My Take On RUGA And The Livestock Opportunity By Zanau Hassan Maikasuwa

My take on RUGA & the Livestock
opportunity by Zanau Hassan Maikasuwa
1. The inability of the States de to act as a
unit of federal system that has powers to
make laws for effective governance of their
people and economy despite having such
constitutional powers, gives the Federal
government the right to decide for states
how best to handle her problem. I still don't
know why despite the pool of professionals
and civil servants in the states, solutions for
state problems will instead come from the
Federal.
2. Sentiment and Sensitivity of the matter at
this point in time. At the moment you cannot
separate the sentiments and the sensitivity
of the matter especially in states that have
suffered herdsmen attacks.
3. Time for a holistic reform in the Livestock
sub sector of our States: I think the time has
come for a serious unbiased reform to take
place.
3.1 With over 60 years of university in
Nigeria today, it is #shameful that we still
have not been able to standardized livestock
production, identification/traceability,
marketing and the trade. We also have not
been able to tab from the jobs along the
value chain on livestock despite training
professionals.
3.2 Despite training Veterinary Doctors,
Animal scientists and other professionals,
they are still without jobs to do. Those
employed by government are most often
redundant, because we have refused to
standardize the sector, therefore the
business of livestock is mostly informal and
can go on without engaging any
professional from start to finish.
4. Livestock Economy: the fact that our main
revenues are from crude oil, it makes no
sense for States government to invest in
developing the sector for now. The lack of
such attention and investment is what has
led to the crisis we are currently facing
today.
Moving forward
I believe that States must legislate and
develop policies for the smooth running of
their livestock sub sectors by the private
sector. It is important that the private sector
are invited to play in the sector, while
government concentrates on seeking for
markets for their own livestock farmers and
regulations. This way, it will encourage more
investments and retain jobs.
One way to do this is to draw inspiration
from the LAKE RICE model. Today, Lagos
slaughters 6000 cattle daily. At an average of
N150k/cattle, that's N328Bn a year market
which is equivalent to 2,190,000 heads of
cattle per annum. For Lagos alone.
If Taraba state government decides to
secure 10% of the Lagos market for her
citizens to raise 219,000 fattened bulls a
year. It will take 100 farms or cooperatives
to raise 2,190 fattened heads of cattle for
the Lagos market alone. This alone will give
birth to a thriving truck logistics business to
move 7,300 trips of cattle on Taraba - Lagos
route alone in a year. It will also mean a
thriving Agro/Vet shops and veterinary
hospital/Clinics business employing many
professionals. It will also give birth to those
who will be growing maize not for grains
but for silage as feed. It will also open up a
lot of financing options for the financial
industry as well as investment opportunity
for people to diversify their earnings.
But, do you know why it is not possible?
Because no governor will want to waste his
time developing such a sector, when there is
a guaranteed monthly federal allocation
coming from Abuja.
If the sector has been this developed, States
government will be competing to host
herders who have cattle for trade. The
Taraba state governor will have been
spending more time visiting Iware, Tella,
Bantaje, Garbachede and Mararaba cattle
markets to ensure they have the right
market infrastructure and ensure effective
revenue collection. The inability of the States
to properly position themselves for such an
important sector, has given room for
herdsmen/farmers crisis as well as
sentiments to take over.
Till then, let’s just keep watching the drama.