As part of its strategy to boost dairy production and reduce meat cost, Oyo State government has begun a 5-day training of over 100 livestock farmers in artificial insemination.
Through the state Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA), farmers drawn from all the senatorial districts of the state, among who are farmers from rural areas, students from tertiary institutions, veterinary technicians and government officials, are currently undergoing training for improvement in livestock production.
The focus of the training, among others, is to reduce hike in prices of beef and other livestock to ameliorate the impact of the economy on the consumers.
The programme is a national project supported by the World Bank coordinated by the Oyo State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRESS).
The training is tagged: “Training of Livestock Entrepreneurs and State-Level Officers On Artificial Insemination Across Focused Livestock Species.”
Speaking at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, venue of the training, Dr. Debo Akande, the Executive Adviser to Oyo state Governor on Agribusiness International Corporation and Development, who also doubles as the Director General of Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) explained that artificial insemination (AI) is currently in vogue because of its high yield of livestock production.
He said: “We have been rearing goats and cattles for a very long time, but we have not been doing it the right way. It should be done the modern way.
“As said earlier, if we want to start getting the best results on our livestock, we need to start adopting modern technologies and techniques. And modern technologies for livestock we are referring to are many, one of it is what we are doing training on today which is about Artificial Insemination (AI).
“If we used to get milk of two litters from one animal before, by understanding how to do an artificial insemination of cross breeding, we can start looking at the possibility of getting milk of around nine litters per cow.
“So, this is about productivity for our livestock where we would be getting more. The meat that we would be getting from these animals will be better meat and then our farmers engaging in livestock will get more money.
“But if we are talking about Artificial insemination, if we don’t have people that are experts in it, how will they inseminate?
“It’s not all insemination of animals that yields success, but by training these people now, we will have a database of people that can train in artificial insemination. And the second thing is that we have people that can do artificial insemination better than the way it used to be done.
“We will be training participants that cuts across all the geopolitical zones of Oyo State. So, this is not just about Ibadan alone, it’s going to be held at all the other zones so that if anybody wants to do artificial insemination in any of the zones, they would know who to contact and where to go to do that.
“When we are talking about technologies, these are not just what people wake up one day to say let’s use, it’s something that has gone through rigorous scientific testing for diverse reasons: environmental, health, and so on, and concluding results have shown to us that it is environmentally safe, healthwise, it is safe for animals and human consumption. So, it does not have any negative impact as being speculated by some people.
“This is just a usual situation such as what would have happened in the normal mating of animals that is now happening through artificial procedures. Even we human being do this to have children when we go for IVF medical procedure.
“At one of the state’s Agribusiness hubs such as Fashola farms in Awe, Oyo, investors and private farmers there are already producing more litters of milk than what they used to have, and in that same hub at Fashola, local people are being trained and they’re now applying the knowledge at their different farms.”
Prof. Olofisayo Leigh from the Department of Veterinary, University of Ibadan (UI), who was the led resource person, said: “I’m here for the AI training which is a core area of my professionalism and I’m the lead trainer of this event.
“I’m here to train them on artificial insemination (AI). AI is a leading technology in animal reproduction. If you want any turn around in animal reproduction, you have to go the way of AI. It’s an assisted reproduction technique and all it does is about cross breeding.
“It’s about improving the breed. The best we can get from our indigenous cattle rear is about 3 to 4 litters of milk in a day whereas in other climes, they get up to 20 to 40 liters of milk in a day. If we have to feed the people in this nation, we have the route of AI.”
