Aregbesola Launches 10,000-capacity Cattle Ranch (O’Beef), Berates Under-utilizati on of Resources


Governor Rauf Aregbesola at the weekend launched a cattle ranch where a new agro-based industryis emerging. The 78.8 hectares, 10,000-capacity cattle ranch is aimed at meeting the beef demand of the State of Osun as well as the entire South-West when fully operational. The Governor said the beef farm would boost self-reliance in food production as well as create economic bases and job opportunities for our people.
At the commissioning of the OsunBeef Production outfit (O’Beef) ranch located at Oloba Farm Settlement in Iwo, he said it was primarily targeted at boosting agriculture, meat and food production, food processing and mass agro-based employment. It is also part of a plan to assist livestock farmers to improve milk and meat production, saying, plans are afoot to establish similarbut lager ranches in Ede (400 hectares) and Ejigbo (1,000 hectares). Land has been acquiredfor this purpose and the location would have grazing reserves and cattle hub – including markets, feed mills. The grazing reserves will help us to tackle the recurringfeud between the Fulani pastoralists and the crop farmers usually caused as a result of cattle grazing on farms.
Meanwhile, Aregbesola has declared that the country would remain poor despite the huge income from crude oil as long as the leaders fail to properly utilise the income to generate employment.
Speaking at the Education Conference of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) held in Osogbo, he stated that it was an illusion to claim that the country is rich.
The governor said: “As a government we must be able to produce the food we eat. A government cannot be said to be good if it is incapable of feeding its own people. In Lagos alone, about 6,000 cattle are slaughtereddaily in the abattoirs, while the remaining five South-West States combined conservatively accountsfor another 6,000 based on their total population, no state in South-West produces a single one.All these animals come from the North. We intend to target just 10 per cent of the Lagos market. The governor described the potential of the beef market in the Southwest as huge, adding that it could not be waved aside by any visionary government.”
“This translates to a huge N4.4 billion per annum. This huge market demand for beef, the governor argued, carries the potential to empower the state and the entire Southwest people economically through wealth creation.”
For a start, the ranch, which is being managed by a South Africanexpert in conjunction with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, has 1,500 cattle sourced locally. The farm is being run with the technical direction offoreign Technical Partners from Zambia and South Africa.
According to the Governor, 30 foreign species of cattle called the Zambian Boran, would be introduced to the ranch with a view to genetically crossbreeding them with local ones to get new indigenous species.
When fully in operation, the ranch,which will be run on public private partnership basis, will have modern abattoir that offers services to the people at a lower rate.
It is the objective of this administration in the State of Osun to create the enabling environment that will make this happen.
“We will be dedicating and developing hundreds of hectares of land into grazing reserves, cattle markets, breeding centres, and fattening hubs. This will be in addition to the new central abattoirs that we are developing in selected towns across the state,” Aregbesola said.
It is against this backdrop that thegovernment began a study of the process to come up with a programme that will be indigenous to the state and the region. In February 2011, this assignment took them to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ibadan, where they discussed about building partnerships to help the state develop a robust framework for implementing an innovative programme that focuses on Beef Chain Development in Osun. What came out of the interactions between the Osun team and the ILRI is the abattoir-linked enterprises that include fattening, breeding and marketing activities.
Hence, government decided that the strategic option for the state is to adopt the value chain approach to developing the beef sector in the state, with a preliminary target, excluding production for local consumption,of serving a minimum 10 per centof the Lagos 6,000 cattle per day market. This, it was gathered, would be achieved through a strategic initiative incorporating activities such as cattle genetics improvement, breeding, fattening,slaughter and beef marketing.

With the resulting strategic discussion with the ILRI, between December 11th and 16th, 2011, Aregbesola led a delegation of selected state government officials on a tour of the Zambian agricultural industry. Research revealed that Zambia has practised what could be achieved through agriculture as a means for creating jobs and wealth for the people.
The first, it was gathered, hinged on gaining a first hand understanding of the Zambian success story in agricultural development, as well as to begin the development of the beef sector in Osun. The programme hit the ground running and this result is the Oloba cattle ranch, which the governor revealed would not be the only one in the state as efforts are on to establishmore in viable locations in the state. Oloba Cattle Ranch is about 78.8 hectares in size.
Government also intends to promote the establishment of cattle and ram feedlots and as such, efforts are in progress to put the feedlot infrastructure in place to accommodate 1,500 cattle. At the maximum capacity, this ranch will accommodate up to 10,000 cattle being fattened at the same time.
Not only that, the Oloba Cattle Ranch would act as a breeding centre for a foreign breed of cattle known as the Boran, so as to develop a new breed of cattle that is indigenous to the South-West by cross-breeding the Zambian-Boran with local breeds such as the White Fulani and Sokoto Gudali.
The resulting cattle, it is expected, will have greater capacity to produce meat, making cattle fattening and beef production a very profitable endeavour for the state.

Source:
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no tankz to ma stupid gomina cum "hay"-"SHIT"-"hen"(acn) bokoharam islamic party. Maybe he's in-law wit d fulaniz or somtin!