PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------
-------------------------------------------

L and Z Integrated Farms Limited, Kano, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The agreement was signed, last eek, on behalf of the Ministry by the Hon. Mnister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh while L&Z Farms was represented by its chairman, Mr. Keith Richards and its Managing Director, Alhaji M.D Abubakar, who both signed on behalf of their company.

According to the Minister, this represents part of the Ministry's early steps in driving public private partnership towards diversifying the economy and its commitment to long term sustainability in food production and security while adding value and enhancing efficiency in the nation's dairy sector.

According to the terms of the MoU, L&Z be making significant investments in knowledge-transfer, partnership with farmers and technical training programmes to help develop the dairy production value chain.


L&Z will equally participate in pilot model farming at the existing Gwagwalada-Abuja grazing reserve which will be made available to L&Z as part of this MOU. L&Z will also train 10 sedentary model farmers in each state in Northern Nigeria on herd management, feeding programmes, artificial insemination, milk cycles, calving, etc. In addition, they will set up a milk supply chain structure from collection to retail, and collection and purchase guarantee of the model farmers' milk.

The Minister expressed confidence that L&Z is well positioned to work closely with his Ministry in delivering on the terms of the MoU considering the company's decade-long track record of working with various herdsmen cooperatives to optimise quality, enhance speed to market and waste reduction. This, he said, has resulted in increased prices for produce as well as economic empowerment for fulani cattle rearers.


Under the agreement, L&Z will work with the Ministry of Agriculture to deepen its ready market for dairy products from Fulani herders as well as create a national milk quality enhancement system and evacuation channel along the entire dairy value chain. This will ensure herders get good monetary value for their products nationwide, reduce wastage, curb pastoral migration that cause communal clashes with farmers thereby making more herders adopt a sedentary lifestyle which will also provide an opportunity for their children to acquire education from regular school attendance.


The Ministry will also facilitate the lease and development of 5,000 hectares of pasture in each northern state using Napier grass (grazing reserves) and contracting the farming to qualified farmers from communities while L&Z and other partners and research institutions will supervise the production.


The farm will collaborate with the relevant non-government organizations in engaging the herdsmen in other profitable ventures such as pasture development, feed formulation, seed multiplication and sales and assist in the training of herd women in milk handling and processing and skill acquisition to deliver the right quality promptly for off taking.


Another notable area where the partnership between the Ministry and the farm in the MOU will enrich the dairy value chain in the country is in the establishment a drying facility for the production of powdered milk in Nigeria


In the agreement L&Z will leverage on available manpower capacities in academic/research institutions in collaboration with the FMARD to improve fodder quality, pasture yields and breeding process and organize seminars and lectures from time to time to bring the Fulani closer and make them aware of the benefits of modern ways of rearing animals, untraditional substitute to the milk produced for their children such as soya milk and other information beneficial to them, eg education, family planning, etc


L&Z, which was established more than a decade ago in Kano, has held on to its overriding objective of harnessing Nigeria’s immense agricultural potential with a view to drive modern practices across the industry’s diverse segments. It has risen over time to become a household name across various states for quality dairy products and one of the major suppliers for supermarket chains nationwide, including Shoprite.


Through its innovative model of working directly with herdsmen, the farm has been providing a consistent milk market to more than 500 Fulani cattle herders in Kano; for a produce which would otherwise have continued to go to waste due to the highly perishable nature of dairy outputs in Nigeria's tropical climate.[img]PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------
-------------------------------------------

L and Z Integrated Farms Limited, Kano, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The agreement was signed, last eek, on behalf of the Ministry by the Hon. Mnister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh while L&Z Farms was represented by its chairman, Mr. Keith Richards and its Managing Director, Alhaji M.D Abubakar, who both signed on behalf of their company.

According to the Minister, this represents part of the Ministry's early steps in driving public private partnership towards diversifying the economy and its commitment to long term sustainability in food production and security while adding value and enhancing efficiency in the nation's dairy sector.

According to the terms of the MoU, L&Z be making significant investments in knowledge-transfer, partnership with farmers and technical training programmes to help develop the dairy production value chain.


L&Z will equally participate in pilot model farming at the existing Gwagwalada-Abuja grazing reserve which will be made available to L&Z as part of this MOU. L&Z will also train 10 sedentary model farmers in each state in Northern Nigeria on herd management, feeding programmes, artificial insemination, milk cycles, calving, etc. In addition, they will set up a milk supply chain structure from collection to retail, and collection and purchase guarantee of the model farmers' milk.

The Minister expressed confidence that L&Z is well positioned to work closely with his Ministry in delivering on the terms of the MoU considering the company's decade-long track record of working with various herdsmen cooperatives to optimise quality, enhance speed to market and waste reduction. This, he said, has resulted in increased prices for produce as well as economic empowerment for fulani cattle rearers.


Under the agreement, L&Z will work with the Ministry of Agriculture to deepen its ready market for dairy products from Fulani herders as well as create a national milk quality enhancement system and evacuation channel along the entire dairy value chain. This will ensure herders get good monetary value for their products nationwide, reduce wastage, curb pastoral migration that cause communal clashes with farmers thereby making more herders adopt a sedentary lifestyle which will also provide an opportunity for their children to acquire education from regular school attendance.


The Ministry will also facilitate the lease and development of 5,000 hectares of pasture in each northern state using Napier grass (grazing reserves) and contracting the farming to qualified farmers from communities while L&Z and other partners and research institutions will supervise the production.


The farm will collaborate with the relevant non-government organizations in engaging the herdsmen in other profitable ventures such as pasture development, feed formulation, seed multiplication and sales and assist in the training of herd women in milk handling and processing and skill acquisition to deliver the right quality promptly for off taking.


Another notable area where the partnership between the Ministry and the farm in the MOU will enrich the dairy value chain in the country is in the establishment a drying facility for the production of powdered milk in Nigeria


In the agreement L&Z will leverage on available manpower capacities in academic/research institutions in collaboration with the FMARD to improve fodder quality, pasture yields and breeding process and organize seminars and lectures from time to time to bring the Fulani closer and make them aware of the benefits of modern ways of rearing animals, untraditional substitute to the milk produced for their children such as soya milk and other information beneficial to them, eg education, family planning, etc


L&Z, which was established more than a decade ago in Kano, has held on to its overriding objective of harnessing Nigeria’s immense agricultural potential with a view to drive modern practices across the industry’s diverse segments. It has risen over time to become a household name across various states for quality dairy products and one of the major suppliers for supermarket chains nationwide, including Shoprite.


Through its innovative model of working directly with herdsmen, the farm has been providing a consistent milk market to more than 500 Fulani cattle herders in Kano; for a produce which would otherwise have continued to go to waste due to the highly perishable nature of dairy outputs in Nigeria's tropical climate.[/img]PRESS RELEASE