TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged that his administration would develop the nation’s assets on a permanent basis in order to check the culture of waste foisted on the country.

The president made the pledge when he received Roelf Joosten, global chief executive officer of Friesland Campina, The Netherlands, at the presidential villa in Abuja.

Buhari frowned at the level of waste being recorded annually in the nation’s agricultural sector due to lack of means of preservation of agricultural products.

He, particularly, decried the situation in which cattle farmers throw away milk from their animals, as a result of the lack of means to preserve and process the product.

“We have failed to develop our assets on a permanent basis. This, we are determined to work on,’’ he said.

The president urged Friesland Campina, in collaboration with Nigeria, to educate cattle farmers that “quality matters more than quantity,” and help them organise into cooperatives for better business.

Audu Ogbeh, minister of agriculture and rural development, who was also at the event, promised that herdsmen would soon be organised into ranches.

He revealed that special grasses and water, which would give better yield and make the animals healthier, would be provided at the ranches.

According to Ogbeh, special flasks, which can preserve raw milk for up to six hours, will soon be made available, to enable cattle farmers to get the product to dairies in good quality.

Joosten disclosed that the 145-year-old Friesland Campina, is a cooperative owned by 19,000 farmers.

He said that the company began business in Nigeria in 1973 as Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria.

“The company wants to partner with the federal government to build a healthier populace through better nutrition, collaborate in the school feeding programme, and promote dairy development in the country,” he said.

According to him, WAMCO Nigeria has also been providing nutrition support for internally displaced persons in the north-east.