Outspan Nigeria Limited, the dairy business of Olam Food Ingredients (OFI), a global leader in naturally good food and beverage ingredients, has extended its support for the local dairy industry. The firm flagged off a vaccination exercise against the Foot and Mouth Disease for 1,500 dairy cattle in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State, recently. This was done in partnership with the Kano Dairy and Livestock Husbandry Cooperative Union (KADALCU), which comprises over 70,000 smallholder dairy farmers.
The primary objective of the vaccination exercise is to improve cattle health management in the sector and enhance the milk production level in the state. Considering the deadly nature of the foot and mouth disease and its economic implication on dairy farmers’ business, the exercise forms a scaled approach at promoting the Federal Government’s policy on backward integration schemes in the dairy industry.
Flagging off the exercise, Mr. Ahmed Adetunji, the Manager, Outspan, Kano, who represented Mr. Vipin Patel, the National Sales Operations Manager, Olam, said, “we keep deepening our involvement in the local dairy value chain by engaging an extensive number of smallholder farmers to facilitate improved farming practices in the value chain, while we inject the necessary investment funds to expand local milk production.”
He further explained that, “the vaccination exercise will remove constraints around dairy cattle health management which directly affects the cattle productivity level and by extension increases the quantity and quality of milk being produced locally.”