The
barrage of comments, criticisms, questions and name-calling on the
social media that have trailed the announcement of an intention to
import grass to improve the business of production of cattle, sheep and
goats in Nigeria is rather incredible. Too many of such comments smacked
of hasty, hollow and inappropriate responses that betrayed a lack of
understanding of the subject, the enormity of the problem, the benefits
embedded in the planned intervention and the urgency of the need to
adopt that measure. I want to put some facts in public domain and in the
right perspective for the public to know. The Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has repeatedly announced that
he was changing the system of ruminants (cattle, sheep and goats)
husbandry in Nigeria, replacing the time-worn method of nomadism and
roaming of animals with intensive and better organised system of keeping
animals in paddocks and feedlot. I am aware it will take some knowledge
of what is wrong in the livestock industry to understand and appreciate
what the minister is talking about.
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