INTRODUCTION
Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. This article does not discuss poultry or farmed fish, although these, especially poultry, are commonly included within the meaning of “livestock”.
Livestock are generally raised for profit. Raising animals (animal husbandry) is a component of modern agriculture. It has been practiced in many cultures since the transition to farming from hunter-gather lifestyles. The term “livestock” is nebulous and may be defined narrowly or broadly. On a broader view, livestock refers to any breed or population of animal kept by humans for a useful, commercial purpose. This can mean domestic animals, semi-domestic animals, or captive wild animals. Semi-domesticated refers to animals which are only lightly domesticated or of disputed status. These populations may also be in the process of domestication. Some people may use the term livestock to refer to only domestic animals or even to only red meat animals
Domestic sheep and a cow (heifer) pastured together in Borno state
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the “people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats, purpose of the activities or a combination of the foregoing features”. The definition often includes a combination of fish and fishers in a region, the latter fishing for similar species with similar gear types.
A fishery may involve the capture of wild fish or raising fish through fish farming or aquaculture. Directly or indirectly, the livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends on fisheries and aquaculture. Overfishing, including the taking of fish beyond sustainable levels, is reducing fish stocks and employment in many world regions. A report by Prince Charles’ International Sustainability Unit, the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund and 50in10 published in July 2014 estimated global fisheries were adding $270 billion a year to global GDP, but by full implementation of sustainable fishing, that figure could rise by as much as $50 billion
The role of Fisheries and Livestock sectors in the development of agro-based economy of Bangladesh is very important and promising. They contribute around 8% to national income, which also is 32% of the total agricultural income. About 90% of animal protein in our diet comes from fish and livestock.
The main functions of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock are to preserve fisheries resources, fulfill the requirement of animal protein through proper management and planned development, increase socio-economic conditions of fishermen, create employment opportunities for rural unemployed and landless people, expand foreign exchange earnings by exporting fish and fishery products and to innovate new technologies through research for fisheries development and preservation.
DEVELOPMENT OF LIVESTOCK STOCK AND FISHEIRES IN NIGERIA
Among all the livestock that makes up the farm animals in Nigeria, ruminants, comprising sheep, goats and cattle, constitute the farm animals largely reared by farm families in the country’s agricultural system. Nigeria has population of 34.5million goats, 22.1million sheep and 13.9million cattle. The larger proportion of these animals’ population are however largely concentrated in the northern region of the country than the southern region. Specifically about 90 percent of the country’s cattle population and 70 percent of the sheep and goat populations are concentrated in northern region of the country. Concentration of Nigeria’s livestock-base in the northern region is most likely to have been influenced by the ecological condition of the region which is characterised by low rainfall duration, lighter sandy soils and longer dry season. This submission is predicated by the fact that drier tropics or semi-arid regions are more favourable to the ruminants, Not withstanding this situation, certain breeds of sheep and goats, particularly the West African Dwarf (WAD) species, are peculiarly adapted to the southern (humid) region of the country and are commonly reared by rural households in the region. Although, no breed of cattle is peculiar to the southern humid region of Nigeria, the available cattle in the region was largely due to settlement of the Hausa/Fulani pastoralists, who constitute the main cattle rearers, in the region.
Nigeria is one country that can boast of 230 billion cubic metres of water, making it one of the richest countries for fish and aquaculture development, fish farming, fish markets and fish consumption.
This is one thought that has pushed for the development of the fisheries and aquaculture value chain, aimed at increasing fish production and creating a viable fish market as a springboard to creating foreign exchange for the development of the Nigerian economy.
Fishery is one very important aspect of the nation’s agricultural development because of the huge consumption demand by Nigerians. But despite the huge water space Nigeria has fish was imported until the federal government, through Dr Akinwumi Adesina, began the steady transformation of the nation’s fishery and aquaculture through the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) and Agricultural Transformation Agenda(ATA).
The fisheries sector is estimated to contribute 3.5% of Nigeria’s GDP and provides direct and indirect employment to over six million people. Nigeria has many rivers and water bodies which would serve as good locations to set-up fish farms. Opportunities exist in various areas of the fishing sub-sector, these
include: Production of table size fish, Construction of fish farms, Storage Processing and preservation of captured fish. Fish seed multiplication Transport Financing Reasons to invest in Nigeria Incentives: The Nigerian Government is willing to extend a number of incentives to serious investors.
