The Sokoto state government has embarked on the development of about 800 hectares of land, with an improved variety of top quality grains and pasture
The initiative, aside from complimenting the feeding requirement of the animals, is also targeted to improve the yield of the national herd and turn around the economy of the rural poor who rely on livestock rearing and farming for their sustenance.
Aside from planting maize, sorghum, soya beans and other grains on the expanse of land, a feed mill will also be established to process animal feeds, as part of the state government reforms for the livestock sector.
Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who highlighted these at the flag-off of the pasture development programme of the breeding programme, held at his local government, Dogon Daji, noted that the programme will address the problems that the country’s livestock sub-sector is facing.
Tambuwal, represented by the state Commissioner of Animal Health and Fisheries Development, Professor Abdulkadir Junaidu, reiterated that population explosion and competition for scarce resources has placed significant pressure on the economy of the rural poor, with the attendant consequences of violence, characterized by
According to him, “Sokoto state pride itself as a major contributor to the nation’s huge livestock resources being home to some of the country’s best cattle breeds, inherently built for meat and dairy production.
“However, the potentials have not been properly harnessed due to inherent low-performance genetic traits, endemic livestock diseases, poor pasture quality occasioned by variability in annual rainfall and a system of production that hasn’t gone beyond the traditional pastoralism, which is not only old fashioned but empirically proven to be unproductive. With the rolling out of the Sokoto Cattle Breeding Programme, the state government aims to improve the quantity and quality of our local stock, through a mix of natural breeding insemination and embryo transfer technologies.”