The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service on Wednesday announced its readiness to regularise trade in donkey skin so as to mitigate the vulnerability of Nigerian donkeys to over-exploitation.
Director-General, NAQS, Vincent Isegbe, said the spate of mounting demands for donkey skins had fostered a ravenous underground market for the product.
This, he said, had resulted in a relentless open season on the donkey population.
Isegbe disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja by the Head of Media, Communications and Strategies, Gozie Nwodo, which was entitled, “NAQS sets agenda for sustainable trade in donkey skin.”
Isegbe said it was critical to find the sweet spot between the extremes of doctrinaire preservation of donkeys.
He said this was ideal but impracticable, adding that the unregulated, free-for-all exploitation of the donkeys was profligate and irresponsible.
“This is a delicate balancing act that calls for the structuring and standardisation of the value chain in order to maintain and restock the national herd population of donkeys by improved breeding, ranching and other innovative ways,” he said.
News Credit: Punch Newspaper