Nigeria officially inaugurates the development of a livestock master plan

The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support project and in collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), launched activities in Abuja on Monday 24 July 2023 to develop a livestock master plan for Nigeria.

The Nigeria livestock master plan will help guide the development of the country’s livestock sector which accounts for one-third of the 21% contribution that the agricultural sector makes to the national gross domestic product.

In a collaboration that has received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ILRI will work with the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support project team, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and other relevant ministries to develop the livestock master plan.

ILRI has over the past decade assisted countries in Africa and Asia to develop sector strategies and investment roadmaps for their livestock sectors, working with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development as technical partners.

Dolapo Enahoro, a senior scientist in ILRI’s Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods program and principal investigator for the Nigeria livestock master plan project, stated that ILRI would work with stakeholders and experts in Nigeria to deliver a livestock sector analysis, a 15-year livestock sector strategy, and a five-year investment plan for the development of priority livestock value chains.

She further stated that the master plan would build on existing strategies and plans such as the national livestock transformation plan and the more recent Nigeria Livestock Roadmap for Productivity Improvement and Resilience project to provide the well-grounded wheels with which these engines of livestock development can gain traction towards critical changes that are needed in Nigeria’s livestock sector.

Photo: Goat in a market in Nigeria (ILRI/Stevie Mann).