Fisayo Kayode Writes on Tackling the challenges faced by the Nigerian Dairy Sector: Lessons from Kenya

In 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s World Cattle Inventory reported that Nigeria had the 4th largest cattle population in Africa with over 20 million cattle out of which 2.3 million were dairy cows. Despite this large herd size, milk production remains low due to poor genetic make-up of indigenous cows as they produce an average of 1.5 litres of milk per cow per day compared to 7 litres produced in Kenya, a country which has invested in addressing key production challenges. In fact, Kenya’s dairy market produces approximately 5.4 million tonnes of liquid milk annually from about 4.2 head of dairy cows, 9 times higher than Nigeria’s current annual production volume of 600,000 tonnes. In Kenya, the sector contributes $2.1 billion, 4-8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 14% of agricultural GDP while the contribution of Nigeria’s dairy industry to GDP is negligible.

Read more: Business Day