Royal FrieslandCampina and its Nigerian affiliate, FrieslandCampina WAMCO have sealed pacts with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to roll out new dairy programmes designed to safeguard food and nutrient security in Nigeria.

Specifically, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh and the Chief Executive Officer, FrieslandCampina, Roelof Joosten, signed a Farmer2Farmer agreement during the minister’s two-day working tour of the Dutch company’s facilities recently.

Besides, FrieslandCampina also announced its decision to invest N3 billion in its dairy development small holder dairy farmer programme in Nigeria.

Corporate Affairs Director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Ore Famurewa, said: “with the Farmer2Farmer programme, FrieslandCampina aims to deploy member dairy farmers to train and advise local dairy farmers on feeding and watering of cattle, calf-rearing, milking hygiene and practice, milking machine maintenance, hoof care, housing and barn design.”

To ensure training for undergraduates in Nigerian tertiary Institutions for FC WAMCO’s ongoing Dairy Development Programme (DDP) in Nigeria, the Managing Director of FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, Rahul Colaco and Dr. Martin C. Th. Scholten, Member, Board of Directors of Wageningen University and Research Centre, signed an expression of interest for academic and technical support.

To step up its current activities, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and FrieslandCampina WAMCO also agreed to renew their MoU on the company’s dairy development programme this month as the firm intends to provide support to a FMARD subsidiary, Milcopal in Kaduna, under the terms of the revised MoU.