A major challenge to the development of fish production is the poor marketability for fish farmers and fishermen. The government, therefore, sought an avenue to create a market through the Broodstock Development and Hatchery Management, for Increased Production of Improved Fingerlings, increased table fish production, fish feed development, fish processing and product development, all aimed at creating a viable fish market for Nigerians.
The federal government also took a foray into commercial fish farming, and through the ATA successfully installed fish cages at 21 strategic locations nationwide, while support was given to some cage fish farmers in Bayelsa State to cushion the loss suffered during the 2012 flood disaster. In the area of fish product development, the federal government, through the ATA established two large scale fish processing plants at Jebba, Kwara State and Borno States, while six cottage fish processing centres were established in Borno, Kebbi, Lagos, Delta and Imo states and the FCT under a public private partnership arrangement.
In creating a market for fish farmers, the federal government established three fish markets in Kebbi, Ogun and Cross River state, while two additional fish markets are being developed in Lokoja and Onitsha. In the area of fish/shrimp exports, the federal government, through the Adesina-led government, revealed that a total of 3,967.1705MT of fish, shrimp and their products were exported in 2012 at a value of US$45,990,640.85 to the EU and the United States of America (USA), while the Department of Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture issued a total of 196 Catch Certificates to Exporters.
The sum of N192.9 million was generated as revenue through the issuance of different categories of fishing and shrimping licences in 2011 and 2012 only. In the development of fisheries, the federal government had also proposed three sites for the establishment of Staple Crops Processing Zones (SCPZ) in Lagos, Bayelsa, and Rivers. This will be special zones designated for fish processing, shrimps and other fishery products. Also laboratory equipment and consumables were procured for upgrade of the National Fisheries Laboratory, Lagos.
This notwithstanding, there is need to consciously harness the environment to enhance the country’s livestock and fishery development through the following:
Efficient livestock and fishery feeding: exploration of the environment and the country’s breeds of ruminant potentials for livestock and fishery industry development are yet to be fully harnessed. The larger proportion of the ruminant livestock in Nigeria lies in the hands of herders who keep them under extensive and semi-intensive management systems, whereby the animals only rely on natural pasture and crop residue for survival. The ruminants may though have access to enough forage during the rainy season; it becomes a great deal of challenge to efficiently feed the animals during the dry season. In order to sustain the animals and ensure better productivity, there is need to explore the available natural pasture for silage and hay making such that the animals could be adequately fed during the dry season. In addition, there is need for paddock establishment, especially in the rural communities or reserved areas, for grazing by the ruminants. Although, forage constitutes the bulk of food needed by the ruminants, supplementary feeding is equally essential, especially for the lactating animals. In view of this, the farm animals’ diet needs to be supplemented with meals such as cottonseed cake, wheat bran, molasses, drugs and mineral salt licks etc. In view of the fact that the indigenous cattle can gain an average of 0.9 to 1.2 kg per day on silage and concentrate rations [22], it suggests that the local breeds of cattle have the potentials for efficient utilisation of feed for better production performance.
Veterinary services: pests and diseases portend a major risk to livestock and fishery development in Nigeria, as incidence of pests and diseases are common in the country’s livestock system. Although, prevention is known to be better than cure, it is invariably impossible to out rightly prevent the farm animals from being infested with either pests or diseases. This premise thus calls for establishment of sound veterinary services where infected animals could be taken care of. This requirement has been a great challenge in the Nigeria’s livestock management system. Apart from inadequate veterinary services in the country, current veterinary therapy in Nigeria is suffering from both scarcity and the high cost of drugs thereby making it impossible to save the livestock industry as it were in the country. Although, the livestock herders may take to ethno-veterinary treatment of their animals, this becomes possible only when the symptoms become manifested, and by then a serious internal damage or impairment of the animals’ health might have taken place. The implication of this is that, it may be impossible to adequately treat the animals or ensure proper clinical remedy. This situation thus calls for government and non-government organisations intervention for development of the veterinary services such that it becomes affordable to be patronised by the stock herders. The easiest and most rational solution to the problem of livestock health is to develop acceptably effective drugs from reasonably inexpensive sources for use as supplements to commercial drugs. The veterinary traditional medicine practices may still be of value in the animal health care, but should be subjected to scientific investigation for efficacy. In the light of this, it becomes important to have baseline data about traditional ethno-veterinary practices for ethno-veterinary medical information generation. Combination of the orthodox and ethno-veterinary care could thus save the animals of impaired health and enhance productivity.
