The cost of a kilogramme of beef may soon hit N10, 000 as against between N3, 000 and N5, 000 sold few months back, if urgent support is not given to pastoral farmers.
What this means is that like other agro commodities, beef may soon go beyond the reach of common Nigerians due to the current economic crisis affecting the country.
The Director, Animal Husbandry Services, Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, Mrs Winnie Lai Solarin, who raised the alarm at a media engagement in Abuja, said high cost of feed and water, coupled with the spate of insecurity may be responsible for the rising cost of cow meat in the country.
In the last few months, Nigerians have continued to raised concern over the rising cost of meat among other proteins, as the cost of a kilogramme of beef has jumped to between N6,000 and N7,000 from as against between N3,000 and N3,500 sold months back.
She said: “The livestock sector has been neglected, what we need in this sector is feed and water, as well as market regulations for our products, a lot of this things has not been in place. 80 per cent of the meat on our table is from the pastoralists and if the pastoralists are embattled you don’t expect things to go well.
“Before, they were getting grass and feed very cheap, but today they have to buy. It is the restructuring that is causing this, they need to buy feeds and they are unable to get cheap feeds. If you have high cost of feed, you will have high cost of product, just like what we have in the poultry sector.
“High cost of maize and soya is driving the cost of poultry products, the chicken we use to have is not that cheap anymore the same thing for livestock.”
The Director further regretted that Nigerians did not allow the Ruga initiative to see the light of the day, saying the initiative was aimed at scaling up investment in the livestock sector just like it’s being done with the crop production.
“Unfortunately Nigerian misinterpreted it, thinking the government wanted to grab land for the fulani tribe.” Lai Solarin further pointed out that insecurity has also made many farmers unable to go to farms as most of the livestock farmers are being driven out of the country due to insecurity.
She said the incessant farmers/herders conflict has also being a bane of the livestock sector that is worth over N33tr. While bemoaning the lackadaisical attitude of state governments to the sector, the Director pointed out that the Federal Government has done a lot in livestock development, and it is expected that the states do the same, “unfortunately most of them provide little or no budget for the sector.
“Most of these projects are in the states, Federal Government does not have lands, but states are doing little to maintain those grazing reserves and make sure they don’t dilapidate. We call on the state governments to invest more in the livestock sector.”
