The cost of a kilogram of beef in Nigeria may soon reach a staggering ₦10,000, significantly up from the ₦3,000 to ₦5,000 range seen just a few months ago, unless urgent support is provided to pastoral farmers.
This potential price surge highlights the growing accessibility issues for common Nigerians amid the ongoing economic crisis affecting the country.
During a media engagement in Abuja, the Director of Animal Husbandry Services at the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, Mrs. Winnie Lai Solarin, sounded the alarm regarding the rising costs of beef.
She pointed to the escalating prices of feed and water, alongside increasing insecurity in farming areas, as primary contributors to the surge in meat prices.
In recent months, many Nigerians have expressed concerns over the rising costs of meat and other protein sources. The price of a kilogram of beef has jumped to between ₦6,000 and ₦7,000, compared to just ₦3,000 to ₦3,500 a few months ago.
She said: “The livestock sector has been neglected, what we need in this sector is feed and water, as well as market regulations for our products, a lot of this things has not been in place. 80 per cent of the meat on our table is from the pastoralists and if the pastoralists are embattled you don’t expect things to go well.
“Before, they were getting grass and feed very cheap, but today they have to buy. It is the restructuring that is causing this, they need to buy feeds and they are unable to get cheap feeds. If you have high cost of feed, you will have high cost of product, just like what we have in the poultry sector.
“High cost of maize and soya is driving the cost of poultry products, the chicken we use to have is not that cheap anymore the same thing for livestock.”
The Director further regretted that Nigerians did not allow the Ruga initiative to see the light of day, saying the initiative was aimed at scaling up investment in the livestock sector just like it’s being done with crop production.
“Unfortunately Nigerian misinterpreted it, thinking the government wanted to grab land for the fulani tribe.” Lai Solarin further pointed out that insecurity has also made many farmers unable to go to farms as most of the livestock farmers are being driven out of the country due to insecurity.
She said the continued farmers/herders conflict has also being a bane of the livestock sector that is worth over N33tr. While bemoaning the lackadaisical attitude of state governments to the sector, the Director pointed out that the Federal Government has done a lot in livestock development, and it is expected that the states do the same, “unfortunately most of them provide little or no budget for the sector.
“Most of these projects are in the states, Federal Government does not have lands, but states are doing little to maintain those grazing reserves and make sure they don’t dilapidate. We call on the state governments to invest more in the livestock sector.”