Nigeria is undoubtedly blessed with favourable demography. With 200 million people, and a population growth rate of 2.5 percent per annum, businesses are tapping opportunities the demographic advantage provides to scale.
The local dairy industry is boosted by the rising growth of a young population and an upwardly mobile workforce that spends much time outside their homes.
Like other sub-sectors, the local dairy industry is also benefitting from this demographic edge. The market for cheese, yoghurt, ice cream, butter, and infant formula is growing continuously owing to increased demand.
A report by Agusto & Co. says that the milk segment remains the largest in the industry, accounting for an estimated 61 percent of the industry’s turnover.
Nigeria’s national dairy output per annum is 700, 000 metric tons while the national demand is put at 1.3 million metric tons annually, leaving a gap of 600,000MT, according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
Like most countries in the world, the Nigerian dairy sector is dominated by smallholder farmers who operate on small-scale farmlands and are largely nomadic.
A good number of them who settle in a place live far away from major cities while focusing on rearing their herds for meat with milk as a by-product.
The larger focus on rearing cows for meat amongst several inefficiencies in the sector has led to the shortage of raw milk for use in the production of healthy products such as cheese, yoghurt, and packaged milk.
The shortage means the country needs to channel a sizable portion of its scarce foreign exchange, as much as $2.5 billion in 2020, into importing raw milk to bridge the gap in local milk supply – a setback to the nation’s forex reserve and the incomes of smallholder dairy farmers.
To ensure that Nigeria’s dairy farmers become competitive as their global counterparts, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State is changing the narrative of the dairy farmers in the state.
The move is meant to reduce the importation of milk and improve the welfare of the farmers while bridging the huge infrastructural gaps to reduce local production costs for farmers.
The higher institution of learning has established a milk collection centre code-named Dairy Village, in partnership with FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria PLC, to help dairy farmers sell their milk.
The initiative, a brainchild of Joshua Ogunwole, the vice chancellor and a professor of Soil Physics, is part of the institution’s community service and sustainable economic empowerment opportunities through research and development.
During a recent tour of the facility sited within the campus by selected Journalists, the reality on the ground showed that the initiative is giving a lifeline to dairy farmers in Iwo and across the state.
Dairy farmers in the community who majorly process their milk into cheese, which bring little or no returns are already smiling to the banks as the Bowen initiative has not only saved them time and energy, it has also offered them extra income that is impacting their livelihoods.
Tunde Lawal, a professor of Animal Science in the institution, who is in charge of the project, said plans have already commenced taking the initiative to another level, one of which is the establishment of pasturage in preparation for special cows that can yield more milk than the local animals in the country.
“Already, we have the semen from Girolando breed of cattle from Brazil for artificial cross-breeding with our local animals,” he said.
“The animals have been impregnated already. It means the calves from the animals will be hybrid. They’ll be producing milk in very high quantities.”
According to him, the calves will be producing 15 litres of milk as against the one and a half or two litres produced by the local breeds
“Research has confirmed that the process will be successful and the animals can cope with our weather successfully. Then, the university will, in turn, make the cow available for the local farmers in Iwo and train them on grazing and management of the cow.
“The hybrids given out to the farmers will be servicing the female local breeds. We’ll extend it beyond Iwo and even to the national level if the experiment is successful.
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He noted that the research on the availability of the special animals and their feed is ongoing and the university will make the animals accessible to local farmers across the state.
Also, Olugbenga Ajibade, the agric officer of the school, who is in charge of the paddock, revealed that the institution has 33 cattle currently, and said they are working hard to reach the 100 targets.
“We cannot start with 100 cattle at a go, that’s why we are starting with this number, along the line, we’ll reach the target,” he said.
According to him, these particular breeds are foreign and are being used for mating purposes to produce more active breeds to improve the production rate of milk in cattle.
“With the use of local breeds alone; the production rate is always low but with the use of Artificial Insemination, there will be an increase in production of milk, unlike the local breeds.”
He added that aside from milk production, the cattle are meant for commercial, teaching and research purposes.
“One of the areas we need to also take seriously is feeding. To achieve our dream, we have imported Brachiaria species of grasses mainly for their feeding. Currently, we have more than 10 acres of land planted with grasses.”
Adebola Adewunmi Aderibigbe, the technical assistant to the vice chancellor and director of student affairs, who took the journalists on a tour around the facilities, revealed that the milk is sold raw at the point of sale to FrieslandCampina at Iseyin.
“The breeds of the cow we have in Nigeria have an estimated limited quantity of milk production. What Bowen is doing is to inseminate this breed with Girolando – a breed from Brazil,” he said.
“When you do that the produce of Girolando has a more commercial quantity value, compared to the local breeds. So, it is not about the number of cows, it is about the quality.”
Aside from the dairy initiative, the institution has recorded another first, which has positioned Nigeria on the SuperDARN global map and in the network of nations that play host to the international scientific radar network, with Virginia Tech. Nigerian Bowen Equatorial Aeronomy Radar (VT-NigerBEAR) project.
The facility is the first equatorial high-frequency radar in the world, which means that Bowen University has automatically become an international centre of excellence.
The feat holds immense benefits for Nigeria and the different stakeholders cutting across the industry and academia.
The initiative makes Nigeria the 12th country participating in the international scientific collaboration in the world.
The SuperDARN is a network of high-frequency (HF) radars located in the high and mid-latitude regions of both hemispheres that are operated under international cooperation. The network was originally designed for monitoring the dynamics of the ionosphere and upper atmosphere in the high-latitude regions.
However, over the last 15 years, SuperDARN has expanded into the mid-latitude regions.
Prof. Ogunwole, the vice chancellor of the institution described the facility as an impressive body of scientific knowledge on the nature and dynamics of the upper and mid-latitude, saying it holds immense promise for a wide spectrum of stakeholders within and outside this country.
“The case is different for equatorial lower latitudes despite growing evidence showing that ionospheric irregularities at the lower are significant. This justifies the need for this facility that will probe very intensely, the irregularities at these lower levels.”
Some of the benefits of the facility, according to him, include – enhancement of space weather research; positioning, surveying and oil exploration. He said the facility would also assist local and foreign industries to be scientifically accurate with material science for the African sub-region.
“It will also improve the teaching of science at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, particularly Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Science, Geography, Geoinformatics Geology and Astronomy.”
In his speech during the commissioning, Yemi Osinbajo, the vice president, said the importance of the project cannot be over-emphasised as it has the potential to revolutionise communications infrastructure, space research, equipment design, geo-mapping, forecasting and prediction of atmospheric, climatic and oceanic conditions within Nigeria and the near low latitudes.
“We need to pay attention to VT-NigerBEAR, not just because of its potential, but because of how it can change the quality of our communications using telecommunications devices, global positioning systems, satellite communications, military communications, and aerial surveillance among others,” he said.
“Its success will serve as a template for other high-level research and scientific collaborations between Nigerian and international partner institutions. Connecting results to industry and converting data to useful information for commercial and social good projects.”
“The applications of the SuperDARN cuts across various sectors, for example, Greenwood et al observed that SuperDARN could view 4,000,000km square of the shared Australian and New Zealand Ocean giving valuable wind-wave direction information.”
“Hence, such kind of information when acquired from VT-NigerBEAR can be applied for our waters in Nigeria, particularly for offshore oil exploration activities, prediction of natural disasters, and support for the activities of the navy by measuring ocean wave heights, surface currents, and wind directions over vast, remote areas on our waterways.”
