Farmers/Herders clashes: Committee recommends creation of Ministry of Livestock

Ganduje APC chairman
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja

The National Livestock Reforms Committee has recommended the establishment of Ministry of Livestock that will supervise issues of farmers/herders clashes in the country.

The Committee, which submitted its recommendation on the reformation of livestock business in the country to President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday, noted that there are four types of herdsmanship in the country.


According to the leader of the delegation and national Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, NLC, Abdullahi Ganduje, there are herders that settle at home, there are the ones, who are Nigerians that move from different parts of the country to another, there are herdsmen that come from neighbouring West African countries as well as the ones that have settled among certain ethnic nationalities that have become indigenes of the area

Ganduje said, “It is gratifying to lead this team of patriotic Nigerians and experts in various fields of human endeavour before Mr. President to present the report of the national conference on Livestock reforms.

“The Report grew out of the urgent need to reform and develop the livestock industry and to provide solutions to the age-long conflicts between herders and farmers in Nigeria.

“The low productivity of the sector has made Nigeria an import dependent economy draining scarce foreign reserves used for importing dairy, meat and other livestock products. Similarly, the conflicts is resulting in killings of citizens and loss of livelihoods, further affecting peaceful coexistence in the country.

“With increasing populations, ecological changes such as soil erosion and degradation of grazing areas and changing climates, adopting innovative crops and livestock production practices is no longer luxury but an essential investment that this people centred administration under your leadership needs to vigorously pursue.

“There have been repeated attempts to develop the livestock industry with varying levels of failures and successes. The adoption of improved production practices that will increase productivity and help the cattle owners to permanently settle have been abysmal due to many factors such as inadequate planning and funding of programmes, weak extension services as well as other cultural, economic and technological barriers.

“The persistence of these problems has allowed unhealthy competition and acrimony to grow among farmers and herders resulting to violent conflicts across the country.”

He said as the Governor of Kano State, his administration pursued deliberate efforts of promoting the modernisation of livestock production, while at the same time strengthening local authorities to manage relationships and amicably resolve conflicts between the groups. For this reason, Kano State remained among the most peaceful States in the country throughout our eight years of governance.

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He said, “It is these and other related experiences that this Committee reviewed and analysed, while also drawing from varied experiences across the World to come out with practical recommendations for reforming the livestock industry at the national level.

“The committee that prepared this Report is made up of eminent Nigerians under the Chairmanship of Prof Attahiru Jega with members from the organised private sector, academia, practising pastoralists and farmers, representatives of farming and pastoralists communities, civil society organisations and specialists in various fields of livestock development and conflicts management.

“They worked assiduously to organize a national conference on 13th and 14th February 2023 with about 500 participants including traditional rulers, technocrats, bureaucrats, practitioners, farmers and pastoralists organisations, civil society organisations, international organisations, development experts and other range of professionals and stakeholders at national and international levels contributed to the discourse on the most viable options for achieving sustainable modernization of livestock production and achieving peaceful and harmonious relations between farmers and pastoralists. “

The APC national Chairman told President Tinubu that the report submitted to him has the antidote to the problems of the livestock industry, adding, “It addresses the key reforms and presents various development options needed for the sustainable development of the sector.”

Ganduje said that the implementation of the proposals will enhance productivity, improve livelihoods, promote environmental conservation, address substantial causes of conflicts between farmers and pastoralists and help in reducing the high cost of imports of animal products like milk and beef.

“There are clear strategies for ensuring inclusion and benefits for all Nigerians devoid of any political, ethnic or regional biases. It is a strictly development document suitable for guiding Federal, State and Local Government administrations on how best to promote the industry, enhance the quality of lives of the citizens and promote peaceful coexistence and social harmony.

“I use this rare privilege to appeal to Mr. President to personally study the Report and to direct for its full implementation. A key recommendation is the need to establish a Federal Authority to be charged with the mandate of leading the sustainable reforms and development of the livestock sector. The proposed Livestock Reforms and Development Authority need to be empowered and fully funded for the benefit of the country, ” he said.

Fielding questions from State House correspondents on the response of the President after receiving the report, Ganduje said: “Let me start with a proverb, they say “it is easy to declare war, but it’s difficult to wage it. Meaning that we have made a number of important recommendations because we studied previous attempts; the failures, the successes, we put them together and made recommendations to Mr President.

“But in order to find the solution, practical solution, that will provide the desired goals, you’ll need strong institution. We recommended the establishment of Ministry of Livestock and subsequent agencies so that various aspects of the recommendations will have appropriate institutions for implementation.

“We also recommended a source of funding, including international organizations, the private sector, the government itself, so many other things. So the answer we get is that Mr. President is ready to provide solution to these problems, especially pertaining to the economy of the livestock and then the security aspects of the herders-farmers’ conflict.”

Another avenue to l**t

Stop open grazing and stop the crisis. Animals have no sense

Stop open grazing

Idiots committee
What about ministry of agriculture

What of creating the ministry of pomo dealership and ewekoro
Nonsense

Hmm, this smells like a ruga 3.0

If our security apparatus can't curb this excess then I saw we ban the whole cow business in its totality so we k ow where the next fulani incident will emanate from.

Nonsense!
Trash!

A simple law mandating cattle/livestock businesses to mind their business is far more than enough.

mangood74:
Idiots committee
What about ministry of agriculture

What of creating the ministry of pomo dealership and ewekoro
Nonsense

idiotic indeed. They are businessmen like everyone else and fall under agric ministry. Besides, who is a Nigerian herdsman?

Tuzzyjohnson:
Another avenue to l**t

..loot ND oyel money and fund cows with it.

CodeTemplar:
..loot ND oyel money and fund cows with it.

That's how they role

What is wrong with this committee.

Why will they create ministry of livestock?

Why can’t they set up a section within the Agric ministry to coordinate it even if situation demands it?