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China-Africa Trade Information Service
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Although the dairy industry in Nigeria is beginning to show signs of recovery, the industry is still in an extremely difficult position.
The dairy industry is the second largest segment of the food and beverages sub sector of the agriculture industry. Nigeria's yearly estimated production capacity is put at 560,000 to 570,000 tonnes of milk which represents 13 per cent of West African regional production.
It is learned that with estimated annual milk consumption of 1.7 million tonnes, the domestic demand for milk outstrips the estimated production of 0.6 million tonnes. This unfortunately represents 34 per cent demand.
According to statistics obtained from the Business Innovation Facility, BIF, a U.K. DFID funded programme, milk production deficit of over 1 million tonnes costs Nigeria an estimated annual spend of USD$480.3 million for importation of milk in the last five years.
Domestic milk production is dominated by nomadic herdsmen without capacity to meet huge demand gap due to low milk yield, poor feed and heavily burdened cows, in addition to primitive milking process, storage and transportation technology.
To bring the country out of the despondency, the BIF, has initiated a vision for the market. The initiative aims at promoting the integration of small holder dairy farmers into the formally commercially driven dairy sector.
Within the dairy market, BIF has been successful in tripling milk yields, reducing processing losses by 20 per cent and is now bringing processing to rural communities. With Nigeria the largest producer of milk in West Africa, introducing innovations to the market has the potential to provide both growth and poverty alleviation at a national scale.
To address this lack of high quality, affordable fodder, BIF introduced a simple innovation, using napier grass as a fodder for increased milk yield. The BIF invested £10,000 on 2.1 hectares of land in two different models which demonstrated potential increases in milk yield of 76 per cent per cow per day (from 1 to 3 litres). As a result, 500 pastoralists have adopted the use of napier grass, which has led to significant increases in incomes.