The chief executive officer, Silagreen International Agro Development Limited, Michael Olusegun Akinruli, has said that his firm has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Zebu Breeders Association (ABCZ), Brazil, to boost food security in Nigeria through improved dairy production, especially cattle.
He added that the cooperation was facilitated by the company’s Brazilian partner – ZEBUEMBRYO Company.
He stated that the MoU was a strategic cooperation between Nigeria and Brazil moreso, in terms of cultural and scientific education transfer.
Akinruli added that it will improve the skills of Nigerian graduates, and undergraduates as well as even involve specialisation courses.
According to him, the beneficiaries will undergo structured courses that will sharpen their skills in cattle production and introduce them to new technologies and modern practices.
He stated that the technology transfer will be helpful to the newly created Ministry of Livestock Development in Nigeria.
Akinruli said: “We have done it in such a way that we’ve tailor-made the courses of the programme. The courses will be short ones, and in categories of one-month, three-month and six-month, offered by this university in Brazil. It is going to be provided in a hybrid format. Part of it will be online from Nigeria and the students are now meant to come to Brazil to finalise the training. The university we are talking about is the University of Cattle in Brazil.
“In Brazil, there’s the University of Cattle, where everything they do there, all the courses they offer, all the programmes, are all around cattle nutrition, cattle genetics improvement and livestock generally.”
The CEO said the partnership will facilitate the exposure of Nigerian youth and farmers, even academia, to hands-on practical training.
He added that the 50-year-old university is one of the topmost in Brazil and accredited by all the necessary agencies.
He said: “It’s a big one for Nigeria because it will facilitate technology transfer, capacity building, specialisation, as well as bring about an accelerated beef and dairy production in Nigeria.
“So, Silagreen Agro, is creating bridges and making things happen for our generation. We started out with nutrition and now we are talking about genetics and you may also wish to know that our company is the first to ever transfer embryos into our own cattle in Nigeria.”
He added: “Last month, we carried out the first embryo transfer into our cattle, and the news is everywhere in the public space. Thanks to our media handlers, but we don’t stop there, we also want the educational parts to be part of it. So, our focus is nutrition, genetic improvement and management.
“We don’t have data at all about our livestock, especially cattle. So, Silagreen Agro, has just put together a huge database to improve the genetics of our animals. That is to help farmers with actionable insight and data to make them decide which animal to keep on their farms and which one to discard and not just keep all animals that are not productive. So, that is how genetic improvement is done all over the world and Brazil is the foremost on this, I mean, it is the leading country when we talk about tropical zebu animals like ours in Nigeria.”