Agri Tech Firms Eye N6b From Livestock Sector

• Agri Tech Firms Eye N6b From Livestock Sector

Two Nigerian agric tech firms are eyeing about N6 billion returns annually on a partnership that is expected to support new discoveries in livestock and forage industries. This partnership will benefit farmers, producers and agribusinesses across the country.

The firms are Farmgate Africa, Nigeria’s agro-commodity aggregator platform and Livestock247.com, an online livestock market.

The returns are based on annually production of 24,000 healthy bulls, which each would be sold for N250, 000.

The partnership followed the recent launch of Farmgate Africa by Farmcrowdy Group, the umbrella company established to build agritech solutions that would help to achieve food security, food sustainability and growth in agriculture.

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Farmgate Africa Kenneth Obiajulu, said the two organisations have entered in a pact to support the growth of an innovative, competitive, and market-oriented livestock sector, saying Farmgate Africa has partnered Livestock247.com in piloting its first ever cattle feedlot in Adamawa State.

He said the first phase has been quite successful and this has seen the businesses scaling production to over 24,000 bulls with about 1,200 feedlot clusters in the Northeast, Northwest and Southern parts, operating through feedlot systems.

The partnership, Obiajulu said, is geared towards attracting investments to develop the country’s livestock sector.

He said both organisations will work in consultation with livestock experts and stakeholders to come up with relevant and realistic interventions to address the livestock financial and infrastructural challenges the industry is facing and to take advantage of available opportunities.

Obiajulu said the livestock industry has the potential to reduce poverty and promote food security.

He said the firms have identified opportunities for improvement, which include processing facility and feedlots that would improve the efficiency and environmental sustainability of its meat production.

Without a reliable supply of high-quality livestock, he said meat processors are unable to process sufficient volumes of high-value meat.

Notably, he said, the partnership is working to promote the modern feedlots to secure a sufficient and consistent supply of quality meat for production.

Slaughterhouse workers, according to him, would also be trained to operate the facilities correctly under standardised procedures.

He believed the partnership’s business model would help develop more reliable supply and an innovative scheme for helping smallholder farmers in the supply chain, improve productivity, incomes and livelihoods.

He said his organisation wants to build upon the industry’s competitiveness by advancing beef and forage production methods through research and innovations.

According to Livestock247.com Co-Founder and CEO, Ibrahim Maigari Ahmadu, Lagos slaughters over 6,000 cows a day, being the largest consuming livestock market in sub-Saharan Africa.