The federal government is warming up to start ranching in the country, as part of efforts to improve production in the livestock sector, as well as reducing the perennial conflicts between farmers and criminal herders. The ministry of Livestock Development has, therefore concluded arrangements to do a pilot scheme in Kwara State. The development will also stop the damage to food crops by the cattle, thereby reducing losses to farmers and boosting food security. This hint was dropped by the minister for Livestock Development, Idi Muktar Maiha, during a stakeholders’ meeting in Ilorin, Kwara State recently. According to him, the objectives of the government include modernising livestock farming in Nigeria with a purpose to increasing productivity and ensuring the resolution of the avoidable conflicts between farmers and herders in the country. To confirm the seriousness of the federal government on this issue, the minister said, “We are going to show that nomadic people can be settled, infrastructure can be built for them to remain in one place, improve productivity, and address farmers-herders conflicts. This solution will come from us, and Kwara State will be the pilot for this programme.”
Maiha added that the step being taken by the federal government will also open another vista of business in the agriculture sector. As a result of this, some people will be encouraged to grow fodder, so as to sell to livestock farmers to feed their cattle. Hear him: “Think of fodder. It’s just growing grass. Imagine wide lands in Kwara where varieties of grass can be planted.” And just in case some people would argue that local demand for fodder may be limited, the minister told his audience that there is a large market waiting at the international level. He said, “In Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, they all want to import grass from Nigeria. These are huge opportunities, if we explore them.”
In fact, at home, the minister said the government was ready to encourage prospective livestock farmers to run ranches, as the government has planned “to establish feedlots where young boys and girls can bring their bulls, sheep, and pigs.” He assured that “The arrangement will be structured to improve productivity.”
Cattle is not the only unit of the sector that will be impacted by the development. Maiha said the production of honey will also be enhanced by government initiative. He said in 2022 Nigeria imported N800 billion worth of honey, whereas he had seen the potential that Kwara State holds in this respect.
While reacting, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Afeez Alabi, added that poultry farming will be enhanced as well. He said, “Livestock production remains central to our development agenda, and poultry occupies a very special place within it.”
