Top Solutions to the Problems of Livestock Farming – New Discovering
Animals in livestock farming have a sad existence. How do we change this? Politicians need to bring stronger animal protection policies and for us to rethink our own eating habits.
In this article, we will state clearly top solutions to the problems of livestock farming. We need to implement these recommendations if we have desire to fight food insecurity in this country. Human’s need for food is insatiable, for as long as we keep being humans, there will always be an endless need for food. Humans get food from two major sources which are animals and plants.
Livestock farming is the most common method of making food from animals. It is simply defined as the process of rearing animals mainly for consumption.
According to the National Animal Production Research Institute ﴾NAPRI﴿, livestock accounts for one third of Nigeria’s agricultural GDP, providing income, employment, food, farm energy, manure, fuel and transport. They are also a major source of government revenue that is through taxation and export earnings.
What is Livestock Farming?
Livestock farming is simply the management and breeding of domestic, livestock or farm animals for the purpose of obtaining their meat and products (milk, eggs, leather, etc.).
It can also be described as the economic activity that involves raising domestic animals for human Livestock farming is one of the oldest economic activities of man started by early men. It guarantees food supply, hides, skins, bones, milk and other animal products without going to the forest to hunt. Livestock farming includes the breeding of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, poultry, rabbits, snails, fishes, and honeybees.
In poultry farming, the number of animals per farm has increased with the farms having 100,000 hens huddled together in the tightest spaces.
To keep production costs as low as possible, there is ultra-modern farming houses designed for efficiency, without any sleeping or walking areas for the animals.
How can the situation be Solve?
Providing better living conditions with adequate space Distributing animals in appropriate groups to promote social behaviour Offering possibility of outdoor exercise Providing sufficient opportunities for movement Allowing daylight and structured environment If animals are allowed to perform species-specific behaviour, painful manipulations may not be required, thus resulting in cost cutting. However, awareness of the factory owners is necessary in that case.
Why we should find Discovery Solutions to the Problems of Livestock Farming?
Nigeria currently imports foreign milk at a rate of 1 million dollars per day. With this statistic, it is safe to say that the country is failing in the area of satisfying its daily demand for milk.
One of the major reasons why the country has failed to satisfy its demand for milk is the hesitance on the part of investors.
Potential investors in this sector are always overwhelmed with diffidence and indecision. They fear failure and are mostly uncertain about what they are about to step into.
This is mostly due to lack of enlightenment, the dwindling economy of the country and the amount of time taken before profits are made in livestock business.
Another reason is the failure of livestock owners to embrace modern techniques and innovations. In Nigeria, cattle accounts for 50% of the nation’s meat supply, while sheep and goats accounts for 20 and 5% respectively.
Cattle also provide 90% of the total annual milk output, while sheep and goats account for less than 10%. This statistics leaves cattle as the most sought after source of animal protein. 90% of Nigeria’s cattle population is predominantly owned by nomadic pastorals that are normally oblivious of modern techniques and innovations.
Other reasons why Nigeria has failed to satisfy its demand for milk is the costs of input and hybrids.
Highly productive animal breeds and modern livestock farming equipment are not very affordable, most rural farmers are not always able to acquire them, therefore they stick with the less productive local breeds and productivity is undermined.
Also, lack of milk collection centers in the rural areas discourages people in rural areas to take up commercial livestock farming as s readily available market isn’t always close.
Step by step guide on how Farmers should Solve Livestock Farming Problems
· Allowing daylight and structured environment
· Distributing animals in appropriate groups to promote social behavior
· Offering possibility of outdoor exercise
· Providing better living conditions with adequate space
· Providing sufficient opportunities for movement
Top Solutions to the Problems of Livestock Farming
Listed below are top solutions to the problems of livestock farming:
1. Provision of adequate Livestock Health Care Plan
2. Government Support
3. Provision of Credits to Livestock Farmers
4. Provision of education to Livestock Farmers
5. Introduction of New Farming Methods to Livestock Farmers
7. Livestock research
8. Settling the Nomads
9. Provision of Adequate Animal Housing
10. Provision of Good Stock Routes and Conflict between Herders and Farmers
11. Availability of Water Especially in the Dry Season Animal Disease
Let us study in details.
1. Provision of adequate Livestock Health Care Plan
In finding solution to problems to livestock farming, adequate attention should be paid to the health of livestock and also, the rural livestock farmers and herders should also be educated on the importance of employing the services of a certified veterinarian whenever there is an outbreak of diseases. This will help curtail morbidity as well as reducing the spread of livestock diseases whenever there is an outbreak.
2. Government Support
Adequate government support is necessary and instrumental to the development of livestock farming in Nigeria. Government needs to put adequate infrastructures in place to aid the growth of the livestock farming sector. Infrastructures like good roads, good rail system and electricity will all boost the current level of productivity.
