‘Damau Househould Milk Farm To Be Ready In April’

The Managing Director of Kaduna Market Development and Management Company (KMDMC), Tamar Nadul, has promised that the first phase of the Damau Household Milk Farm Project will be completed before the end of this administration.

Nadul who said that there are three districts in the entire project, disclosed that Phase one covers just one district and it will be completed by April next year, before Governor Nasir El-Rufai completes his tenure.

Explaining further, she said that 400 farms which translate to 400 households, will benefit from the first phase of the project, adding that each farm will consist of five hectres of grassland.

The Managing Director further said that each farm or household will have three crossbred cows that will be used for producing milk and not for beef, totaling 1,200 cattle in the entire farms.

According to her, there will be a skills acquisition centre where modern processes and strategies of milking cows will be taught to the settled pastoralists.

‘’They will be taught basic animal husbandry, sanitation and hygiene and how to administer First Aid when the cows are sick, before taking them to the vetnary clinic located within the farm. They will also be taught financial literacy,’’ she disclosed.

Nadul further disclosed that the herders will live in two-bedroom flats within the farm and there will be a Primary Health Centre, a school for their children, a market, electricity and pipe borne water, a public toilet and a security outpost .

She clarified that although it is a joint project between Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Arla Global Diary Products Limited and Kaduna State Government, Damau Household Milk Farm is however different from the National Livestock Transformation Programme(NLTP).

‘’We started before NLTP and ours is a business that has economic and social benefits and what I will refer to as community benefits. It is also aimed at controlling grazing, curbing cattle rustling and its an incentive for herders to live a settled life,’’ she pointed out.

According to her, beneficiaries have been grouped into cooperatives modeled after the cooperatives in Western countries because ‘’Kaduna State Government plans to hand ownership to them after paying off the CBN loan.’’

The Managing Director said that the Damau Household Milk Farm project occupies 6,000 hectres of farmland and 4,000 hectres have been given to Arla for its demonstration farm.

‘’The project started in 2019, we had to build roads and bridges to make it accessible, which enabled us to move men and materials to the site,’’ she added.

Listing the benefits of the project, Nadul argued that it will provide safe and quality milk to the people of Kaduna state, guarantee sustainable milk production and also promote modern farming.

She further said that the project will improve the local economy of not just Damau but the entire Kubau local government and Kaduna state at large, adding that the organized clusters will enhance economies of scale for export.

The MD disclosed that Arla has invested $14 million into the project and 300 jobs have so far been created, adding that it will invest a total of $25 million for the milk processing plant, when the entire three districts of the project are completed.