 |
| Mr. ShedrakMadlion, Executive Director, safari 54, agric workshop centre in Kaduna. |
My take on
grass importation as mentioned by the Minister of Agriculture by Mr.
ShedrakMadlion, Executive Director, safari 54, agric workshop centre in Kaduna.
Every other
parts of the world use their challenges as an opportunity to get more
opportunities in life. What stops us from looking for a good expanse of land to
confine our animals as cattle cities just like what happened in Texas, Califonia
and Arison in USA.
Why can’t we settle our white Fulani cattles, Sokoto/ Fulani and Bornu cattles in such a way that school, hospitals and other veterinary services will be provided at the place to checkmate moving from one state to other in search of food. By doing this would reduce clashes.
This can be done through the using 25% of our unused hectares of land between Kebbi and Sokoto as grazing reserve, another one at Bauchi, Bornu and Niger state. You will discover it will also checkmate the issue of cattle rustlers and stealing of cows.
The place will make extension services of the animals and veterinary doctors very easy to be done. What we are seeing in our country has happened as far back as 1867 to late 90s in other developed world and how were they able to conquer it? We can do this also, from Katago and Danpam, all these areas are good for animal cares. So in this place, one will only have problem if you are going there to take their “ Kaki” which is known as local fertilizer without consulting them.
We cannot be talking about grazing tracks with our population exposure; it does not work that way. It is so disheartening for someone to be talking about importing grass from Brazil. It makes no sense; it will take our cattle months to get used to Brazilian grass.
We have our own varieties of grass that was developed at National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) here in Samaru, Zaria as far back as 1975 with Faro 1, Faro 2 etc. We also have Porthacourt grass. We have not exhausted that, so let us exhaust the ones we have here.
Why are we going into import, when are we beginning to look at local content to substitute import? Again, why it that every time, ministry of agriculture is always interested in buying agricultural inputs.
Why can’t we settle our white Fulani cattles, Sokoto/ Fulani and Bornu cattles in such a way that school, hospitals and other veterinary services will be provided at the place to checkmate moving from one state to other in search of food. By doing this would reduce clashes.
This can be done through the using 25% of our unused hectares of land between Kebbi and Sokoto as grazing reserve, another one at Bauchi, Bornu and Niger state. You will discover it will also checkmate the issue of cattle rustlers and stealing of cows.
The place will make extension services of the animals and veterinary doctors very easy to be done. What we are seeing in our country has happened as far back as 1867 to late 90s in other developed world and how were they able to conquer it? We can do this also, from Katago and Danpam, all these areas are good for animal cares. So in this place, one will only have problem if you are going there to take their “ Kaki” which is known as local fertilizer without consulting them.
We cannot be talking about grazing tracks with our population exposure; it does not work that way. It is so disheartening for someone to be talking about importing grass from Brazil. It makes no sense; it will take our cattle months to get used to Brazilian grass.
We have our own varieties of grass that was developed at National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) here in Samaru, Zaria as far back as 1975 with Faro 1, Faro 2 etc. We also have Porthacourt grass. We have not exhausted that, so let us exhaust the ones we have here.
Why are we going into import, when are we beginning to look at local content to substitute import? Again, why it that every time, ministry of agriculture is always interested in buying agricultural inputs.
No comments:
Post a Comment