A dairy milk collection centre built by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to collect cow milk from the Zawi Grazing Reserve Adamami, Shira Local Council, Bauchi State, has commenced daily production of 2,000 litres of milk to contribute to the country’s production gap.

Speaking at the project site, the CEO of L&Z Integrated Farms, Mohammadu Abubakar, whose dairy firm runs the collection centre, said the country is facing production shortage and needs to bridge the gap by settling the pastoralists where dairy products contribute to the nation’s economy.

According to him, “Nigeria imports about $1.5b milk products but what the Federal Government has done is to introduce a policy to encourage backward integration and import substitution and in that case, the Ministry for Livestock was established to focus on that.”  

He said if Nigeria could boost the aggregation and collection facilities, with 22 million cows, the country will bridge the milk shortage gap. On his part, the Chairman of Shira Council, Babangida Maliya, pledged rural support and provision of adequate security measures to protect the facility to contribute to the local economy.

Maliya appealed to pastoralists to supply milk to the facility, while improving their economic conditions and enrolling their wards in school. He pledged to ban the rural women and girls from going to farm; promising that instead he’ll ensure they focus on their education.

The ceremony was attended by the representative of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and District head of Shira and other stakeholders.