FG seeks review of ECOWAS protocol on movement of cattle

By Juliana Agbo, Abuja

The Federal Government has revealed that it will review policies with regards to the movement of cattle, goats and sheep between Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

The policy is part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocol that allows unrestricted movement of animals for grazing across all countries.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alh. Muhammad Nanono, who disclosed this recently in Abuja, while inaugurating the governing board of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN), said the government has noticed that most of the transmittable diseases especially the foot and mouth disease becomes endemic at times of such migration.

He said that so far, the livestock sub-sector is an integral part of the Nigerian economy that contributes over N31 trillion to the economy, which is about a 17% of the GDP.

He said, “I know you are aware of the challenges in the sector, the main one being the farmers/herders conflict which I think has come down and people have come to realize that it is a business and not politics or ethnic or religious venture.

“Over the last five years as a livestock farmer, I noticed increasing prevalence of animal diseases that has affected our livestock, especially we have noticed the prevalence of liver diseases, I hope we will be able to overcome this.

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“I notice over the years that they become endemic between the months of October to March which is the time that such animals are brought in from our neighbors in the North to move to the South, I think that we need to be more up doing in ensuring that we limit the damage on our livestock.

Nanono said the ministry is in the process of presenting the case to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for funding to control pest and animal diseases across the country in a bid to curtail the disease.

“Another thing we have to be serious about is our response time when we have an outbreak, it is extremely low. We are also taking steps to probably reintroduce the registration of cattle, sheep etc coming into this country  and we can track their movement across the country”, he added.