Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, says the state consumes over 6,000 heads of cattle daily and over 1.8 million heads of cattle annually.
The commissioner said though the largest consumer of red meat in the country, the state does not produce the commodity, adding that the state government was working on the creation of ranches to make red meat readily available to Lagosians.
Olusanya spoke on Friday while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme.
She said the state was working on harnessing sectors where it has comparative advantage to further grow the Lagos economy.
The commissioner said, “Red meat, yes, we do not produce but we would like to expand on what we can do within the red meat sector.
“Lagos consumes well over 1.8 million heads of cattle on an annual basis. We consume over 6,000 heads of cattle on a daily basis.
“When you consider the transactional value alone for Lagos, it is over N328bn but we are producing nothing but what stops us from setting up ranches in this state?
“We are the largest market. It also makes sense that we set up ranches such that we are closer to market, we remove the logistics costs.
“We are actually working on that and we would be rolling out the Expression of Interest next week, calling on investors.”
Of late, open grazing has been of major concern in the country as nomadic herdsmen and host communities clash over the free movement of cattle. Open grazing has also been banned in some states in the country as the destruction of farmlands, killings, amongst others have been associated with the phenomenon.
Source: Punch
