Ministry of Animal Health, Fisheries & Husbandry | The Official Website of Kebbi State Government

Brief

Kebbi state government created the ministry on 3rd September 2014. The ministry was aimed at improving livestock and Fisheries production through provision of effective health care delivery services and control of diseases through routine vaccination. The ministry has a total staff strength of 369 comprising of five (5) professional departments namely i) Animal Health; ii) Animal Husbandry; iii) Range management and Nomadic Affairs; iv) Veterinary Public Health; v) Fisheries and other support departments of i) Planning, Research & Statistics ii) Administration and iii) Finance & supply. The ministry has five operational zonal offices across the state. They are located in Argungu, Bagudo, Birnin Kebbi, Yauri and Zuru.

Departments

Animal Health Department

The department is responsible for providing animal health care services through routine vaccination and treatment of livestock and other animal disease. It is also responsible for formulating and implementing government policies relating to animal health care and welfare services. The department also conduct epidemiological surveys. The department has thirty-five (35) veterinary officers, eighty-five (85) animal health technologies, technician, scientific officers and lab technicians. Others include animal health over-seers and other supporting staff. The department has six sections made up of the following i) Animal Health; ii) Epidemiology; iii) Clinical Ambulatory; iv) Laboratory section and v) Cattle trade section.

On-Going Projects: the department has one veterinary hospital located at Birnin Kebbi and four veterinary clinics located at Argungu, Bagudo Yauri and Zuru.

Animal Husbandry Department

Over eighty percent (80%) of people living in Kebbi state are peasant farmers. The state is blessed with tremendous livestock resources and potentials for meat/milk production, and draught-oxen for farm traction. Every household, in almost all the communities across the state, keeps one form of animal or the other, as an economic investment or as pet. Kebbi state has an estimated livestock population of about 1.8million cattle, 2.2 million sheep, 2.8million goats, 50,000 camels, 200,000 donkeys, 20,000 horses and a large number of back yard scavenging poultry. These figures are mainly for the tradition livestock sub sector.

In order to harness and improve upon these livestock productivity found in the state, the department has the responsibility of improving the potentials and productivity of our local breeds of animal through cross-breeding, artificial insemination, embryo transfer and other methods of genetic manipulation, to ensure efficient and effective husbandry management practices, through selective and controlled breeding programmes, aided with improved feeding and grazing regimes, with resultant high returns and turn over in livestock population and productivity.

Staff Disposition

The department, at present, has a staff strength of 60 Senior and Junior technical officers. The number of staff at our disposal is grossly inadequate considering our sections. For administrative convenience, the department has five (5) zonal offices each headed by a zonal animal husbandry officer. The zones are situated at Argungu, Bagudo, B/Kebbi, Yauri and Zuru.

Livestock Development Division (LIBC)

The LIBC Bulasa at B/Kebbi is presently the only functional livestock project in the whole state. It is established in the late forties, to investigate various endemic livestock diseases at the time, and to improve and upgrade the performance of our local breeds of animals in milk and beef production, through cross breeding and upgrading with prolific exotic breeds. The centre at present has twenty-six (26) animals of various breeds.

Bullasa Pilot Diary Production Project

Established in 1972 and located within the premises of LIBC Bullasa, the project is established to utilize the excess fresh milk produced by the animal at LIBC, ice-cream, etc for public consumption. The project is now moribund and needs to be rehabilitated.

Poultry Production Section

This section is concerned with the promotion and development of modern poultry production techniques, through the creation of awareness, encouragement, provision of incentive, and an enabling environment for the establishment of poultry business. This section is moribund without government intervention for quite a long time, but the subsector is attracting a lot of attention from practitioners throughout the state. There is therefore the need for immediate intervention.

Artificial Insemination Section

This section is concerned with the improvement and up-grading of the potentials of our local breeds of animals, to enhance their productivity, through controlled and selective breeding with improved nutritional plan. Qualified personnel and equipment for this technique are abundant in the state, but inadequate funding militate against the promotion of this project.

Livestock Extension & Marketing Division

This is a division concerned with the promotion, propagation and dissemination of information and new innovations in livestock rearing and management. Its duty is to promote and educate the public on new innovations and research findings that are beneficial to the livestock industry. It also monitors the trends and happenings in our local commodity pricing at a particular point in time.

Veterinary Public Health Department

The sole responsibility of the department is to protect humans from contracting diseases from animals through application of veterinary knowledge. To effectively carryout these responsibilities the department has the following schedules of activities.

Effective disease surveillance and monitoring network. Usually carried out at border posts, live birds markets livestock markets, abattoirs and slaughter slabs etc.
Inspection of food animals (beef, chicken, milk and their by-products) to ensure that they are fit for human consumption; a) Proper maintenance of abattoirs, slaughter slabs and standard abattoir management practices b) Inspection and quarantine services at border posts to check movement of animals and their bye-production into the state and to provide licenses for such operations in the state.
Annual and routine vaccination of zoonotic of known diseases: To vaccinate dogs and cats in the state against rabies and also to provide human type for pre- and post-exposure. Routine fumigation activities at poultry houses and husbandry markets to guard against resurgence of bird flu in our communities.
Environmental Protection: To ensure proper waste disposal of animal waste in other to protect the environment and public from contracting disease emanating from wastes.
Sensitization campaign on dangers of zoonotic diseases to members of public.
Collection, collating, analysis and presentation of data of animal diseases.

