The Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi, has said Nigerians consumed an average of 1.6 billion litres of milk and its products.

Mr Abdullahi stated this at a news conference on Saturday in Abuja, to mark the 2024 World Milk Day.

June 1 is the official day set aside globally to celebrate World Milk Day.

The theme of this year’s global celebration is, “Let’s celebrate nutritious and sustainable dairy.’’

Mr Abdullahi said that the theme for Nigeria’s celebration of the World Milk Day is “Harnessing the nutrition and investment opportunities in the dairy value chain.’’

He said that both themes focused on celebrating the vital role dairy played in delivering quality nutrition to nourish Nigeria’s citizens especially, women and children.

The minister said that it also aimed to improve the livelihoods of dairy farmers and other value chain actors, creating employment and increasing the economic growth of the country.

He said that according to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria spends 1.5 billion dollars per annum to import dairy products.

“This is because of our production deficit which stood at nearly 60 per cent as Nigerians consumed an average of 1.6 billion litres of milk and its products. The passionate dream of President Bola Tinubu is for us to attain national production security to even lead to export of dairy products to African countries under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

“It is in pursuance of this priority plan that speedy actions to transform the livestock sector especially the dairy value chain towards attaining food and nutrition security becomes not only imperative but an urgent national duty,” he said.

The minister said that the Federal Government was mindful of the key issues and challenges of the diary sector.

He assured that President Tinubu was concerned and urgently wanted a reversal of the negative state of the dairy industry.

“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is ready for the challenges ahead as we work hard to renew the hope of dairy value chain actors,” he said.

Mr Abdullahi said the ministry in collaboration with national and international partners would in the next few years work assiduously and strategically within the approved National Dairy Policy.

He said that the new dairy policy would guarantee projects and interventions to ensure improved dairy farming practices and enhance the capacity of smallholder dairy farmers through training and extension services.

Mr Abdullahi said that some of the projects would focus on best practices in animal husbandry, feed management, milk production, handling and collection among others.

In a Goodwill message, the President, Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria, Muhammadu Abubakar, expressed satisfaction at the global and national attention milk, a nutritious animal food, was getting.

He reiterated CODARAN’s commitment to the production, processing, marketing and consumption of quality and nutritious dairy products across Africa.

Also, the Managing Partner, Sahel Consulting Ltd, Temi Adegoroyo, appreciated the collaboration between the firm and ministry in trying to develop the local dairy sector in Nigeria.

“We are ensuring that we are linking many more private companies to small-holders farmers and building responsive fresh milk supply chains in Nigeria. The agenda is to increase the productivity of fresh milk in Nigeria,” Mr Adegoroyo said.

(NAN)