Farmers demand where about of imported grasses

Farmers who had suffered farms destruction running to billions of naira occasioned by cattle searching for pastures have demanded to know the state of grass multiplication of the Federal Government (FG) upon the importation of the grass varieties by the former Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh about five years ago.

 Farmers and many other stakeholders had queried the FG’s position on the grass importations when the idea was initially mentioned by the then Minister of Agriculture then, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who had posited that the grasses multiplication would by now made available more grasses as food for the cattle and other animals.

They, in view of the deepening clashes between farmers and herdsmen wanted to know the real situation about the imported grasses after many years as regard its multiplication for feeds provision to cattle, sheep and goats in Nigeria.

 Among those who disagreed with the FG then was the National Animal Production and Research Institute (NAPRI) who distanced itself from the procurement, saying there are no bases for it when compared with the availability of nutritious grass varieties in the Institute to feed the country’s livestock without no need to embarking on importation as many states government have been coming to the Institute to procure for their grazing reserves.

The former minister of Agriculture, Chief  Ogbeh had during one of his visits to NAPRI under the former Executive Director  Prof. C.A.M Lakpini said he never knew that the Institute had those grasses and wished he had visited NAPRI much earlier before the importation of the grasses.

But the question on the lips of stakeholders who spoke under anonymity to Food Farm News is how the words and promises for grasses availability as feeds to animals have been able to mitigate the clashes between farmers/herdsmen in view of increased farms destruction occasioned by continued intrusion of cattle into farms and eating all the planted crops.

Many government official did not want to comment on the issue reasoned being that they were not too sure of where and when the grass multiplications were carried out and its impact on animals feeds  

The present Director of the Animal Husbandry department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr. Winnie Tai' Solarin who spoke with us said that she came into the department August 2020, and she did not know what happened to the imported grasses, but could remember the ministry was at a time giving grasses to farmers in large quantities.

Dr Winnie Tai Solarin stressed that grasses would still be purchased locally, and not by import, but from NAPRI and other local sources for states in need saying ‘’ i did not say import. We are planning to purchase from NAPRI and from others for our national pasture development programme which will soon be flag off by Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Nanono’’  

 ‘’Farmers have been trained on how to cultivate the pastures, so we are training more of the pastoralists on cultivation of pasture, processing of pasture. It’s something we have to do in this country, we can’t run away from it, honestly if we need to import improved pasture seeds to improve our seeds for the general benefit of the country, we will, because it is in line with science’’ She said.