Why price of beef keep spiking – Official 

The high cost of feeds and water coupled with the spate of insecurity may be responsible for the rising cost of cow meat in the country, an official of the Federal Government has revealed

Nigerians have continued to raise concern over the rising cost of meat among other proteins a kilo of beef costs about N6000-N7000 as against N3000-N3500 a few months back

The Director, Animal Husbandry Services, Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, Mrs Winnie Lai Solarin, while speaking at a media engagement in Abuja feared that if Notting is done to support pastoral farmers in the country a kilo of beef may hit N10,000 soon.

She said “The livestock sector has been neglected, what we need in this sector is feed and water as well as market regulations for our products, a lot of these things are not in place. 80 percent of the meat on our table is from the pastoralists and if the pastoralists are embattled you don’t expect things to go well.

The Director further regretted that Nigerians did not allow the Ruga initiative to see the light of day, saying the initiative was aimed at scaling up investment in the livestock sector just like was being done with crop production.

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Solarin said insecurity has made many farmers unable to go to farms.

While bemoaning the lackadaisical attitude of state governments to the sector, the Director pointed out that the federal government has done a lot in livestock development, and expected that the state government do the same.

“Most of these projects are in the states; the federal government does not have lands, but states are doing little to maintain those grazing reserves and make sure they don’t dilapidate. We call on the state government to invest more in the livestock sector,” Solarin said.