BusinessDay 17 Dec 2017
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Sunday <strong>17</strong> <strong>Dec</strong>ember 20<strong>17</strong><br />
C002D5556<br />
BD SUNDAY 13<br />
Feature<br />
Milk collected from Fulani farmers at Fasola<br />
Mayosore Olatunde Rafiu (front left) and some of the milk millionaires, with Dutch dairy farmers Gerben<br />
Smeenk (4th left) and Herman Bakhius (4th right) after a capacity training at Iseyin community.<br />
allowed us to cross-breed our<br />
cattle in our farm.<br />
“We didn’t know as farmers<br />
we could make money from milk,<br />
as what we had known before<br />
then was to turn it into cheese.<br />
But now, we make money. Some<br />
of the people here have become<br />
millionaires,” she explained.<br />
The situation is also favouring<br />
those in the value chain. Fatima<br />
Abu is a Fulani woman who sells<br />
milk. Abu does not milk cows<br />
but ensures that Fulani people’s<br />
cows are sold wherever there is<br />
a market. She sometimes moves<br />
raw milk out of Oyo State to sell<br />
as yoghurt or milk.<br />
“I go to places where there are<br />
few cows. I make more money<br />
from there,” she said.<br />
Apart from these millionaires,<br />
the industry has produced a huge<br />
number of small-scale enterprises.<br />
A lot of these dairy farmers,<br />
especially the Fulani, produce<br />
between two and 20 litres daily.<br />
Tijani Olokoto produces just<br />
three litres each day. Olokoto<br />
makes as little as N300 daily but<br />
plans to increase his productivity.<br />
However, he is banking on<br />
the realisation of the news that<br />
the community is setting up<br />
boreholes.<br />
“They are planning to dig<br />
boreholes and I hope I can produce<br />
up to seven litres when this<br />
becomes a reality,” Olokoto said.<br />
A Fulani woman who produces<br />
just 5 litres of milk said the<br />
income now helps her provide<br />
the basic things of the family.<br />
At another settlement called<br />
Akele, Danjuma Anjuru, a smallholder<br />
farmer, has 20 local cows.<br />
Apart from the situation just<br />
described, the money-making<br />
opportunity in these Oyo communities<br />
favours the Fulani<br />
the most. Before the coming of<br />
FrieslandCampina, many Fulani<br />
women had no jobs to do. Those<br />
who had jobs were merely hawkers<br />
in the streets of Oyo.<br />
But Fulani women are now<br />
fully engaged in milk production,<br />
being the ones in the forefront.<br />
They wake earlier than their<br />
husbands, prepare meals for their<br />
children and move into the field<br />
to milk cows. In fact, they have<br />
the responsibility of taking raw<br />
milk in kegs to milk collection<br />
centres. They make their own<br />
money and use it to support their<br />
husbands.<br />
“Our wives no longer give us<br />
trouble again,” said Abdullahi<br />
Tijani Jubril, one of the Fulani<br />
farmers settled in Iseyin community.<br />
“We used to have issues<br />
with them when they were<br />
idle or doing little things that<br />
gave them small income, but<br />
now that they are making<br />
money, the trouble is less and<br />
is good for the family,” he said.<br />
FrieslandCampina is a Lagos,<br />
Nigeria-based Dutch dairy firm.<br />
It commenced this programme<br />
and christened it Diary Development<br />
Programme (DDP) in 2010.<br />
FrieslandCampina is currently<br />
doing this DDP Programme in<br />
five locations in Oyo State: Akele,<br />
Fashola, Isheyin, Maya and Saki.<br />
The company brings Fulani<br />
herdsmen together and puts<br />
them in a particular settlement.<br />
These Fulani speak the local Yoruba<br />
language and eat the local<br />
food of these communities. They<br />
are now part of their communities<br />
and teach their children the<br />
culture of the Yorubas.<br />
The arrangement has brought<br />
relative peace in Oyo State. The<br />
Fulani are majorly based in<br />
northern Nigeria and across Nigeria,<br />
but are mainly nomadic in<br />
nature. They move from place to<br />
place with their cows and mostly<br />
down to the southern part of<br />
Nigeria in search of water for the<br />
cattle owing to climate change.<br />
Some choose to remain in the<br />
northern part of the country but<br />
in different states.<br />
However, these movements<br />
often lead to destruction of farmlands<br />
and eating up of farm produce<br />
by cows.<br />
In 2016, Imke de Boer, professor<br />
of animal science, Wageningen<br />
University, the Netherlands,<br />
and Janine Luten, managing<br />
director of Wageningen Academy<br />
came into Fasola and Iseyin<br />
communities.<br />
This year, Gerben Smeenk and<br />
Herman Bakhius came in from<br />
the Netherlands to tutor local<br />
farmers on cross-breeding, artificial<br />
insemination, accounting,<br />
and cattle management.<br />
Aisat Ibrahim, a Fulani woman,<br />
is happy that the Dutch farmers,<br />
who spent two weeks with<br />
her and others, have helped<br />
increase productivity.<br />
A Fulani woman milking a cow at Fasola village<br />
Fatima Abu (centre ) and some of the Fulani dairy farmers at Iseyin<br />
In the first week of November<br />
this year, a clash between<br />
herdsmen and farmers in Ugaga<br />
community, Yala Local Government<br />
Area of Cross River, left<br />
one person dead and several<br />
others sustaining various levels<br />
of injuries.<br />
Still in the same month, 20<br />
people were killed and several<br />
others injured following a clash<br />
between farmers and Fulani<br />
herdsmen in Numan local government<br />
area of Adamawa State.<br />
Many communities have<br />
been sacked by such crises, but<br />
FrieslandCampina’s model seems<br />
to be working in Oyo State.<br />
Another factor that is changing<br />
the narrative in dairy making<br />
is the marriage between local and<br />
Dutch farmers. Dutch farmers<br />
come from time to time to teach<br />
the local farmers new method of<br />
milking and cattle management.<br />
“I learnt cross-breeding. Before,<br />
I used to produce 10 litres<br />
but now I have raised my production<br />
to 20 litres,” Ibrahim, who<br />
spoke in Yoruba, said.<br />
Olatunde Rafiu, earlier cited,<br />
said the Dutch farmers taught<br />
him and others that it is possible<br />
to make much more money in the<br />
business through<br />
“They gave us their technical<br />
experience. They taught us<br />
pasture management and cow<br />
signals. They also introduced<br />
us to their input suppliers. They<br />
taught us how to feed the animals<br />
so that they will develop very<br />
well. They, in fact, tutored on<br />
pasture management, that is, the<br />
type of feed cows need to develop<br />
faster,” Rafiu said.<br />
“We also started improving<br />
the genetics of our breeds,<br />
as much cross-breeding taking<br />
place,” he stated.