FG harps on cultivation of high yielding pastures 

In order to increase pasture diversification in Nigeria,Audu Ogbeh,the Minister of agriculture and rural development  has called for urgent need to introduce new cultivars to improve production

Ogbeh who recognised the need to organise and mobilise the diverse pastoral communities to adopt improved techniques of livestock production said this will require cultivation of high yielding pastures in the agro-ecological zones of Nigeria and create enabling environments for desiring investors to participate in the Nigerian livestock industry to make Nigeria self-sufficient in livestock production and a net exporter to other West African countries in the nearest future .

The minister disclosed this in Abuja during  the Stakeholders’ Consultative Forum on Grazing Reserves and Stock Route.

‎”More cultivars need to be commercially available. New cultivars are urgently needed to be introduced, tested and tried to increase pasture diversification “,he stated .

Ogbeh posited that in Nigeria , the demand for productive and high quality forage is high, “the National Animal Production (NAPRI) has worked on and released some grass and legume pastures, most of which were introduced from tropical part of Australia . Commercial but limited qualities of some of the varieties like Brachiaria decumbens, digitaria smutsii, chloris gayana, stylosanthes guanensis and centrosema pascorum are being protected in commercial pasture farms.

Harrison Edeh