Agriculture: Federal Government Signs MoU with Arla Foods to Boost Diary Production in Nigeria
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Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, says the Federal Government is working toward the improvement and development of the dairy sector in the country.
Ogbeh disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with one of the world’s largest dairy companies, Arla Foods, towards boosting dairy production.
According to him, the Nigerian government in line with its plan on food security welcomes companies and initiatives that would help in the development of the agricultural sector.
“The population of the country is growing so fast. We have a large number of children malnourished, almost 30 percent. We have a school feeding programme where we dreamt of a day, where every child has a pack of milk per day to improve their health.
“We are creating a situation in the cattle breeding programme, where poor window in the village has four or five cows to milk and have the facility to preserve them for local consumption.
“If a family has three or four cows, this can keep poverty away from them because rural poverty is a serious matter.
“We want to assure you that Nigeria market is huge and opportunity is endless.
“We are looking at feeding about four hundred (400) million persons in West Africa by 2050.
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“Let this be a synergy and not just a business. The cows are not properly taken care of so the quality and quantity of milk, beef they produce is low.
“We look forward to seeing a transformation of your knowledge to our farmers,” Ogbeh said.
Earlier, Steen Hadsbjerg, the Senior Vice President and Head of Arla Foods for Sub-Saharan African, said that they chose Nigeria because they saw a lot of opportunity in the country.
“We are here to building a sustainable dairy industry in the country. Arla is more than 130 years old. We have been in Nigeria for more than 30 years operating under the name of Dano, one of our global brand.
“We have moved from globally number 5 to recently 4 and targeting to be number 3 next year. By signing an MoU on behalf of the company today, we want to take the business seriously.
“We are committed to do proper development to supply technical knowhow to farmers in Nigeria.
“We will assist to develop the supply chain; we will work to ensure quality delivery of milk produce here to meet international standards.
“We will work with international NGOs and use our connections in the EU to support the Nigerian government in this project. We will talk and work with the farmers directly based on local milk,” he said.
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