Thread by @sarnchos

Africa's largest livestock producers listed in order of magnitude.

1. Ethiopia - 54 million cattle
2. Sudan - 42m
3. Tanzania - 24.5m
4. Nigeria - 20m

The advantages of extensive grazing grounds in the top 3 are obvious.

#THREAD

Nigeria can easily top the group and attain Africa's leadership position in livestock production IF it can get ITS LIVESTOCK FEED INDUSTRY right.

*Institutionalisation of ranching *Kickstarting a proper feed industry
*More training of livestock farmers

How do we achieve this?

Farmers (including herders and other livestock producers should be encouraged to form local associations that will help them gain access to training, pool funds to invest in equipment and also access loans from development institutions, Agric banks, and even foreign NGOs.

Sudan and Ethiopia are both located in hotter and drier parts of Africa, and therefore there is no reason why a majority of cattle herded from the North cannot be safely ranched there in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

Ranching presents a unique opportunity to open up more

areas of farming such as grass/hay and silage production, which can then be purchased by herders to fatten their cattle more effectively and get better value in higher yields.

Agricultural waste from crops such as rice, wheat, etc can also be productively processed for livestock

The biggest source of livestock protein globally (over 90%) is soya bean.

Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of soya with 500k MT annually.

In spite of this, a majority of soya utilized in Nigeria's industries is still imported

This means that there is still a massive under-

utilisation of capacity in the processing of soybean in Nigeria

Almost 80% of the soybean that is farmed in Nigeria is purchased by middlemen who sell to the big industries

Nigerian farmers have no incentive to farm soybean on a massive scale because animals can't eat it raw

Formal livestock producers in Nigeria have to purchase vital protein components of their livestock feed from import dependent industries which causes fluctuations in price during currency instability

Nigeria's reliance on oil means its currency follows international oil prices

Such a scenario means that livestock production in Nigeria is at the mercy of the price of oil

This is a ridiculous scenario given that we can produce every component needed for livestock production right here in Nigeria

Soyabean is processed by pressing out its oil content

And roasted at a certain temperature to eliminate the inhibitors that are dangerous to livestock in its raw form.

The finished product then contains over 50% protein content that is suitable for animal rapid fattening.

The big industries (eg uac, honey well, flour Mills etc) -

- process their soybeans in the manner described above, but since their major products are consumer goods such as oil, flour, etc, animal feeds are a second tier in their production priorities.

They prefer to produce composite feeds and sell to the public at a premium, rather

than sell plain soybean meal which the farmers can then apportion appropriately to their livestock

In other words livestock feed is expensive in Nigeria because it's mainly reliant on imported soybeans

We don't grow enough soybeans because we're ignorant about how to process it

CONCLUSION:

If farmers cooperatives are trained on how to process soybeans into an affordable and effective livestock feed, the farming of soybeans will explode in Nigeria, and this will lead to rapid growth in the livestock production process in Nigeria.

End