LASG To Establish Butchers’ Academy
The Lagos State Government says it will establish a butchers’ academy in order to train new and existing butchers in global best practices around slaughtering in the red meat value chain in the State.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya stated this today at the test run of a new semi-mechanized abattoir for cow and goat under the Public-Private Partnership at Bariga area of the State.
Olusanya said that the academy would attract youths into the sector through the adoption of technology and in the process make them the next generation of butchers.
“We have what we call the butchers’ academy coming up where we want to train our existing butchers for them to see the best global practices around slaughtering.
“We want to start bringing in graduates and the youth to be the next generation of butchers but the only way to attract the youth into this sector is to have mechanized and semi-mechanized abattoirs.
“We cannot bring them into the traditional slaughtering on the slab which is not hygienic, wholesome and does not attract the right customers that will pay the margins and will make this sector attractive to people.
“The onus is on us as a government to ensure that we train our existing butchers and also to show the new butchers that this is the system we want to inculcate going forward and we believe that it is just a matter of time before that re-orientation sets in and everyone adopts this technology,” the commissioner said.
Olusanya said that there are 12 semi and full mechanised operational abattoirs in the state adding that some of them were set up through the public-private partnerships.
“We already have a fully mechanised slaughtering Slabhouse at Agege. We have two fully mechanised lines in Agege Oko-Oba Abattoir itself as well as other Public-Private Partnership collaborations, some are semi-mechanized, some are fully mechanised.
“We need to understand also that having the kind of butchers that we have today and the mindset, they are traditionally entrenched in their way of doing things.
“Inasmuch as we also want to move at a pace in line with global best practices, we need to have some patience and give a little bit of time for them to adopt new technologies before they move fully into what is global best practice.
