The Muhammadu Buhari administration has expressed its readiness to put an end to the perennial farmers-herders crisis rocking the country, especially in the Southern part where there are lush vegetation for cattle to graze on.
The government said it is preparing over 20,000 hectares of land across 15 grazing reserves for the National Livestock Transformation Plan.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Andrew Kwasari, disclosed this to journalists teo days ago
Kwwsari, who coordinates the NLTP, added that some participating states had already commenced training for the implementation of the scheme.
He noted that 22 states had so far shown interest in the livestock programme which will be funded by a €400,000 grant secured from the Netherlands in February by the Buhari administration.
The presidential aide said, “We have states in tiers one, two, three and four, depending on the ones that are ahead of others. But I can’t give you the states that are in each particular tier for I’m on vacation now. I don’t have those details here with me now, until I return to Abuja. I don’t have access to those data now.”
He added, “There are 22 states that have written to us and two governors have transmitted letters to their various state livestock transformation officials as regards the project.
“Out of these 22 states, many have gone into training and the opening of offices. Some have even located over 15 grazing reserves, which have been surveyed by certain governors totalling over 200,000 hectares of land.”
The NLTP, adopted by the National Executive Council in January 2019, was designed as a partnership with interested state governments to provide land for livestock farmers.
Under the scheme, livestock farmers will have access to land for ranching, as the land will be made available to farmers at affordable rates.
The scheme, however, was greeted with diverse reactions, as some states declared that they had no land to give out for the livestock programme.
Governors from the South-eastern part of the country had spoken with one voice, last month, that they won’t cede any part of their land to ranching.
In his own case, Governor Seyi Makinde said he would welcome the NLTP scheme in his state but the implementation would not be wholesale.
He noted that cattle rearing, among others, is a private business, therefore, those interested in acquiring land in Oyo State must be ready to pay.
