FG will inseminate 12,000 cattle for milk production

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday said it would commence artificial insemination of 12,000 cattle for the production of milk in the country.

Walia Hamman, the director, agric department, Adamawa, said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola.

Hamman said the programme was under the government’s agricultural transformation agenda aimed at improving milk production in the country.

“According to a statistic available to the ministry, Nigeria spent over N64 billion annually on the importation of powder and liquid milk.

“And with this development, the country will save at least 30 percent of the amount spent yearly on milk importation”, Hamman said.

He said five states, including Kaduna, Nassarawa, Oyo, Adamawa, Niger and Abuja were selected for the projects.

According to him, the exercise is free and each of the benefiting state will provide 2,000 cattle for the programme.

He said the aim of the project was to upgrade the potential of the indigenous cattle to produce more milk.

“Presently, our annual milk production is too low with only 400 million litres per annum, while the total annual demand of the commodity is over one billion litres”, he added.