Range Management Department

The department is responsible for;

The coordination of pastoral related matters.
Collaboration to find ways of sustaining cordial relationship and understanding between farmers and Fulani pastoralists.
Preventing occurrence of perennial farmer/Fulani conflict or reduce it to the barest minimum in the state.
Provision of necessary support services and infrastructural facilities in all the grazing reserves, resting points and stock-routs especially by surveying, demarcation and gazzeting of major twenty four (24) state owned grazing reserves and stock-routes which are strategically located across the state.
Promoting of the well-being and general welfare of Fulani-pastoralists and their stock through public enlightment, motivation policy formulation and formation of cooperative societies, unions and associations.
Provision of watering points such as earth-dams, borehole and dug-out wells for pastoralist and their stock watering needs.
Protect and promote development or rangeland throughout the state by preserving good & beautiful environment through tactical control of soil degradation, deforestation and illegal bush burning in all the grazing reserves in the state and protect stock routes from encroachment.
Procurement and distribution supplementary feeds and input at subsidize rate for distribution to cattle breeder and pastoralists annually.

Fisheries Department

Fisheries Department, was created in the year 2008 out of livestock and fisheries department. As a full-fledged department it took-off on 1st November 2008. The Department consist of five zonal fisheries offices located at Argungu, Birnin Kebbi, Bagugo, Yauri and Zuru. There is total number of forty one (41) members of staff in the department.

The fisheries sub-sector contributes significantly to the Kebbi state economy, as it is estimated to provide employment to over 100,000 in the areas of artisanal fishing, processing and marketing.

About 150km of the River Niger traverses Kebbi State, with an estimated surface area of 87,500 ha. In addition 50,000 ha of the Kainji lake (representing over half of its area) is in Kebbi State. The Sokoto Rima River also flows through the state to form an extensive flood plain of about 525,000 ha between Argungu and Suru Local Government areas, with about 142,000 ha remaining as dry season pool of stagnant water after the flood. Fish production in the state is estimated at about 90,00mt making the state second in terms of fresh water fisheries resource in Nigeria. Fishing activity in the state is conducted all year round, and peaks in the dry season (October-April). Women are mainly involved in the processing aspect of the fishing industry.

Capture (Artisanal) Fisheries:

Over 100,000 fishermen in over 500 fishing settlements exploit the water bodies in Kebbi State. Capture fisheries is practiced by peasant fishermen, who cannot afford to purchase some of the necessary fishing inputs due to lack of capital. The most critical challenge facing capture fisheries today is the diminishing returns from fishing as a result of lack of proper management of the water bodies.

Fishing regulations are not enforced in the State. Therefore the use of under-sized gears and beach seine (Dala) by fisherman which result in total, harvest (including fingerlings and fries) is the major problem of the fisheries sub-sectors in the State. In a survey conducted in 1997 (under the Nigerian German Kainji lake promotion project) on the use of fishing gear in the Kainji lake, it was discovered that mesh sized for gill nets varied in size between 0.5-10 inches, with the most commonly used nets having sizes of 2.0-2.5 inches. Based on the State Fisheries Law which stipulates that only gill nets with mesh sizes of 3.0 inches and above should be used, 68% of the gears being used by fishermen are illegal. This implies that majority of the nets target juveniles or immature fish. This practice does not favors sustained exploitation of the fisheries industries industry, as it is not only reduce the littoral fish biomass; it also decreases the fish fauna of the water bodies. Other problems of the fisheries sub-sector in the State are high cost of fishing inputs non availability of preservation facilities.

Aquacultur:

Kebbi State has recently diversified the fisheries sub-sector by promoting aquaculture. Thus considerable improvement in aquaculture technology is being achieved under the LFAD/CBARDP, Fadama III and National Programme for Food Security (NPFS) programmes. The NPFS has trained over 25 youth at the National fresh Water fisheries Research institute. New Buss on aquaculture and fish production, as part of the FGN’s Agricultural Extension intervention programme.

The challenges facing aquaculture in the state include short supply of fingerlings; despite the fact that many individuals have established fish production facilities include the commercial production of fingerlings. Other challenges include inadequate availability of fish feeds and lack of sufficient market channels for the disposal of the fishes.

Department of Veterinary Public Health

The department has the following relevant sections to carry out its activities:

Disease Surveillance, monitoring and prevention.
Quarantine and Inspection section.
Meat Hygiene and Inspection: Abattoir and Slaughter Slabs management as well as Hides and Skin processing, preservation and utilisation.
Disease Data Management, Awareness and enlightenment Section.
Hide and Skin.

The department shall have five zonal heads to monitor all these activities in the five zonal headquarters of the ministry situated at Argungu, Birnin Kebbi, Bagudu, Yauri and Zuru.

Administration Department

The department is charged with the responsibility of recruitment, promotion, welfare and discipline of junior staff in the ministry. It is also responsible for recommending recruitment of senior staff, their welfare and discipline to the Civil Service Commission through the office of the Head of Civil Service. The department is also responsible for routine office and vehicles maintenance.

Planning, Research and Statistics Department

The department is responsible for periodic scientific data collating and harmonizing reports from various department of the ministry into a research based inference using statistical tools (planning, monitoring and evaluation tools).

Finance Department

The finance and supply department is saddled with the responsibility of follow-ups, receipts and disbursement of financial regulation procedures. It is also responsible for receipts and supply of goods meant for the ministry.

Mission & Vision

Mission: To add value to human existence through livestock production and boost the economy of Kebbi State.

Vision: Kebbi State should be the largest livestock producing centre in West Africa.

Management

We have a group of dynamic individuals that operates on a daily basis and have day-to-day responsibility for managing other individuals and maintaining responsibility for key business functions of the ministry.

Here is our team that is responsible for putting together the business strategy and ensuring the business object of the ministry;