By Theresa Moses
Women are very important actors in economic change in rural areas. They play a critical role in achieving the transformational economic, environmental, and social changes required for sustainable development. When empowered, rural women’s participation in agriculture, especially dairy farming, has a positive impact on their livelihoods, those of their children, and their communities. Many rural women depend on small-scale milk production for their livelihood. Income from dairy products increases the quality of life for dairy farmers and improves the health and nutrition outcomes of families, especially children and communities.
With over N21 billion invested in the Nigerian dairy sector, FrieslandCampina WAMCO (FCW) and its partners have not only nourished Nigerians with quality dairy products but continue to help solve issues of malnutrition, empower Nigerians, and promote sustainable dairy practices. With over 100,000 employment opportunities directly and indirectly created by empowering women and youth with on-farm and off-farm activities, it is noteworthy that FCW has improved the livelihood of over 12,000 smallholder dairy farmers and pastoralists organised in cooperatives by empowering and integrating them into WAMCO’s fresh milk supply chain, which provides guaranteed market access all-year round.
Additionally, the company has provided affordable and nutritious food products to improve access to good nutrition and the livelihoods of rural women in various communities in the country. It has also provided access to potable water for communities and livestock with the construction of over 109 solar-powered boreholes, which helps to improve raw milk quality.
FrieslandCampina WAMCO has also provided proficient extension services for value chain actors through extensive training given to farmers, including but not limited to farmer2farmer training programmes (where Dutch farmers visit Nigeria to train local farmers) on various topics, such as animal health, hygienic milking, and some other elements supporting good dairy farm practices.
Besides developing productivity and efficiency in farm management, FrieslandCampina WAMCO is the highest offtaker of fresh milk produced locally for manufacturing in five states in Nigeria: Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Kwara, and Ondo, thereby leading the nation’s journey towards a prosperous and self-sufficient dairy industry.
Having tackled some challenges faced by the local dairy sector and improved farmers’ productivity and livelihoods through a market-based approach, the government now needs to fix some major challenges. These include a lack of infrastructure, such as a good road network and land tenure system, and the high cost of inputs, especially hardware; creating awareness on the nutritional benefits of milk; opportunities; and farmers’ limited access to finance so as to enable investment in the sector.
There’s also a need for an enabling environment to do dairy business as well as the provision of affordable vaccines for good animal health.
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