By Israel Adamu, Jos
Honourable Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, continued his three-day working visit to Plateau State with a visit to Milk way Diary Farm located at Bokkos local government council of the state.
The Minster added that Plateau state is blessed streeint that it’s the home to livestock.
He commended Governor Caleb Mutfwang’s efforts at revamping the agricultural sector in the state and promised to collaborate with the state government to revamp the Milk way Diary Farm.
In his words “Looking at this facility, it is supposed to be a center of excellence: excellent construction, good infrastructure and water”
” We have dams, expansive fields for pasture, about 500 hectares of pastureland. We also have a dam here for dry season irrigation.”
” We have staff quarters and milk processing facilities here. It has everything that a functional dairy should have. “
However, over the years, this place has been neglected. We are here today with the Honourable Commissioner for Rural Development of the state, the Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture of the state, and together, we must come up with a sustainable model to make this place functional.”
” This country is spending $1.5 billion to import dairy. Why should that be, when we have facilities of this nature?”
Each state in this country should have one or two such sites. The capacity here is about 200 hybrid dairy cows. Each should be able to give you 30 to 40 litres of fresh milk a day. That will make a dent in our import bill. Our intention today is to partner with the state government and see that this place is brought back to life. We must inject, reload, and reinvigorate this area.
The Milky Way dairy farm workers must work to provide jobs for our teeming youth—to provide much-needed dairy for our families and for our young ones. The Milky Way workers must work. This is why we are here.
We have gathered all these statistics, and I believe that under the able leadership of His Excellency, Barrister Caleb Mutfwang, will bring this place back to life, he added .