Livestock and fish breeding: livestock breeding is crucial to livestock development globally. Good system of management of the resulting breeds/offspring from the crosses – in terms of intensive keeping, good health care and feeding, is however crucial to better performance of the animals. Adopted poor management systems for farm animals in Nigeria and most other developing countries certainly accounted for the poor production performance of the local ruminant breeds. The same poor management system accounted for poor performance of the exotic breeds imported into the country in the 70 (Blench, 1999). Just as the exotic breeds are known to have performed excellently well in their countries of origin under good management practice, results from experimental stations results from stations and universities farms across Africa showed that productivity of the animals could be improved under more intensive management. Similarly, where crossing has been successful under good management practice, dairy cattle dairy cattle portrayed a linear increase in milk yield as the exotic gene is increased up to the 7/8 level. The F1 Friesian x Bunaji cow (50%) gives 1684 kg, the 3/4 (75%) gives 1850 kg and the 7/8 gives 2051 kg of milk in a lactation of about 260 days. This suggests that good practices and cross breeding with the exotic breeds of desirable quality stand the chance of enhancing the country’s livestock development.
Profitable livestock and fish marketing system: among all other agricultural enterprise production, livestock and fishery management remains a delicate and expensive venture; it however has the potentials of profitable returns. The livestock is delicate in the sense that the animals need to be adequately fed, not just with any ration, but a balanced ration for productive performance. In the same vein, the health of the animals cannot be forgone as healthiness of the animals is not only a vital for production performance, but survival and sustenance of the livestock venture. Placement of the ruminant on a good ration is certainly at a great deal of cost or financial incurment, the poor economic status of the ruminant keepers in the country however makes it extremely difficult to build the livestock industry. This situation may however be reverted through efficient marketing system of livestock and its products and by-products. Poor marketing system is one of the bane livestock development in the country, whereby the animals are locally sold either directly as live animal or meat.
Livestock and fishery research development: development of the Nigeria’s livestock and fishery industry will not magically occur, but through conscientious efforts in livestock research. This calls for baseline data generation about the breeds of ruminants in the country, their production performance and marketing. Other information-base that must be established include the common livestock feeds (pasture and feed meal supplements) and common pests and diseases of livestock and their effects on the animals. This will harm the livestock research institutes with the salient information as bench mark for research work and generation of livestock innovation. Social scientists inclusion in livestock research development is crucial as this disciplines helps to ascertain the psychology of the ruminant keepers and their economic status to adopt and adapt generated livestock innovation. Similarly, the social scientist, especially the economists, will help to ascertain the economic implications of the innovations and the market driving force for ensuring efficient production and marketing of livestock and its products.
CONCLUSION
The livestock and fishing industry as an important component of general agriculture is expected to be a key contributor to national development. Because of it’s extensive coastline and tropical climate, Nigeria has the potential to develop a diversified ecology for a range of commercially viable varieties of fish. The economic appeal behind fishing is tremendous, considering the secondary and tetiary enterprises it can generate.
More efficient methods of inland cultivation and coastal trolling, executed in an export oriented environment, can spur rapid growth of down-the-line industries. Fishing, by itself, has the potential of driving considerable enterprise development, transforming rural economies and generating direct and indirect employment opportunities in the process.
One of the many challenges facing livestock and smallholder farmers across Nigeria is lack of information on animal health and access to medicines and vaccines. The documents attached here are information-sharing systems that should help to transforming livestock production in Nigeria by providing farmers with up-to-date and accurate information on how best to care for their animals, new animal health practices, and the best ways to treat diseases, among others.
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HYATTRACTIONS 