Nigeria Dairy Programme Enrolled 63,000 Farmers in Formal Supply Chains
The Advancing Local Dairy Development in Nigeria (ALDDN) programme ran from 2020 across Adamawa, Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Plateau and Taraba. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Limited, it worked with government agencies, dairy processors and private-sector organisations.
Sahel Consulting said 63,261 farmers were enrolled directly and connected to formal supply chains. The farmers were organised into 2,663 self-help groups, while 234 cooperatives were established and registered with state governments. During the intervention, participants supplied more than 15m litres of milk to partner processors and recorded milk sales exceeding ₦6bn.
A 2026 audit recorded changes in cooperative status. The share classified as moderately viable rose from 66% to 90%, while the proportion described as non-viable fell from 33% to 8%. The programme also reported 83,963 cattle services against a target of 75,000, and 83,936 cattle vaccinations against Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia.
More than 61,000 farmers received training in Good Dairy Practices, and 279 Community Livestock Workers were engaged to provide local services. Fodder was cultivated on more than 4,705 hectares, above the initial target of 4,000 hectares. The programme supplied eight milk-evacuation trucks and 7,676 stainless-steel milk cans.
Infrastructure support included a solar-powered facility at Sebore Farms with a stated processing capacity of 70,000 litres of milk a day. The programme also supported 75 solar-powered boreholes in 74 communities. In Kano, more than 150 small pastoralist groups were consolidated into 24 larger cooperatives, and farmers received instruction in animal nutrition, milk production, livestock health and artificial insemination. About 13 solar-powered boreholes were provided in communities supplying L&Z, alongside annual vaccination campaigns.
Senior Programme Officer Mustapha Musa said the intervention linked organised pastoralist cooperatives with processors including L&Z. Temi Adegoroye, Sahel Consulting’s managing partner, reported the enrolment figures at the programme’s closeout event in Kano. After the programme’s conclusion, farmers were integrated into partner processors’ supply chains, while extension agents, artificial-insemination technicians, Community Livestock Workers and other service providers were trained and equipped to continue assisting producers.
Sahel Consulting called for continued government engagement with pastoralist cooperatives and closer co-operation between public institutions and private processors. Hawwa’u Abubakar, a beneficiary from Bunkure Local Government Area, said L&Z collected milk from her doorstep, reducing the need to transport it to market. She said her earnings could reach ₦100,000–₦150,000 over several days, depending on the quantity supplied, and attributed the expansion of her dairy activities partly to feed-processing equipment and other programme support.
