By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos
Nestle’s Nigeria Lives Development Project (NLDP) has achieved milk collection milestone of 2,500 litres of fresh milk per day from only 200 litres collected on the first day of milk collection on June 1 2021.
Management of Nestle Nigeria PLC disclosed the feat while commemorating the 2022 World Milk Day.
According to Nestle authority, a collaboration between Nestle, “CBiIL” and 2SCALE, NLDP delivers 1,500L/day at Paikon Kore Grazing Reserve and 1,000L/day at Kachia Grazing Reserve.
“The collection of 2,500L/day was made possible by 25 cooperatives comprising over 625 households milking between 4,000 and 6,000 cows everyday,” Victoria Uwadoka, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager for Nestle Nigeria, explained.
The company said that the celebration of World Milk Day 2022 at Paikon Kore provided a platform for recognizing and rewarding the farmers who excelled in various aspects of milk production.
“Categories of awards included “Highest Producing Male (Abdulrahman Rabia), Highest Producing Female (Rabia Raga), Best Aggregator (Shehu Muhammed), Best Cooperative Kosan Denko, Best Milking Community, and Aggregator with least spoilage (Adamu Abdullah).
The recipients were delighted and expressed their thanks to Nestle and the NLDP,” Bola Audu, Nestle Nigeria’s Corporate Communications Specialist, wrote in a news statement titled, “Nestle Dairy Program Achieves Milk Collection Milestone on World Milk Day 2022,” which was dated 3rd June 2022.
Mr. Olusade Olusola, Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said, “It is glad to note that milk production has steadily increased from 150 to 1,500 litres daily within the past two years of this partnership. I have been made to understand the products from this centre are being sold in markets within and outside the Federal Capital Territory.”
Nestle management disclosed that it continues to leverage its expertise in dairy to help build a sustainable dairy ecosystem through the NLDP to achieve its objective of creating shared value with Nigerian dairy value chain stakeholders. It stressed that the programme contributes to the local economy by providing the training and empowerment of the locals and then purchasing services from them.
“NLDP is built on three pillars: Better Fodder, Better Quality, and Better Products”, Audu clarified. “This will be achieved by improving cooperative dynamics, promoting better herd health, and engendering hygienic milk collection and handling practices.”
World Milk Day is marked on the 1st of June every year.
