Only last week, precisely Thursday, 19th September, 2024, the Presidential Livestock Reforms Implementation Committee submitted its inception report to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, giving a detailed guidance on the operations of the newly created Federal Ministry of Livestock Development.
Significantly, the Committee recognised and recommended that the National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) and the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), the only two existing animal-based research institutes in Nigeria, should be strengthened in addition to the desirability for the establishment of eight new livestock research institutes to anchor teaching and cutting edge research and innovation in the livestock subsector.
As the committee is now set to engage and map all the relevant stakeholders in the country’s livestock sector, one may submit that the Committee should take advantage of the enormous resources of the National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), a component of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The institute, which will be 100 years old by 2028, is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
Ideally, the Committee should take a tour of the institute to study its vision, mission, values, mandate, activities, and organisational structures that complement the efforts of government at improving livestock farming and production in Nigeria.
The visit will afford them the opportunity to study the institute’s 10 strong research programmes, strengths, and opportunities. NAPRI has 10 research programmes on animal products, beef, biotechnology, dairy, equine and camel, feeds and nutrition, livestock systems, poultry, small ruminant, as well as rabbit and swine. It also has five outstations spread across the diverse ecological zones of the country in line with the national objectives of not only making research results applicable to local conditions but also evaluating livestock where they are naturally adapted.
As the only research institute mandated to conduct research into animal production and pasture development, the institute has acquired capacity through highly qualified dedicated staff and infrastructure. It offers specialised trainings for farmers, women and youths from different states on skills acquisition in various production techniques of different species of animals. Equally, most of the animal science and veterinary undergraduate and postgraduate research projects in Ahmadu Bello University are conducted and supervised in NAPRI.
Remarkably, NAPRI has made notable achievements in animal breeding improvement and development as in ShikaBrown egg laying chicken, dairy and beef cattle, sheep and goats. The ShikaBrown has been reputed nationwide to have survived the outbreaks of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu). To feed the various classes of livestock, it has improved and developed various native and introduced species of pastures, and feeding packages; and the outcomes of its activities are out-scaled to the local producers and processors on the field.
The hub for improved agricultural productivity in general and livestock in particular is through research.
Significantly, NAPRI has a crop of well trained, competent and committed staff to move the frontiers of agricultural innovations for higher productivity in the livestock subsector. The institute, for instance, collaborates with relevant research bodies at national and international levels that include, among many others, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna; International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada; International Foundation of Sciences (IFS), Sweden; and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya and Ethiopia.
The institute has succeeded in upgrading of indigenous cattle through crossbreeding with exotic animals which have produced crossbred animals with a genetic potential of about 70 percent higher milk yield than indigenous breeds. It also developed the technology for breeding such animals without the need to import exotic breeds.
Animal scientists at the institute have evaluated the productivity of indigenous cattle, sheep, and goat breeds. Breeds and management procedures suitable for extensive and intensive production systems in different ecological zones have been identified and practical guidelines for farmers have been formulated all at the institute.
Other research results achieved at the institute include identification of pasture species suitable for the different ecological zones in Nigeria. Seeds for these species are being produced at NAPRI for use by livestock farmers, just as a package for establishing and managing these pastures has also been developed for farmers use.
The institute introduced dual purpose legumes (lablab, cowpea and groundnut) into the livestock farming system and development of preservation techniques for their utilization during the dry season. It also developed management strategies to increase conception rates of cattle and sheep in addition to establishment and utilisation of fodder banks.
For many years, NAPRI has been in the forefront in complementing efforts of the Nigerian government in mitigating the decades-long conflicts between farmers and herders over access to land, pasture, and water, as the institute has always been an advocate for the settlement, relocation and integration of pastoralists into the society for the enhancement of livestock products.
The institute has come to appreciate the immense contributions of the pastoral and agro-pastoral Fulani in the sphere of urban beef supplies, rural diary supplies and distribution. As part of its community service, NAPRI recently revived the grazing reserves in neighbouring communities with provision of school, houses, market, and other facilities.
It is expected after the tour of the institute that the Presidential Livestock Reforms Implementation Committee will be better informed of NAPRI’s enormous resources that can be of tremendous assistance in the take-off of the new Ministry. The tour will also offer them an opportunity to understand that the functions already proposed in the Committee’s inception report for NAPRI are exactly what the institute has been performing since its establishment despite the abysmal neglect of the livestock subsector.
• Umar is the Director, Public Affairs Directorate, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
