News in brief: The Lagos state government aims to achieve self-sufficiency in beef production through a cattle feedlot project, which will address industry issues and provide benefits such as beef traceability for food safety and product recall.
The Lagos state government has set plans in motion to achieve self-sufficiency in beef production through a cattle feedlot project. According to Nike Sodipo, head of public affairs for the state’s Ministry of Agriculture, its local the project will address several issues in the industry.
Sodipo mention beef traceability as one of the project’s benefits. Typically, traceability provides food safety and assures consumers of quality through transparency. In beef production, it will keep a record of how the product moves from farm to fork. Another benefit is that it gives room for accountability and makes it easy to recall products when necessary.
In addition, the project will provide avenues to generate income for investors and create jobs in the state.
Speaking at a workshop organised by the ministry and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the ministry’s permanent secretary, Olatokunbo Emokpae, mentioned that the gap is over 1.3 million cattle heads.
“Lagos State with a human population of over 24 million, currently requires a total of 1.4 million head of cattle valued at over N490bn annually while local production from existing feedlots in the state is presently 12,000 head of cattle. This leaves a gap of over 1,380,000 head of cattle, which is sourced from other states of the federation and neighbouring countries,” Emokpae said.
There aren’t much details about the project yet but the agric ministry’s permanent secretary revealed that it will cover at least 750 hectares of land at Igbodu, Epe, in the outskirts of Lagos state.
The main idea behind feedlots are making animals gain weight quickly, which increases the amount of fat they contain. This plan is part of the state government’s vision to move towards self-sustenance in terms of food. Recently, it announced that its locally produced rice has begun selling as well.
