As part of its commitment to advance the Central Bank of Nigeria’s backward integration programme to enhance capacity and boost local milk production, CHI Limited has made substantial progress in massive infrastructural development, coordination of local farmers/herders and procurement of 300 hybrid cows (heifers) for cross breeding at the Bobi Grazing Reserve, a pilot grazing reserve in Mariga Local Government, Niger State.
To this end, CHI Limited has virtually concluded (90percent) of the feeder road construction leading to its site at the reserve and rehabilitated/reconstructed the dam with a size of 250m by 1200m by 4m with an average depth of 12,000,000 cubic meters of water. The Central Bank of Nigeria fact-finding committee adjudged this dam as the best in the grazing reserve.
The company has cleared and planted Napier grass, as well as sorghum on 300 hectares using irrigation. The identification, registration and incorporation of over two (200) hundred participating and settled herders and their local cows into clusters have attained an advanced stage. In the interim, one hundred (100) pastoralists have been identified through biometric capture and are primed for the milk collection scheme.
An additional contract for the second phase of clearing 500 hectares and ploughing/planting of 100 additional hectares of land in the reserve has been signed, with arrangements made to procure an additional two (200) hundred hybrid cows to make up for the five (500) initial threshed for cross breeding through Artificial Insemination (AI) with local cows to boost milk production.
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To improve human capacity skills at the reserve, CHI Limited is partnering with Sahel Group (ALDDN), on future training of local farmers in Bobi and mapping of local dairy production in Ogun State as an additional initiative to bolster milk production opportunities. In the short term, the company is also finalizing arrangements with the management of Maizube Farms to process milk at their plant.
Deepanjan Roy, Managing Director, CHI Limited stated that the company’s massive investment in infrastructure and human capacity development at the Bobi Grazing Reserve will ensure a boost in local milk production. It will also enable dairy farmers operate with best practices, improve their quality of life as well as that of their livestock.
“We want to reiterate our commitment to strengthen the backwards integration policy to boost dairy production in the country with the massive investment in infrastructural and human capacity development at the Bobi Grazing Reserve. In partnership with the Niger State Government, we will be driving the project as a model for backward integration on a commercial scale,” he said.
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