Real People Concept empowers farmers with skills in goat artificial insemination

Real People Concept has trained farmers on the use of artificial insemination to achieve optimal results, improve milk production capacity and sizes of their goats.

Speaking during the training, which held at Real People Cattle Hub, Ododo Village, Ikire-Ile, Iwo, Osun State, Managing Director of the company, Mt Tunmise Olagbaju, said, “For the past two weeks, we have been having series of trainings on livestock production, particularly sustainable cattle production system, goat production and artificial insemination appreciation training in goat.

“For goat, we believe that not many farmers can afford to raise cattle; definitely a good number of them can do goat. But then, our indigenous goats are not giving us good yield that we want, their sizes are small, the milk yield is nothing to write home about.

“So, if we want to improve them, apart from natural selection that we all know, another way to improve is to introduce exotic genetics. And the cheapest way to do that is to bring in semen for artificial insemination.

“This is a challenge that we have found and we want to take the lead in solving it. It is our problem and we must solve it in our own way. That is why we have brought this up so that we can also stamp the ground that we have the capacity and what it takes to do successful artificial insemination in goat in Nigeria.”

Asked whether there is need for government to support the quest for the improvement of animal production, Olagbaju said, “It is said that government do not have business in business, but then government can create the enabling environment to make the business thrive.

“The support government can give to make farmers adopt techniques required for improved genetics in goats and cattle particularly cannot be underrated. So, government is actually needed to support this course.”

One of the participants, Dr Olusanmi Foluke, from the University of Ilorin while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on the sidelines of the training, said she has been fully empowered, adding that she hopes to have a productive partnership with Real People Concept in the area of animal production, among others.

She said, “My memory has been refreshed about artificial insemination and there is something I am planning to do on prostate gland and its effect on fertility. I think the knowledge I have acquired here will go a long way to help with the project and that is my major take from this training.”

Another participant, Mr Ayobanji Olaniyan, described the training as interesting, educative and enlightening. “My particular take from this training is the fact that our agriculture in Nigeria is yet to be explored and optimised in the sense that most of the indigenous breeds that we have not been improved upon.”

“What I have learnt here is that if one can improve upon the local breeds we have, we will have optimal performance in terms of output and durability which is also very essential. This is something I am taking back to my farm and work on.”

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