As part of its commitment to advance the Central Bank of Nigeria’s backward integration programme to enhance capacity and boost local milk production, CHI Limited has made substantial progress in massive infrastructural development and co-ordination of local farmers/herders.
The firm has also procured 300 hybrid cows (heifers) for cross breeding at the Bobi Grazing Reserve, a pilot grazing reserve in Bariga Local Government, Niger State.
It will be recalled that in July 2019, the CBN rolled out a new policy to encourage backward integration for the local production of select items including dairy products to save depleting national reserves, revive local production capacity and create employment.
The new policy offers challenges and opportunities for major manufacturers of milk and dairy products in Nigeria.
Despite the challenges of dairy backward integration policy like the incessant herders/farmers clashes, the opportunities in the value chain are numerous.
In a statement made available to Nigerian Tribune by Chi Limited, the diary firm noted that it has also virtually concluded 90 per cent of the feeder road construction leading to its site at the reserve and rehabilitated/reconstructed the dam with a size of 250m by 1200m by 4m with an average depth of 12,000,000 cubic meters of water.
Commenting on this development, CHI Limited Managing Director, Mr. Deepanjan Roy, said that the company’s massive investment in infrastructure and human capacity development at the Bobi Grazing Reserve will ensure a boost in local milk production.
It will also enable dairy farmers to operate with best practices, improve their quality of life as well as that of their livestock.
“We want to reiterate our commitment to strengthen the backwards integration policy to boost dairy production in the country with the massive investment in infrastructure and human capacity development at the Bobi Grazing Reserve.
“In partnership with the Niger state Government, we will be driving the project as a model for backward integration on a commercial scale,” he said.
The firm disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria fact- finding committee adjudged this dam as the best in the grazing reserve, adding that it has cleared and planted Napier grass, as well as sorghum on 300 hectares using irrigation.
It further stated that the identification, registration and incorporation of over two (200) hundred participating and settled herders and their local cows into clusters have attained an advanced stage.
In the interim, one hundred (100) pastoralists have been identified through biometric capture and are primed for the milk collection scheme.
It stated: “An additional contract for the second phase of clearing 500 hectares and ploughing/planting of 100 additional hectares of land in the reserve has been signed, with arrangements made to procure additional two (200) hundred hybrid cows to make up for the five (500) initial threshed for cross breeding through Artificial Insemination (AI) with local cows to boost milk production.
“To improve human capacity skills at the reserve, CHI Limited is partnering with Sahel Group (ALDDN), on future training of local farmers in Bobi and mapping of local dairy production in Ogun State as an additional initiative to bolster milk production opportunities.”
In the short term, the company is also finalizing arrangements with the management of Maizube Farms to process milk at their plant.
