyeti Allah cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) Haruna Usman described the gesture as good initiative and the global system of grazing cows, hence called on the Federal Government to reciprocate such project across the 36 states to reduce crisis associated with local grazing.
Speaking at the event, the Ambassador Embassy of Denmark H.E.Jesper Kamp said Nigeria has a fast-growing population, saying such a project can help in developing the Nigerian economy by creating more jobs to the people. He added that developing the dairy sector will bring about positive benefit to the security situation by controlling the pastoralists while increasing local food security.
