The Chairman Lagos State Butchers Association, Bamidele Alabi, says lack of traceability of cattle being produced and consumed in the country is responsible for the nation’s red meat not acceptable for export.
Alabi who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos, stated that lack of history and background of cattle had been a major challenge confronting the red meat value chain.
Alabi noted that majority of the cattle slaughtered in the country comes from neighbouring countries Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Alabi said that with the new proposed feedlot system by the Lagos State Government in Igbodu, Epe, the challenges would be addressed.
According to him, with this new ranching system, we can tell the history of the cattle that we want to slaughter, from birth to the time of slaughtering.
“Majority of the cattle we slaughter comes from neighbouring countries because we don’t produce much in Nigeria.
“Even in the Northern part, they don’t have much, they buy cattle from Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
“But now, this initiative will encourage us too to have more and produce more to join what is already on ground.
“It is not that we can not meet our meat demand in Lagos state, we kill almost 3,000 herds of cattle daily, by that, we get all the cattle from neighbouring states and countries.
“Now that the Lagos State Government say it want us to have ranches and they have made land available, about 750 hectares of land will have great impact on the quality of meat we produce.
“We members of the Lagos State butchery association bought 50 hectares of land to rear our own cattle on the ranch.
Alabi noted that cattle rearing was not going to be in the nomadic system which was the norm before now.
He added that herders would now use the real international standard.
“We believe that the feedlot will improve the quality of meat been sold to the public because it is going to be reared and produced under a well-managed process.
“They will be eating organic food and forage. There are space for us to plant the forage/grass that they will be consuming because they are all enclosed in the ranching system.
“We believe that with this new system, we will give Lagos residents healthy cows that are even healthier than what we have now,” Alabi assured.