AFEEZ HANAFI, who was at Iseyin, Oyo State, reports that a dairy development programme in the community is changing the chain of milk processing, storage and distribution in the country

The joy Ahmadu Abdullahi exuded was as apparent as day broke at the milk collection centre in Maya, the artery of Iseyin, Oyo State. From a broad smile on his face, one could easily conclude the 45-year-old dairy farmer had got off to a good start in the day. As early as 9am on a Thursday in May, the father of 4 had already pocketed N7,200 from 40 litres of milk he ferried on his motorcycle to sell at the centre.

Abdullahi struck the daily ‘cool cash’ business 6 years ago making over N200,000 every month. Before then, he realised only half of the income after his wife must have worked her fingers to the bone to make local cheese (colloquially known as wara) and hawk it around neighbouring towns for hours. Many times, Abdullahi had used the family’s proceeds to pay crop farmers damages incurred by stray cattle he grazed around communities.

FRIESLANDCAMPINA WAMCO TO THE RESCUE

In 2014, those troubling trends changed for good after he enlisted in the Dairy Development Programme, an initiative of FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria to boost local milk production. Alongside several other herders, the dairy products company trained Abdullahi in how to get better economic value for milk with little stress instead of engaging in strenuous cheese production with meagre proceeds.

“It has relieved my wife of the stress of sitting behind fire for 3 hours to make cheese and travelling to Ibadan (Oyo State capital) to sell it,” the pastoralist said about the initiative. “I started dairy farming 6 years ago after the company approached us. I sell 4 cans raw milk every day. Each can contains 20 litres and we sell a litre for N180. Before the company started buying raw milk from us, we produced N2,000 worth of cheese with 20-litre milk.”

To guarantee 2-litre milk yield per cow daily, Abdullahi now grazes his cattle within the vicinity, feeding them with good pastures and clean water from solar-powered boreholes sunk in strategic locations by the company. “For a long time, I have not had any misunderstanding with farmers over destruction of farms by my cows,” he noted, grinning from ear to ear.

In a report published 29 November 2020, titled “Struggle of dairy farmers battling wastage, poor value chain amid huge milk imports,” our correspondent detailed how hundreds of pastoralists, especially women in Bodinga, Sokoto State, worked like elephants and ate like ants. The story also told of untapped milk potential of a multitude of cows in the agrarian community due to poor value chain, limited market strength as well as lingering farmer-herder crisis caused by open grazing. The conflict led to killings of more than 1,300 people between January and June 2018 alone, according to the International Crisis Group.

But in Iseyin, many dairy farmers have outlived those disconcerting scenarios many years ago. Bello Salihu is another pastoralist in Maya tapping into the DDP. On daily basis, he smiles home from the milk collection centre with N14,400 in exchange for 4 cans of milk that once fetched him N8,000 after onerous cheese hawking.

“Our wives went through a lot of stress to sell cheese,” 40-year-old Salihu said. “There were occasions customers would make part-payment and refuse to pay the balance. But since we started dairy farming, the challenges have stopped and we have more value for milk.” Most importantly, constant rifts between him and crop farmers had been largely laid to rest and paved the way for peace to reign.

He added, “We don’t graze our cows on a long distance again because we have realised that it is unhealthy for getting quality milk. That knowledge has put an end to fights between us and farmers. There may be skirmishes once in a while but we settle our differences amicably.”

NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR WOMEN

The DDP initiative is working wonders in the lives of Iseyin women in the dairy sector and it is glaring in Amina Idris’ radiant looks. The imprint of stress she went through some 7 years ago when she always travelled to Lagos and Ibadan to sell cheese has long vanished from her face.

Every day, she transports 160 litres of milk to Maya Milk Collection Centre and returns home happily with N28,800. She said, “My husband has two barns comprising over 100 local cows. We collect 8 cans (160 litres) of milk every day from them. Before the company partnered with us, we used milk to make cheese. Then, the stress was much more than the profit realised. I travelled to Lagos, Ibadan and Eruwa to sell cheese. But selling raw milk is less stressful and we make more gains.”

