The Federal College of Agriculture, Akure (FECA), says it is targeting the production of 6,000 litres of milk per day, when all the Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) have been concluded with involved companies.
The Provost of the College, Dr Akinyemi Fadiyimu, stated on Thursday in Akure that the school is almost at the stage of signing MoUs with some leading dairy companies and industries in the country and would be supplying the milk collected to the companies.
The provost said that the project is looking at importing a 200-cow capacity dairy farm that would be producing milk, each producing at least 30 litres per day, making 6,000 litres total.
“The mistake Nigerians make and that has affected most of our public institutions, is that we believe that it is only government that should provide funds for development.
“So in advanced country, what the Governments do is to provide enabling environment to drive the process.
“With that at the back of our mind, when we came on board, we resolved that we can’t continue to depend on government funding alone. We need to reach out to the private sectors to develop the institutions.
“And, as at today, we are at the process of signing an MoU with the company, in other to develop the dairy aspect of Agriculture in the college, so it is at that stage that we are now, not only with Wampco, we are also in discussion with other international organisations.
“In fact! we are expecting a team from the USA, also in that area to partner with us in other to upscale what we are doing and take advantage of the potentials.
“The project is looking at having a 200-cow capacity dairy farm that will be producing milk, these are not local breeds, these are exotic breeds.
“Each of this breeds has the capacity to produce nothing less that 30 litres of milk per day, you can do the multiplication, so that much in terms of milk produced, which of course will go a long way to improve the availability of that product to our people,” he said.
Fadiyimu, who said that apart from boosting the health and nutrition of the people, the other aspect was that it would also improve the school’s capability to train students in modern dairy farming, using modern equipment.
He noted that the cows would not be roaming about because pastures also grown in the college would be used to feed the cows and would also be a form of training for the students in the art of pasture production.
