About 84,000 cows have received veterinary services under the Advancing Local Dairy Development in Nigeria (ALDDN) programme, which also facilitated the supply of more than 15 million litres of fresh milk to processors during its six-year intervention.
The programme also linked about 63,261 farmers to the formal dairy supply chain and trained more than 61,000 smallholder farmers in good dairy production practices.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Limited in collaboration with governments, dairy processors and other private-sector partners, the programme operated in seven states.
The intervention, which began in 2020, was implemented in Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Adamawa, Plateau and Taraba states. Its closeout ceremony was held in Jos, the Plateau State capital.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Partner of Sahel Consulting, Temi Adegoroye, said 26,207 farmers were also trained on gender integration, while 585 radio sessions were conducted across the participating states.
According to him, the farmers were organised into 2,663 self-help groups, while 234 cooperatives were formed and registered with the respective state governments to strengthen their capacity to operate as organised dairy producer groups.
Adegoroye said farmers supplied more than 15 million litres of milk to partner processors during the programme, generating over N6 billion in sales.
He said the outcome demonstrated the potential of Nigeria’s local dairy sector when smallholder farmers were properly organised and connected to reliable markets.
“The programme also recorded progress in cooperative development, with a 2026 audit showing that the proportion of moderately viable cooperatives increased from 66 per cent to 90 per cent, while non-viable cooperatives declined from 33 per cent to eight per cent.
“Also, the programme serviced 83,963 cows, exceeding its target of 75,000, while 83,936 cattle were vaccinated against Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP).
“In addition, 61,374 farmers received training in Good Dairy Practices, 279 Community Livestock Workers were engaged, and more than 4,705 hectares of fodder were cultivated, surpassing the 4,000-hectare target.
“Again, the programme strengthened dairy infrastructure through the provision of eight milk evacuation trucks and 7,676 stainless-steel milk cans. It supported the establishment of a solar-powered facility at Sebore Farms with a processing capacity of 70,000 litres of milk per day, while 75 solar-powered boreholes were installed across 74 communities,” he said.
Adegoroye added that more than 654 hectares of pasture land were established in Plateau and Bauchi states, while 2,312 bank accounts were opened for farmers and used for milk payments and other small businesses.
He, however, identified insecurity as one of the major challenges encountered during the implementation of the programme, saying many of the farmers lived in rural communities that were sometimes difficult to access because of security concerns.
Some beneficiaries from Plateau State said the programme had boosted prospects for local dairy production and enhanced the capacity of smallholder farmers.
The beneficiaries, including Alhaji Aliyu Sale Ardo from Riyom Local Government Area and Habila Sunday from Jos South LGA, commended the organisers and said they would apply the knowledge acquired through the programme to improve dairy production.
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