The African Union InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AUIBAR) and the federal government have begun a high-level capacity-building workshop for critical stakeholders aimed at strengthening data ecosystems in livestock management.
The workshop, organised in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under the Resilient African Feed and Fodder Systems (RAFFS) project, brought stakeholders together, including representatives from various states and experts from the International Livestock Research Institute.
Director of animal husbandry services Winifred Lai-Solarin, who declared the workshop open in Abuja, stressed its significance in the nation’s evolving agricultural landscape, with a focus on livestock as a key pillar of Nigeria’s agricultural and food security strategy.
Lai-Solarin emphasised the importance of accurate, real-time data for effective decision-making in feed and fodder management.
She said, “We are moving to prioritise feed and fodder as a central component of our livestock development agenda. This is a wake-up call to say that we cannot achieve sustainable feed and fodder systems without reliable data.”
Knowledge gathered under the initiative is expected to support the National Livestock Master Plan, which aims to provide a roadmap for strategic investments across the livestock value chain.
One of the workshop’s key objectives is establishing a national feed balance, an initiative involving extensive feed inventory and analysis to estimate livestock populations and determine feed supply adequacy.
Dr Tunde Amole, a feed and forage expert, explained the project’s data-driven approach, which combines satellite imaging and on-the-ground data collection to assess feed resources nationwide.
Beyond data gathering, he added that the initiative also aimed to inform policies addressing Nigeria’s recurring challenges, such as farmer-herder conflicts, feed scarcity, and unregulated cross-border livestock movements.
Amole noted that the lack of data has exacerbated these issues, as Nigeria has been unable to track or quantify feed resources, leading to unsustainable grazing practices and frequent clashes over scarce resources.
In his remarks, an information systems and data analytics expert for RAFFS project, Leonard Muganda emphasised the importance of data in creating informed policies and strategies for Nigeria’s feed and fodder industry.
“With accurate data, we can improve the efficiency of the sector, reduce feed scarcity, and address market challenges,” he said.
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