Citing a huge loss of N5.04trillion, the Federal Government has evolved a plan to permanently end the farmers/herders clashes in various parts of Nigeria.
Since the conflict assumed a worrisome dimension, hundreds of Nigerians have been killed in Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, and Kaduna States.
The government said on Tuesday that aside the loss of lives, Nigeria has lost about $14 billion (₦5.04 trillion) annually to the conflicts.
The figures and plan were unvieled by the Technical Adviser to the National Economic Council (NEC), Mr. Andrew Kwasari, on Tuesday in Abuja.
The event was attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Governor of Benue State, Mr. Samuel Ortom and other top public officials.
Kwasari said that the plan stemmed from meetings and recommendations by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and the National Economic Council in 2017. The Council which is headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, includes all the 36 state governors and some ministers as members.
The government’s plan tagged: “The National Livestock Transformation Plan,” is built on six key pillars: Economic investment, conflict resolution, law and order, humanitarian relief, information education and strategic communication; and cross-cutting issues.
The economic investment pillar would support and strengthen the development of market-driven ranches in seven pilot states for improved livestock productivity through breed (genetic) improvement and pasture production, in addition to efficient land and water productivity.
The government also said that it would rebuild social capital at the community level to promote mutual trust, confidence building and consolidate the peace process, with regards to the conflict resolution pillar.
The plan further showed that the law and order pillar would support the strengthening of legal frameworks for improving livestock production, peace and harmony.
The fourth pillar, humanitarian relief focuses on rebuilding and reconstructing of common facilities – worship places, markets and individual homes that were destroyed.
The fifth pillar would aid information, education and strategic communication on the development of grazing reserves in the frontline states, and mitigate the consequences of these conflicts such as wanton loss of lives, destruction of properties, including schools and facilities.
The “cross-cutting” issues pillar identifies various such as monitoring and evaluation; and research to contribute evidence base in programme implementation; as well as gender mainstreaming, the plan showed.
Ten key states were identified as the frontline states to receive pilot interventions in line with the recommendations of the FMARD and NEC livestock conference.
The states are Adamawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Edo, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara.
The plan would include creation of large ranches in each of these states.
“A Ranch Design Plan has also been proposed in models of various sizes clustered in 94 locations in the 10 pilot states. The government intends to transition pastoralism to ranching in order to reduce the struggle for common resources,” Kwasari said.
In terms of size, the proposed ranch size models are: “Cluster 30, 60, 150 and 300 cows’ ranch models in a location within the donated gazetted grazing reserves; and “a minimum 1,000 cows breeder ranch in seven of the 10 pilot states.”
The well-equipped ranches will, however, not come cheap.
“Total spending over the 10-year period is slightly in excess of N179 billion,” he said.
“FGN-States funding is meant for the first three years in the pilot phase, totalling about N70billion,” he added
Ogbeh said that “we want to bring this crisis to an end. We will begin action in a matter of days.”
He said nomadic herding was not sustainable and Nigeria must adopt ranching.
Ortom, however, argued that apart from implementing the new plan, the Federal Government must ensure that perpetrators of previous killings in the state were arrested and prosecuted.
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