Women in Akele, a suburb of Iseyin, are also taking advantage of the scheme despite lacking formal education. Training delivered in local Fulfulde and Yoruba languages has helped them to find a fortune in dairy.

Amina Galadima told our correspondent about a remarkable improvement in her family’s living standard since they ditched cheese and nunu (locally-fermented milk) for raw milk sold to the company. “I used to make cheese and nunu every day. I hawked around and travelled to Ibadan to sell,” she recounted in Yoruba, a second local language she understands fairly well.

Amina, whose husband collects 20 to 22 litres of milk from cows daily, said the business was much more productive than cheese making. She also admitted the scheme had brought about peaceful coexistence among crop and dairy farmers in the neighbourhood.

She noted, “Besides, I don’t have to hawk or travel to Ibadan again. My husband and I have been working with FrieslandCampina for 10 years and we send 3 of our 7 children to school with the money we make from milk sales. Cows give more milk if they are not taken on long distances for grazing. We have learnt to keep our cows within the vicinity to get enough milk. But once in a while, if our cows stray into farms, we approach the owner and pay for the damage. We handle it in a way that doesn’t lead to a fight.”

In her late 60’s, Amina’s mother-in-law, Alhaja Awawu Galadima, is still adept at milk production that earns her N5,400 within 2 hours of relaxed labour. “I sell 30 litres of milk every day,” Awawu, who is the leader of about 50 dairy women in the community, said. “This community supplies about 20 cans of milk (400 litres) to the company daily.”

Her granddaughter, 18-year-old Aminat Lawal, has become proud of the job and intends to take it to the next level after graduating from the university. “I assist my parents to milk cows, especially whenever the school is on holidays,” the 100-level Political Science student at the Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State, stated. “If I have the opportunity, I will set up my own farm, keep cows there and provide them with pastures. I won’t graze them around at all,” she said.

SMALLHOLDER FARMERS MAKING WAVES

Aminat’s dream farm fits into what Olatunde Moyosore practises on 80 acres of land in Olora village, Iseyin, through partnership with FrieslandCampina WAMCO. The 39-year-old farmer has 2 separate barns where he keeps over 50 local cows and crossbreeds produced via artificial insemination.

From multi-layered 50-acre pastures to a solar-powered borehole, the farm contains everything required for the wellbeing of cows within the expansive yard. There is also a farmstead providing lodging for Moyosore and some of his workers who are of Yoruba and Fulani extraction.

Through series of training within and outside the country, Moyosore, a graduate of the Federal School of Surveying, Oyo, has carved a niche for himself as a smallholder farmer, while keeping tabs on latest trends in dairy production. He spoke of the huge commercial value of crossbreeds, each of which produces at least 10 litres of milk daily compared to about two litres derived from a local cow.

“I sell an average of 120 litres of milk every day and the bulk of it comes from the crossbreeds. This is the future of dairy in Nigeria,” Moyosore remarked passionately. “I have peace now unlike before when I grazed my cows around the community. They damaged crops and most times I used my proceeds to pay damages. Now, I grow feed for them and they don’t go out. They also drink clean water.”

With eight workers assisting him on the farm and at an annex of about 25 acres, Moyosore continues to grow in leaps and bounds in the dairy business. “The relationship between me and my workers has been fantastic. There are Fulani among them but we don’t have any issues,” he said assuredly.

One of Moyosore’s workers, 19-year-old Muhammadu Yakubu, confirmed the cordial relationship, saying he stays in the farmhouse for 2 months before travelling home to check on his family. “I collect N20,000 monthly. I have been working with my boss for over a year now and there is a mutual relationship between us. He gives me shelter where I stay for 2 months before I travel to see my wife and child in Saki (a town in Oyo State).”

Solomon Ogunsola is the manager of a farm located at Iya Ibeji village, along Iseyin Road. He manages a smallholding the size of Moyosore’s annex with more than 100 cows and 8 workers on the farm’s payroll. Ogunsola said, “10 of the cows are crossbreeds. They don’t graze around. We live harmoniously with farmers because we don’t allow our cows destroy their crops.”

