The Niger State Government has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on milk production with an affiliate of Dutch dairy company, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc.
The agreement is for 10,000 hectares of land at the Bobi Grazing Reserve in Niger state to be used under the FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s Dairy Development Programme. President Muhammadu Buhari and the Prime Minister of The Netherlands, Mark Rutte were in attendance during the signing.
Punch reports that the MoU was signed by the Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Bello, and the President of FrieslandCampina Consumer Dairy, Roel van Neerbos, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the statement released by the subsidiary of the Netherlands based firm, the deal seeks the replication and expansion of local dairy production at the reserve, as well as training of dairy cooperatives in Niger State on best global practices. This follows the nine-year successes of the FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s Dairy Development Programme in Oyo, Ogun and Osun states.
The firm added that the public-private partnership was in line with the Federal Government’s National Livestock Transformation Plan seeking to grow livestock farming and transform the dairy sector into an economic force.
“Currently, the company has developed pasture on 1,000 of the 10,000 hectares of land assigned to it at the Bobi Grazing Reserve and established key infrastructure including a milk collection centre with a high capacity cooling tank and high-quality milk testing equipment,” the firm said.
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Why this matters: The partnership would no doubt aid job creation while also enabling dairy farmers to run their businesses optimally with higher yields and better milk quality.
So far, according to the firm, the initiative, which has been carried out across Oyo, Ogun and Osun states have benefitted over 7000 farmers, including 950 women, with a milk bulking centre, six milk collection centres and 20 milk collection points.
