Sokoto State Government has set up a dairy centre, in order to improve cattle breeding and start large scale processing of dairy products.
Abdulkadir Junaidu, the state’s commissioner for Animal Health and Fisheries Development, said that the centre has a daily production capacity of 5,000 litres of fresh milk and yoghurt.
According to Junaid, the project takes milk from a cluster of dairy owners “our pastoralists who at times complain of low patronage.” This will improve their economic well-being and minimise the wastes that dairy farmers face across the state.
“You can all see now that we have started producing caliphate yoghurt for the first time in the state which we will soon commercialise,” the commissioner revealed.
He said the product is already being tested to satisfaction with the level of production and Sokoto State is ready to go into partnership with the company that engages in yoghurt and other dairy production.
“This I believe will help us to have sustainability that even after this administration, I am hopeful that this company will be maintained and the programme will be sustained”, he remarked.
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Junaid said as soon as artificial insemination across all the 23 local governments is completed, farmers in the state will have the capacity to add value to their cattle.
In a related development, Sokoto State has established artificial insemination and embryo transfer centre, a component of the Sokoto Cattle Breeding Programme at cattle reproduction centre, Rujin Sambo, with the metropolis.
Speaking while declaring the opening of the centre at the Cattle Reproduction Centre, Rujin Sambo, within the metropolis, the National President of Veterinary Council of Nigeria, Aishatu Abubakar Baju said such initiatives have made insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other insecurity relatively low side in the state.
She projected a huge market for the dairy products from Sokoto, revealing that Lagos State alone consumes about an N81Billion worth of livestock monthly while pledging to make a case for the establishment of a centre for the
veterinary college in the state.
