There are lessons for us to copy from other countries
Muhammadu Damakka Abubakar is the President of Commercial Dairy Rancher’s Association of Nigeria (CDRAN), an umbrella body of local dairy producers and farmers in Nigeria. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of L&Z Integrated Farms. In this interview,
Having been in the dairy business for long, do you think ranching is possible in Nigeria?
I always say we don’t need to reinvent the wheel because other countries like India, Sri Lanka and Kenya have passed through similar phenomena and they have successfully managed to get out of the menace. I see no reason why we wouldn’t share their experiences and solve our problems.
What they did is to bring these pastoralists into clusters and the government provides grazing areas, sources of water and other facilities to them. I believe such can be replicated in Nigeria with places like the Birnin Gwari forest in Kaduna, Falgore in Kano, Ruggu in Katsina, just name it. However, these places have been left to be used as hiding places for criminals instead of economically utilising them to the benefit of the people.
In a nutshell, ranching is possible in Nigeria only if the right policy that will ensure adequate provision of what is required is being enacted, and also if mechanisms to strict adherence to such policies are put in place.
Don’t you think ranching for the local pastoralists seems too expensive for the government to handle?
With the right political will, it is not. We have seen how a simple backward integration policy on cement has completely changed the cement industry to an extent that the bulk of Nigeria’s cement demand now comes from within.
Therefore, if such policies will be adopted in ranching the pastoralists, I believe a meaningful achievement will definitely be recorded.
As I mentioned earlier, if other countries could do it, I see no reason why Nigeria as a nation wouldn’t.
How would you rate the grazing bill being proposed?
No doubt there are a lot of misconceptions on the whole issue at different levels. However, what the public needs to understand is that these herders are also farmers and therefore deserve every intervention from all authorities just as it is obtainable in other agricultural sectors.
For instance, when you are importing dairy products into the country, you are charged five to 10 per cent duty and you do not need to write to anyone for waiver. But when you are importing dairy equipment, you have to pay 25 per cent unless you write to the Ministry of Industry that will make a case for a waiver at the Ministry of Finance. Virtually, government is encouraging importation rather than encouraging local production of dairy products.
This is what is making the industry unfavourable to investors and as such making way to all the other issues relating to pastoralist’s crises, among other issues. The bottom line here is that there is no enabling environment for the pastoralists to turn what they are doing into real business.
There is this claim that the bill is to address vandals and cattle rustling issues and not the business aspect. Do you believe that?
Either way, if there is a good political will in the bill: it will serve a purpose; it is a clear issue of one thing leading to another.
Would you suggest replacement of local cattle breeds with exotic breeds in ranching?
For now, I would say let us start by mopping the little production we could get from the local cows and if we realise we need more, then we could go further into development of the exotic breed. As we are today, the local breeds can only give you two litres on average per day and the exotic breeds can give you up to 30 litres in a day.
However, going by the 1999 census which says Nigeria has about 20 million cattle, and also going by the statistics that Nigerians consume 10 million litres of dairy products per day; you will see that on average, half of the 20 million local breed give 1 litre each per day. With that, we will be able to meet up with our daily dairy products demand without importing any.
This has brought us back to my earlier statement of having a good policy. Agreed, ranching isn’t as simple as it may look like. There is a need for a vast land and other basic amenities that will establish an enabling environment for the pastoralists to settle down. What do you think is the way out? Let us study how others did theirs and see how we could modify their approach for adoption into our system. That can only be done through effective policy formulation. You see, the typical pastoralist usually does not have a voice to buttress his feelings; and as operators, we have written letters to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN governor and no acknowledgment was obtained. We also had a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and we are still waiting.
However, we will continue to make efforts for authorities to see reason in what we are doing and saying.
Similarly, my company, L and Z Integrated Farms, has managed to settle some Fulani communities with the intervention of the Kano State Government which gave out 60 hectares of land while the company provides a source of water, school and also makes provision for upkeep. The milk they produce assist them to form cooperatives in order to access other opportunities.
We started with just five Fulani households and in one month over 25 households have settled in that area and they no longer move; imagine if such is