Nigeria Can Conserve Foreign Exchange By Ending Importation Of Milk, Fish – Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono has said that Nigeria must tap into the enormous resources embedded in the livestock sector.

The Minister in a statement on Saturday noted that Nigeria has N30trn livestock market, with the over twenty million heads of cattle and a daily consumption requirement of five million litres of milk.

He said, “With the new impetus given to fishing and aqua culture coupled with the enormous water resources endowment, Nigeria can more than produce the quantity of fish needed to satiate the requirement of its citizens.

“Nigeria must properly tap into this enormous resource to conserve the much needed foreign exchange.

“With this, we have no reason to be importing milk into the country. All that is required is to milk five million cows per day to meet the country’s current consumption pattern.”

Nanono further stressed that the abundant land and water resources in Nigeria are more than capable of producing enough food for the country and also export to other nations in Africa.

He added that with over 30 million farmers in the country, Nigerians can now grow anything tropical in the country.

‘’The emergence of the COVID- 19 Pandemic, has reinforced the potential of agriculture in Nigeria.

” This is because, with the recession occasioned by the pandemic arising from a drastic fall in oil prices, Nigeria could not have afforded to import anything even if we wanted to.

“It is thus a blessing that the Agricultural policy of producing our own food, especially rice has been value added,” he stated.