Interestingly, Iseyin smallholder farmers like Moyosore and Ogunsola ride on the expertise of Deborah Atunbi, an inseminator employed by the dairy company, to increase production and gains. A graduate of Animal Husbandry, Atunbi said the success rate of artificial insemination in Iseyin hovered around 50% while working tirelessly to improve on the achievement. She stated, “The farmers have been trained. When they notice their cows are on heat, they call me for insemination. The success rate depends on many factors such as the history of the cows.”

BRISK INCOME FOR OKADA RIDERS

Okays retracing exercise in non-conflict zones

Not all pastoralists can afford ranching –Agric ministry

In spite of the overwhelming outcry against the plan to retrace and recover grazing routes across the country, the Federal Government is not showing signs of relenting.

Saturday PUNCH findings revealed that stock routes, popularly called grazing routes, are currently being retraced and recovered by the Federal Government for herders to graze their cattle.

The Federal Government said this was meant to address the clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

Although some of the routes are believed to have been encroached upon due to human activities, Saturday PUNCH found out that the government had embarked on a process of identifying monuments along the routes in order to get them back as locations for cattle grazing.

Contrary to the expectations of many Nigerians particularly in South that the grazing routes retracing and eventual recovery might not see the light of day, officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development told one of our correspondents on Friday that the routes’ recovery would go on.

They, however, said it would be done mainly in non-conflict zones.

They also stated that routes that had been encroached upon as a result of the development of public infrastructure might be left out of the recovery exercise.

The acting Director, Animal Husbandry Department, FMARD, Winnie Lai-Solarin, stated that while cattle ranching had been one of the major options canvassed for herders, not every pastoralist would be able to afford ranching at the moment.

She said, “There are some stock routes that we have across the country, and in the past, we had monuments along these stock routes, particularly the primary stock routes.

“And in the course of farming or other human activities along those stock routes, the monuments were altered, but we know where they are. So we are saying that some of them can be retraced.

“And this is particularly for areas that are not encroached upon as of now. The pastoralists know the routes, and on some of those routes, you will see the pieces of the monuments along them.”

Lai-Solarin added, “So for those that are not encroached upon and are not in conflict zones, we will go ahead to retrace and guide the pastoralists along them. We didn’t get to where we are today in one day and so we cannot expect that every pastoralist should suddenly start ranching now.

“Some would still have to move but let’s keep the movement as safe as possible and in areas that are not conflict zones. That is what I am saying. We are not going to retrace stock routes where there are infrastructures that are for the public good.”

Another official at the FMARD familiar with the development stated that the government was not happy with the killings associated with clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

The official, who requested not to be named for lack of authorisation, explained that the stock routes were in three classes.

The source said, “We need to create safe places that are easy for them (herders) to graze their cattle so that they won’t need to travel on the roads. We have primary and secondary stock routes and in some cases, we have tertiary stock routes.”

Providing further explanation on the three classes of routes, the official said, “The primary stock routes are the major routes that run in a North-to-South direction from the Sahel to the coastal market.

“And then, there are some major routes that run inter-state from the North, while others run intra-state.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, had announced on Thursday that the Federal Capital Territory and 22 states had registered for the National Livestock Transformation Plan as part of measures to establish grazing reserves in their domains.

He also announced that seven of these states had earmarked 400,000 hectares of land for the initiative, as the establishment of grazing reserves were currently ongoing in Nasarawa, Borno, Niger, Kaduna and some other states.

“Twenty-two states and the Federal Capital Territory have registered with the NLTP office, out of which 10 states have created their own teams which have been trained by the federal office,” Nanono stated.

He explained that seven of the 10 states earmarked about 19 grazing reserves for the implementation of the NLTP, with a total land size of approximately 400,00 hectares.

