Agency The Federal Government has promised to revamp the dairy value chain of the livestock sector for sustainable food security. The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, stated this at a news conference to mark the 2024 World Milk Day on Saturday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that June 1 is earmarked for the celebration of World Milk Day, and the 2024 theme is ‘Let’s celebrate Nutritious and Sustainable Dairy’. Abdullahi, however, said that the theme for Nigeria’s celebration is ‘Harnessing the Nutrition and Investment opportunities in the Dairy Value Chain’. He said both themes focused on celebrating the vital role dairy played in delivering quality nutrition, especially to women and children.
The minister said that it is also aimed at improving the livelihoods of dairy farmers and other value chain actors, creating employment and increasing the economy of the country. He said, “it is pertinent to note the difficulty in attaining food and nutrition security without animal-source foods which provide the irreplaceable nutrients from animal protein sources required for growth and development. “With an estimated 2 million children in Nigeria suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) partly due to limited consumption of animal-source food, the role of milk consumption comes in handy and to the rescue if made available.
“Indeed, the recent National Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey 2021 indicated .