3. Provision of Credits to Livestock Farmers
To improve livestock farming, there should be readily available bank credits to facilitate the production. Nigerian banks hardly give out loans to the Fulani herders. Since the Fulanis control in Nigeria, the majority of the bulk of livestock in the country, efforts should be made towards making loans available to them so as to help them increase productivity as well as enabling them to acquire input facilities needed for optimum productivity.
Financial institutions should also help create credits and make them available to prospective livestock farmers. This will help reduce unemployment rate as well as encouraging will help reduce unemployment rate as well as encouraging willing investors to dabble into livestock farming.
4. Provision of education to Livestock Farmers
Efforts should be put in place to educate and enlighten prospective entrepreneurs and already established livestock farmers on new innovations and technology that will help improve the productivity of their livestock. These enlightenment programmes should be funded by the government or relevant non-governmental organizations because lack of knowledge or appropriate know‐how can lead to a colossal loss of income and capital. Adequate attention should be paid to the education of rural livestock farmers.
5. Introduction of New Farming Methods to Livestock Farmers
Efforts needs to be put in place by the government to persuade rural livestock farmers and fulani herders to adopt modern innovations and technologies that have been tested and proven to boost production in the livestock sector.
The continuous reliance on traditional methods have led to the nations inability to meet its animal protein needs therefore there is a need to encourage livestock farmers to embrace biotechnology techniques to improve the breed of their cattle through artificial insemination so as to obtain optimal productivity.
Read: Top Solutions to the Problems of Agriculture
6. Provision of High Livestock Feeds and Nutrition
To improve livestock farming, the government and interest based organizations in the country should invest more on animal feeds production. Poor quality feed severely cripples the development of livestock in Nigeria.
For example, natural grass and herbage in northern Nigeria, where the bulk of the livestock are raised, produce less than the minimum of 6% protein. The low protein isn’t enough to meet the nutritional needs; therefore, there is an increased weight loss within the animals.
Animals that feed from this pasturage also have low‐quality and quantity of meat and milk. In order to improve livestock production in Nigeria, adequate attention should be paid to nutrition. Low cost feeds and supplement should be made available to farmers.
7. Livestock research
Livestock research can improve livestock farming in Nigeria. Research programmes carried out by tertiary institutions and government research institutes should be encouraged so as to enhance the discovery of useful technological methods and innovations that will improve livestock production.
Livestock farmers should also be made to embrace biotechnological techniques available in research institutes across the country to improve the breed of their cattle through artificial insemination. Research institutes should be encouraged and empowered by the government and relevant agencies to enable them find lasting solution to animal diseases and also the production of vaccines to control or eradicate them.
8. Settling the Nomads
One of the most reliable solutions to improve livestock farming in Nigeria is to settle the nomads. Since the Fulani nomads holds and control more than 90% of the cattle population in the nation, efforts should be made towards settling by the government. This will make them easily accessible to veterinarians and livestock scientists. This exposure will help the nomads embrace the best modern practices in animal agriculture. If this is successfully achieved, it will no doubt enhance milk and meat production in Nigeria.
9. Provision of Adequate Animal Housing
In trying to solve the problem of livestock farming, livestock farmers should provide with technical and financial support for construction of animal house and fencing materials.
10. Provision of Good Stock Routes and Conflict Between Herders and Farmers
Creation of livestock corridors, development of local conventions on natural resource management, conflict management and transhumance through community consultations.
11. Availability of Water Especially in the Dry Season Animal Disease
Education on water harvesting techniques, creation of pastoral wells, development of standing pools and also strengthening the capacity of community animal health workers and farmers in diagnosis of common animal disease, their prevention and treatment.
What are the Importance and Benefits of Livestock Farming?
· Livestock farming is a vital activity in the development of humanity and continues to occupy a prominent place among the primary activities of the world economy.
· It generates high-quality food products such as meat, egg, milk, cheese, etc.
· Other local economic sectors benefit directly or indirectly from its activity: food processing industries, handicrafts, tourism and hospitality.
· It is one of the few human productive economic activities that are truly sustainable.
· It generates employment opportunities and serves as a source of income
· It can also serve as a hobby for some people.
· It can help a country to generate foreign exchange earnings through the export of livestock products. This will further strengthen the local currency value.
· Bigger animals such as cattle, horse and donkeys can be used for some special farm operations such as ploughing, harrowing and even beasts of burden
What does factory farming mean for the animals?
The basic needs of the animals are ignored as they are kept in narrow and unstructured environment which prevents species-specific behavior. No opportunity for social behavior leads to stress, restlessness, aggressiveness and frustration. Risks from poor health, infections and susceptibility to diseases are increasing.
In order to prevent the animals from injuring or eating each other, painful manipulations are carried out without an aesthesia and the animals are subjected to control measures like beak trimming in chicks (hens, turkeys) and teeth or horns removal.