The NLTP was designed by the Federal Government to address the lingering farmer-herder crisis across the country. The plan was inaugurated by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in 2018 at the Gongoshi Grazing Reserve in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

The plan was designed to run from 2019 to 2028 as a collaborative project among the federal and state governments, farmers, pastoralists, and private investors.

In February 2021, the Federal Government said it had mapped out 30 grazing reserves across the country for the NLTP implementation.

However, some states, especially in the south, had rejected the idea, saying they had no land to donate to the Federal Government for the initiative. They said any individual who wanted to go into ranching should rather look for land and buy.

But in a new twist, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), during a recent interview with Arise Television, supported open grazing.

He said he had directed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to produce a gazette which delineated grazing routes in all parts of the country in the First Republic.

The President stated, “What I did was to ask him (Malami) to go and dig the gazette of the First Republic when people were obeying laws.

“There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herdsmen) were moving upcountry, north to south or east to west. They had to go through there.”

The President’s statement followed Malami’s recent criticism of Southern governors for banning open grazing, saying their action was like banning the sale of spare parts in the North.

However, several Southern states and institutions like the Nigerian Bar Association and the Pan-Niger Delta Forum have faulted the President on the revival of old grazing routes.

For instance, states including Ondo, Delta, Cross River, Enugu, Benue, Akwa Ibom, and Oyo said there was no existence of a gazette which marked out grazing routes for cattle across the country.

The state governments also insisted on the ban on open grazing despite the President’s opposition to it.

Also, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, insisted that there was no law on grazing routes in any part of Nigeria.

Rather, the lawmaker said the law on grazing reserves recognised as a state law in the 1999 Constitution actually criminalised open grazing.

The Osun Central Senatorial District Senator, who holds a doctoral degree in property law, gave the clarification in a statement personally signed by him titled, ‘No law of grazing routes in Nigeria: Either North or South.’

He stressed that modern animal husbandry practices remained the panacea to herders/farmers clashes in Nigeria.

Basiru said, “The Grazing Reserves Laws in some states created from the former Northern Region of Nigeria are deemed to be state laws by Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“They have been adopted from the Grazing Reserve Law of Northern Region of Nigeria (NN Law of 1965), including CAP 3 Laws of Kwara State, CAP 56 Laws of Bauchi State and CAP 55 Laws of Katsina State.

“On the case of these laws, it was expressly stated that they were adopted from northern Nigeria Laws of 1965. There is no provision for grazing routes as it is being claimed.”

Basiru insisted that there had never been any federal legislation on Grazing Reserves and/or Grazing Routes in Nigeria, and northern region laws were not applicable everywhere in Nigeria. He said by the present constitutional provisions, such law could not be within the competence of the National Assembly.

“However, what is ‘trade route’ was not defined in the law and there is no other reference to the term ‘trade route’ in the law. Under those laws, animals are only allowed to graze in the grazing reserve or ‘trade route,’” the Senate spokesperson added.

Only four states ready for ranching –FG

Meanwhile, of the over 20 states that have assented to the National Livestock Transformation Plan, the Federal Government says only four are ready for the scheme’s take-off. They are Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Kaduna states.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Dr Andrew Kwasari, said before the end of June, the four states would receive the Federal Government’s counterpart funding of 51 per cent

“We are finalising the processes in the four states that are ready – Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Kaduna. So the Federal Government is working on it. I’m sure by the end of the month, they will have it (counterpart funding),” Kwasari told Saturday PUNCH.

He said the states that were ready to implement the NLTP would receive 49 per cent funding from the Federal Government.

He said, “The Federal Government is working to support states and individuals in implementing the NLTP, which was approved by the National Council of Agriculture in conjunction with the National Economic Council. It’s basically to train the pastoralists in the technical skills they need to run ranches. That’s what we’re working on.

“The Federal Government is providing 49 per cent funding, which is about N100bn. The remaining 51 per cent funding is to come from the private sector and development partners.”

Asked if the Federal Government was reaching out to development organisations like the African Development Bank and World Bank to support the NLTP project, Kwasari answered in the affirmative.

“They are all welcome. In Nasarawa State, we have already gotten a grant of