Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has said the Ikun Dairy Farm in Ikun Ekiti, when fully operational, will serve as a prototype for National Livestock Transformation Plan in addressing farmers-herders crisis in the country.
Governor Fayemi, who stated this at the Ikun dairy farm, a joint project by Ekiti State government and Promasidor Dairy Company during an inspection of the newly arrived 227 cows from the United States and the expansive farm for the cultivation of hays for the cows, explained that the farm is designed to start production of 10,000 litres of milk daily.
The governor, who visited other sections of the dairy in company of Hermann Kibler, general manager of the farm and Olabode Adetoyi, commissioner for agriculture and food security, expressed confidence in the private-public partnership arrangement between the state government and Promasidor to guarantee the sustainability and economic viability of the farm.
He said, “This dairy farm has been here for the better part of last 40 years and it has not been put to use. This is the first time that it is going to be put into proper use.
“Agriculture has we have always said in the state is the pathway to progress. Particularly for us, we are agrarian.
“These cows are going to be stationary, they are not roaming anywhere, they are not going on open grazing, they are right here on the farm. You know what we have suffered from open grazing not just in the state but across the length and breadth of the country.
“Once this model works it will be an indication of what we can achieve through National Livestock Transformation Plan.
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“And from what you have heard the manager, this is a 24/7 operation, the milk is going to come out of the milk parlour 24/7 and then transportation, marketing and other aspects of the value chain coming to Ekiti.
“We have an experienced person who is in charge, who has done this tons of times before coming to work here. We are reasonable confidence that this is the partnership that will work with Promasidor.
Earlier, Hermann Kibler, general manager of Ikun Diary Farm, said the stage was set for the commencement of a full-scale production, saying that the farm was still expecting a few hundreds of cows which he said would be delivered in the next couple of months.
