FrieslandCampina WAMCO, a leading dairy producer in the country and maker of such milk brands as Peak, Three Crowns Milk and Friso, among others has launched a Dairy Development Programme (DDP) in Shonga Dairy Farms, Kwara State, to harness and source locally produced raw milk in Nigeria.

The company made this known at the recently concluded Daily Trust first Agriculture Conference in Abuja. The company also said it would benefit dairy farmers in Nigeria.

WAMCO’s Public Affairs Manager, Temitola Adeola, said the aim of the programme is to support the Federal Government’s initiative to develop dairy farming in Nigeria by providing the required technical know-how on milk production to Nigerian farmers and also provide the necessary market for the farmers.

“To achieve this, our team of experts visited a number of locally established dairy farms to determine the availability of fresh milk in Nigeria. Series of examination were also carried out by our quality control unit to check the quality impact of using fresh milk in our product recipe, “she stated.

She added that WAMCO went into discussions with viable farmers from this area who can possibly meet the production demands of the company in the future if provided the right training and market.

She added that the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the former governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to launch the dairy farming programmes in Shonga Farms.

According to Adeola, Wamco took delivery of its first 1,000 litres of fresh milk from Shonga in Kwara State on 1st of August; and since then have been taken delivery of 11,000 litres of fresh milk per day from Shonga.

With this, Wamco said that they are the first dairy company in the country to use raw milk material from the country to manufacture evaporated milk.

“We are indeed proud of this and hope to take it to greater heights. However, the Dairy Development Programme (DDP) is an intensive project that requires both professional attention and infrastructure to succeed. In view of this, the company signed MoU with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture because milk production in Nigeria is currently low and the development process will take some time. The Dairy Development Programme therefore needs the support of the government and substantial investments in livestock and equipment. Again, as the dairy expert, we are committed to providing the required technical know-how on milk production to Nigerian farmers but we can only succeed on this project with the support of the government,” she said.