Nigeria’s Dairy Farming on Global Stage

• Nigeria’s Dairy Farming on Global Stage

Nigeria must keep up its progress in dairy agribusiness by encouraging public-private partnerships.

A Nigerian postgraduate student, Oyewale Abioye, made this submission to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in Washington DC, United States.

The occasion was the just-concluded Global Food Security Symposium held in Washington.

Abioye, a student of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Ibadan, was the only student from a Nigerian university on the 2018 Next Generation delegation.

He spoke keenly about his interaction with dairy pastoralists during his research evaluation of the Dairy Development Programme (DDP) run by FrieslandCampina WAMCO Plc in Oyo State.

“Dairy farmers need to identify the value in the value chain and only then can they ascertain where exactly the government and private sectors can assist in bridging those gaps”, Abioye said.

According to him, vaccines, food choices, milk hygiene and access to veterinary care are the fundamental concerns of Oyo dairy farmers whose livelihoods and businesses have improved significantly since FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s intervention through its DPP.

In a panel discussion moderated by Trent McKnight, founder of AgriCorps, Abioye introduced “Project mDairy”, a novel mobile service platform he designed alongside three other youth innovators, for dairy pastoralists and smallholder farmers to access information and best-practice tips on the dairy value chain.

Abioye said he was inspired to do Project mDairy when FrieslandCampina WAMCO partnered with Delft University of Technology on the Dutch-Nigerian Students Business Challenge.