Ensuring self-sufficiency in milk production

That backward integration by our manufacturing industries is desirable is not in doubt. It is one policy that enjoys popular endorsement from a good number of people across the country. This is the case because it is a policy that ensures less dependence on other countries for raw materials and, by extension, for the creation of more jobs.

And when such backward integration has to do with food, the nation will spend less on food importation, on which we currently spend billions of dollars. And of course, Nigeria will score high in foreign exchange savings.

A push is currently being made in the dairy industry sub-sector to ban the importation of powdered milk, currently a popular fad among dairy milk manufacturers. The ban is being pushed by a faction in the industry that produces fresh milk which accounts for less than one per cent of total milk consumption in the country. This figure, no doubt, is a poor score which we need to improve upon. But must we ban the importation of milk now to do this? The answer is definitely ‘no’, considering the implications of doing so.

It is believed that if the push being made in some quarters to get a government ban on the importation of powdered milk into the country succeeds, several milk manufacturing plants will be forced to shut down. According to industry sources, the investment outlay for fresh milk production is robustly high and cannot immediately be met. Moreover, the infrastructural backbone, such as power and water, and the required cows for the project, are neither available nor affordable.

So, how can these issues be resolved? Investigations have revealed that estimated milk consumption in Nigeria for 2010 is put at 1.45 billion litres. The number of dairy cows required to produce 1.45 billion litres of milk per annum is 243, 000 cows producing 20 litres per day (6,000 litres per 300 day lactation). A document obtained from the industry gives the extrapolated cost for producing 1.5 billion litres of milk as $1.32 billion (N196.2 billion) for initial set capital, and $2.18 billion (N323.0 billion) for running cost – for a farm size of 500 hectares. Total hectares required to produce 1.5 billion litres of milk is put at 300,000.

Other requirements given include 544 farms, each housing 500 cows; water requirement per cow – 30 litres / cow per day (non lactating); 60 litres / cow per day when lactating, with 20 hectares of pasture irrigation (210 litres water per litre milk produced).

Concerned stakeholders do not see how the funds required for the outlay presented above can be met now. The obvious option then, is for the door to be kept open for milk importation, while the government makes a bold move to sort out the issues of infrastructure and allied needs for growing a robust dairy industry.