FrieslandCampina, Ministry of Agriculture Sign Pacts on Food security, Dairy Devt

FrieslandCampina of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmenthave signed several pacts to roll out new dairy programmes designed to safeguard food and nutrient security in Nigeria.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh and the CEO, FrisandCampina, Mr. Roelof Joosten, signed a Farmer2Farmer agreement during the minister’s two-day working tour of the Dutch company’s facilities that ended May 27, 2016.

According to the Corporate Affairs Director, FrieslandCampinaWAMCO, Ore Famurewa , “with the Farmer2Farmer programme, FrieslandCampina aims atdeploying member dairy farmers to train and advise local dairy farmers on feedingand watering of cattle, calf-rearing, milking hygiene and practice, milking machine maintenance, hoof care, housing and barn design.” To ensure training for undergraduates in Nigerian tertiary Institutions for FCWAMCO’s ongoing Dairy Development

Programme(DDP)in Nigeria, theManaging Director of FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, Mr. Rahul Colacoand Dr. Martin C. Th. Scholten, Member, Board of Directors of Wageningen University and Research Centre, signed an expression of interest for academic and technical support.

During the Minister’s visit, FrieslandCampina announced itsdecision to invest N3 billion in its dairy development small holder dairy farmerprogramme in Nigeria. To step up its current activities, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and FrieslandCampina WAMCO alsoagreed to renew their MoU on the company’s dairy development programme in June 2016.

FrieslandCampina WAMCO intends to provide support to aFMARD subsidiary, Milcopal in Kaduna, under the terms of the revised MoU.
While in the Netherlands, the minister and his team visited FrieslandCampina and the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden, FrieslandCampina Innovation and Research Centre in Wageningen and the Vollering FamilyFarm.

In his remarks, Ogbeh commended FrieslandCampina for taking the lead in dairy development in Nigeria. According to him, this is one of the most important visits for the ministry and his team is going back more reinforced to ensure dairy development succeeds. He further said the partnership between FrieslandCampina WAMCO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is indeed a promising one, as there is complete concurrence of plans and actions.

“We will support pasture development; building of Paddocks as we intend to ensure the Fulani cattle herders settle down. Over 60,000 hectares of land are already available in 8 States and more are still coming. It is the key to tying up with what FrieslandCampina is doing in Oyo and ensure cattle breeding improvement as well as training and developing skills for artificial insemination of local breeds with the best breed fit to cross breed. We need the support of FrieslandCampina WAMCO and Wageningen University in training of trainers in dairy farm management.”