First Vice President of Nigerian Institute of Animal Science, Prof Akinyele Oluwatomisin Adeseyinwa has advocated Artificial Insemination (AI) of livestock as a means of improving productivity as well panacea to Farmers-herders clash nationwide.
He made the submission at a 2-day Development of Occupational Standard for Technical Education and Training in Husbandry organized by the Institute in conjunction with the Oluebube Logistic Limited at the University of Ibadan on Monday.
According to him, “Artificial Insemination of livestock is a viable tool that can significantly reduce the farmers-herders clashes because it will reduce the number of physical meetings of male and female livestock.
“The male animal won’t need to meet with the female regularly because the siemen will be collected and processed; one ejaculate can be used on up to ten females depending on the volume and concentration of the siemen”
“The progeny that will be produced will be carrying 50 per cent of the attributes of that bull. So, what that translates to is the crude way we practice our husbandry in Nigeria with respect to cattle production, pig production, or sheep production.
Speaking on how the system can be embraced by the people, he said, “The training that is taking place today is a case of training the trainer. So, once the individuals are properly trained, they are expected to go to the field and extend the same knowledge and technology to the people over time.
The trained ones, according to him will be encouraged to train another set of people until it gets to the farmers all around our villages and production areas.”
He added that if AI is fully embraced, it would generate more jobs for the intending livestock farmers as well as increase productivity.
Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SMAT Farms Ltd., Mr. Suraj Ajiboye said, “One of the advantages it brings is to improve the breed of our beef animals and local indigenous animals. AI cannot only be used on cattle but also goats.
“Why there has not been general acceptance of the idea is because of our orientation. We used to have milk. We used to have dairy cows in virtually every part of Nigeria but because so many things have gone wrong, we believe there should be a reset.
“I am personally hoping that President Tinubu would be able to reset this country towards the path of growth in this particular area.
“I have always said that the industry that can create jobs and wealth for our teeming population is livestock. You can imagine a whole village of 200,000 people and each of them has cross cross-breed animals with each of these animals producing 10-15 liters of milk per day. Nutritionally, this is good as it enhances the growth of babies and children.
“So, the value chain within the livestock sector, especially when it comes to dairy animals, is broad and wide. Talk about the business of transportation; the cooling system; and assistance that would be required by veterinary doctors, and animal scientists who would be called to do artificial insemination for these animals for N200,000.
“I have only used an example of only one animal per member in a community. But imagine some of them are five or ten. That is just one community in a population of over 200million. So, the opportunities abound and we just need to change our mindset and use this opportunity to take this opportunity to the next phase.”
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