With Nigeria’s growing population and increased urbanization, there is a rising demand for dairy products. While dairy protein is a key source of nutrients, Nigeria is grossly underprovided with such essential food components, owing to a constrained local dairy sector. The country’s demand for milk products is estimated at 1.3 million tons per annum of which just 40% is locally produced. This gap has always been bridged by importing powdered milk, which is relatively expensive.
In 2012, 2SCALE initiated a partnership with Friesland Campina Wamco (FCW)- a leading and one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the world. This partnership aims to develop and enhance the local production capacity and supply of fresh milk by investing in infrastructure and capacity building to create a stable market. In addition, it aims to empower and integrate youth and female Fulani milk producers into this supply chain.
To further develop and enhance local sourcing of raw milk, the partnership has paid particular attention to innovations that enable farmers to improve the quantity and quality of dairy production. One such innovation is the introduction of crossbreeding systems.
Crossbreeding, a viable solution to a constrained local breed
At a cooperative level, Fulani farmers do not meet the quantity and quality requirements of FCW for locally produced milk. A major constraining factor is that most of these cows are not dairy cows and their productivity per cow does not make the FMPs competitive. This raised the need to upgrade the cattle breed through cross-breeding.
In the crossbreeding procedure, the semen of the exotic breed is collected and preserved in a frozen state. During the highly reproductive window when the cattle are ready for mating, the sperm is manually deposited into the reproductive tract of the female. After a successful procedure, the female local breed gets pregnant, producing an offspring with the genetic composition of both the exotic and local breed.
Currently, the crossbreeding concept has been piloted in five cooperatives: Alaga, Fashola, Kishi, Akele, and Edera.
Mr. Saliu from Fashola cooperative says that the crossbreeding concept is a sustainable way to enhance milk production. He narrates,
I have been in the dairy business since I was a child. This was the way of life of my forefathers and has been passed down through generations. We have always had the local breed. The crossbred cows are more productive in terms of milk quality and quantity. I get up to ten litres per day from the crossbreed, compared to two litres of milk per day which we get from the local breed. In addition, the milk is thicker than what the local breed produces. The introduction of the crossbred cows, and the training I have received from 2SCALE has provided me with knowledge on ranching, treatment and feed requirements of the crossbred cattle.
With this crossbreeding concept, local FMPs are gradually achieving an increase in the volume and quality of milk. Fulani dairy farmers are also aware of the benefits of crossbred dairy cows which has also improved their income and livelihood.
Abubakar Musa is a 27-year-old dairy farmer from Alaga cooperative. He has had the crossbred variety for three years now. According to him, the crossbreed cows have improved his livelihood as he now gets up to 10 liters of milk from one crossbred as compared to two liters from the local breed.