Feeds availability, panacea for peace between herdsmen, farmers

    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.