Participant at the 2 day workshop on Commercial
Pasture as a tool for national Livestock development organized by NIAS/ CDA,
Kano.
|
·
*Stakeholders
perceptive…PARE, MACBAN, GAFDAN
The frequent clashes between herdsmen and
farmers have been attributed to insufficiency of animal feeds and the need for
commercial pasture production to fill this gap has been advocated and
recommended to enhance the integration of Federal Government (FG)’s ranching
into grazing reserves project, with pastoralists organizations sharing their
experiences and plotting the way forward.
The Federal
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) under the leadership of
Chief Audu Ogbeh has been making frantic effort towards addressing conflicts
between herdsmen and farmers through development of grazing reserves and
advocacy for the establishment of ranches for sedentarization to checkmating
animal movement for better livestock business.
In his
remark at the two day workshop titled, ‘pasture development as a tool for
economic development’ organized by National Institute for Animal Science (NIAS)
in partnership with Centre for Dryland Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano,
the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Ogbeh
expressed the need to using opportunity in the livestock sub sector to create
wealth and job opportunity in the production of
pastures for animals’ feeds adding that integration of ranching into
grazing reserves would help to stem frequent clashes between herdsmen and
farmers.
The Minister
who was represented by the FMARD, North West Director, Alhaji Shehu Adamu pointed
out that conflicts between farmers and herdsmen can be curtailed through
ranching as grazing reserves was almost becoming old fashion to addressing the
animals’ wellbeing through better feeding to competitive market and checkmating
fracas occasioned by movement for pastures.
In his
speech, Chief Audu Ogbeh said that “ it is on record that the cattle value chain
that relies mainly on grazing is becoming a security problem. Today, the cattle
value chain relies on a network of nomadic herdsmen with cattle entering a
brief fattening system before slaughter and processing.
That supply chain however
is both inefficient and high security risk as roaming cattle have increasingly
become a source of friction between land owners and herdsmen. In order to
protect all parties, a key shift is necessary i.e retaining ranches. Thus, what
is required is for the creation of a more formal ranching system that will use
better processes and inputs to extract higher value from dairy, meat and
leather”.
Chief Ogbeh
who pointed out some challenges about ranches, also noted the country’s
readiness to give support to private sector development of ranches for proper
harnessing of the livestock potential without conflict on land ownership
stating that “Nigeria is now actively promoting and supporting investors
seeking to set-up modern ranches to raise livestock rather than infringe on the
property right of land owners and users”.
Speaking on
the occasion, the spokesman of a group called Pastorial Resolve (PARE), Dr.
Saleh Momale who admitted on the need for modern ways of livestock production to
mitigate conflict however noted the need for both the government and media to understand some basic realities he put as,
“ criminality in form of cattle rustling, kidnapping and banditry-,
inter-communal or resource use disputes in form of farmers and pastoralists
conflict-, and development needs for sustainable pastoralism in form of
pragmatic programmes for improving livestock productivity”.
Dr. Saleh
pointed out that failure of both the states and Federal Governments to
distinguish these challenges seem to prevent the engagement of the right
stakeholders to designing appropriate intervention to dealing with conflicts
challenges with holistic approach of Fulanis’ traditional thinking of
peacefully co-existing with crops farmers in many years past without conflict.
In a related
development, under the auspices of Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO),
the Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria has through its
Secretary General Alhaji Sale Bayari advocated that herdsmen should be allowed
to make choice among the three models of livestock practices saying the lack of
animal population figure in Nigeria reflected government abandonment of the sub
sector.
The
association in a paper presentation for the way forward said that “ the
position of the Association is that Nigerian herdsmen should be allowed the
indulgence of both open grazing, grazing reserve and ranches, depending on what
the choice of individual herdsman is. Where state government can provide any
alternative to open grazing, let it be given, where they cannot provide, let
the traditional means be allowed to subsist, period. With time, the viability,
profitability and enjoyment of any of the three will determine its patronage
and the extinction of the other”
The body
continued“the fact that all the livestock census figures we have in this
country officially are figure of the 1990 (27years ago) shows the total level
of abandonment and neglect of the livestock sector by the governments and the
stakeholders, due to the level of ethnic, sectional and religious intolerance
of the Nigerian nation. There is no better way to prove this gross negligence
than the official lack of animal population figure of the nation. Is it
therefore, surprising that we are in this national mess in our country’s
livestock development?”
However the
training workshop which attracted more than anticipated was impactful with
presentation on pasture production and livestock feeds management. Also, at the
same event, post graduate courses running for three and six months for
certificate and diploma were unveiled by
the NIAS Registrar, Prof. Eustace Iyayi who appealed to participants to
take advantage of the opportunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment