The President Muhammadu Buhari led-Federal Government has disclosed that it will soon commence reconstruction of grazing reserves all over the country.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,Chief Audu Ogbeh, in Abuja during a courtsey visit to his office by participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course Twelve (EIMC12) and Institute for Security Studies, Usma Dam, Bwari,
A statement by Mr Nakorji Mohammed, the Director of Information at the ministry on Friday, quoted Ogbeh as saying that the reconstruction of the grazing reserves had become necessary due to farmers-herders conflicts.
The minister said the reconstruction was also crucial for the Federal Government to reduce the high unemployment rate in the country.
“The grazing reserves will help in solving these problems.
“We are not going to any state that is not interested and we are not going to collect anyone’s land,’’ the minister assured.
He called on individuals who had the interest and ability to build grazing reserve to do so, adding that the government would support such individual.
Ogbeh called on members of the institute to focus toward addressing the security challenges facing the West African region and Africa in general.
The Director of the institute, Alhaji A.S. Adeleke represented by the Deputy Director Studies, Dr. A.M.Wali, said the purpose of the visit was to commend the country’s achievements in the agriculture sector.
Adeleke also applauded the ministry for its efforts toward curtailing the agro-terrorism where people are hoarding farm inputs.
He said the course participants were drawn from 21 agencies in Nigeria.
Other participants according to Adeleke were also from Benin Republic, Liberia, Niger and Sierra-Leone consisting of senior officers from the military intelligence and other Federal Government agencies.
Adeleke said that the theme of this year’s course is `Transhuman and International Migration: Challenges on Governance, Peace and Sustainable Development in sub-Sahara Africa’.
Meanwhile the Federal Government has already commence a 10 year plan by the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) as part of a permanent plan to bring an end to farmers and herders crises.
The massive project is expected to gulp N91billion in investments and the profit is projected at about N2trillion over a ten year interval according to a statement by the government.
The first phase of the plan will take care of grazing reserves in each of the seven pilot states of Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, and Zamfara which have been affected by herdsmen/farmers clashes, with four ranches (small, intermediate, medium and large) in each grazing reserve.
According to the plan as reported by Daily Trust newspaper, ranchers and rearers will be encouraged to bring their cattle to a fattening site wherein the cattle will be fed so as to boost average weight from 200-250 kg to 450-500kg.
If done, livestock farmers are expected to recoup N350,000 per cow at the selling rate of N900 per kilogramme.
According to the plan, “funding would be provided to cover the cost of fattening. Once cattle are enrolled in the programme, the asset owner will sign an agreement with the lender to allow for all cattle to be sold at specified weight range.
“Upon sale, lender deducts the cost of fattening from realized value, and cattle owner keeps the remainder of profit, minimizing risk and upfront investment.”
SOURCE: DAILYPOST,SAHARA REPORTERS
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