The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, says Nigeria needs to confine cows to ranches for greater milk production as obtained globally.
Ogbeh said this at a summit on “Evolving Actionable Models to Make Agribusiness More Viable” organised by Business Day Newspapers in Lagos on Friday.
He said that it was not in the nature of cows to walk long distances since “cows are not horses. We have to confine Nigerian cows to ranches willingly.”
He said that globally, cows were ranched and they delivered 20 litres to 25 litres of milk daily.
“When Nigeria adopts ranching, our children can have fresh three pints of milk to drink per day,’’ Ogbeh said.
He charged Nigerian youths to track the workings of government to hold the nation’s leaders accountable.
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“Youths, this is your country, take control, harass us the leaders when you feel we are not meeting your expectations,’’ the minister said.
He underscored the importance of the private sector in agribusiness.
According to him, government is a hopeless manager of business; while the government provides the enabling ground, it is the business of the private sector to drive the economy.
The minister explained that high interest rates and difficulty in obtaining land were major drawbacks for agribusiness.
He stressed that government needed to work on access to finance for farmers and provision of technology and machinery to boost agribusiness.
He added that the present administration was working on logistics to provide credit to farmers at five per cent interest rate.
The summit, put together by Business Day Newspapers, was a gathering of stakeholders and development partners in agribusiness. (NAN)
