The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Grazing

  • Ewi, Sultan call for night grazing ban in Ekiti

    The Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe, and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, have called for a ban on night grazing in Ekiti State, saying this will end clashes between farmers and cattle rearers.

    At a parley  at the Ewi’s palace in Ado-Ekiti, the rulers said grazing should be banned from 6pm to 6am.

    They recommended that committees, comprising farmers, cattle rearers, security agencies, representatives of traditional rulers and councils, should be established.

    The parley, which was organised to settle conflicts over alleged grazing rights and destruction of farms by cattle, was attended by a government delegation, led by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Kehinde Odebunmi; members of the Ewi-in-Council and representatives of the Sultan.

    Present also were the national leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), led by its National President, Alhaji Muhammadu Kirwa Hardon Zuru; representatives of the police and Department of State Services (DSS) as well as farmers’ groups and leaders of the cattle rearers.

    Praising the government for its efforts at maintaining peace, they stressed the need to curb the ugly trend.

    Other recommendations include setting up vigilance groups, taking a census of cattle owners and decentralising the leadership of cattle rearers to comprise an Ardo/Seriki Fulani in each senatorial district with a new head at the state level to be responsible to the national body.

    The stakeholders emphasised the need to reposition the leadership of Miyetti Allah Association for effective control of herdsmen.

    They added that grazing routes and reserves must be developed to serve as a permanent solution.

    Commending the Ewi and Sultan for their role, they noted that the patience, understanding and resilience of farmers’ groups in the state was laudable.

    Odebunmi thanked the monarchs and others for their peace efforts.

  • Group seeks grazing land for nomads

    The Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN), Abia chapter has urged the government to provide pasture for cattle rearers to save the lives of people in the communities.

    The CAN Chairman, Bishop Goddy Okafor, made the call in Aba.

    Okafor observed that the lack of grazing lands had led to deadly clashes between nomads and their host communities, and causing road accidents on the highways due to their quest for pasture.

    He cited the killing by cow on Sunday morning of a male resident of Aba on his way to church.

    He called for concerted efforts by Federal and state governments to prevent such incidents that create unnecessary losses, by ensuring cattle rearers were not allowed to move from place to place, especially in cities.

    The CAN chair noted that in civilised climes, cattle owners no longer moved them around but kept them in well equipped ranches.

    He said providing grazing lands would help protect cattle from exposure to diseases as well as prevent the frequent clashes between farmers and pastoralists.

     

  • FG decries grazing related clashes

    FG decries grazing related clashes

    The Federal Government Friday expressed deep concern over the occurrence of incessant grazing related clashes in some states in the country.

    Speaking at the Fourth meeting of the National Council on Shelterbelt and Afforestation (NCSA) at the State House, Abuja, Vice President Namadi Sambo said that the NCSA has now become a security issue posing internal security challenges in the country.

    He said: “The NCSA programme has become a security issue since it poses a great challenge to our internal security situation.”

    According to him, government attaches very great importance to the success of the Shelterbelt and Afforestation Programme aimed at reforming and revamping the ecological system of both livestock and plants.

    He said that the programme has been successful in other countries such as Senegal, Rwanda, Burundi.

    Sambo, however, cautioned on timely cultivation in order to attain the planned objective of the programme noting that, ‘now is the best time as the rains have already commenced’.

    The Vice President called the attention of the members of the NCSA to the fact that both the Shelterbelt and the Great Green Wall (GGW) programme commenced on a slow note and directed that action be expedited on the cultivation of crops particularly economic trees and more efforts be channeled towards revitalizing the entire ecosystem to facilitate the economic upliftment of the people’.

    He said that funding for the programme is directly the responsibility of government though further funding from International Development Partners and financial institutions as the World Bank, African Development Bank (ADB) and the private sector will be welcomed.

    He called for collaboration among the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) and also impressed on the need for launching effective campaigns of the programme to the grassroots levels, working with the relevant agencies of government to ensure the required outreach and success of the programme.

    To this end, the Vice President directed the Minister of Agriculture to as a matter of urgency make a power-point presentation to him on March 25th 2014; on all issues of grazing reserves to enable the government seek timely solutions to them. He further requested to be furnished with the plan of action with timelines till the end of the year.

    Earlier the Minister of Environment Laurencia Laraba Mallam notifying the Vice President on the progress of the GGW programme said that initial consultations with the community leaders and community mobilization and sensitization exercise were conducted in December 2013.

    She said that preparations towards supporting local communities to raise about five million seedlings for 2014 planting have been concluded and a Programme Implementation Unit (PIU) has been established.

    Present at the meeting were the members of the NCSA made up of the Ministers of Youth Affairs, Mr. Boni Haruna and Women Affairs, Zainab Maina, the Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries of Education, Water Resources and Environment, representatives of relevant other ministries, Commissioners of Environments from the states (Zamfara and Kebbi) and other stakeholders.

    Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Environment Minister said: “With the Vice President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria has given approval for the purchase, distribution and planting of seedlings for the 2014 planting under the Great Green Wall Project.”

    “With this approval, the activity for the 2014 planting season is to commence immediately. The Council also approved a draft bill for the establishment of the Great Green Wall Agency for recommendation to the Federal Executive Council.” She said

    The Coordinator of Great Green Wall Project, Dr. Bukar Hassan said: “For the year 2014, the programme intends to establish 12, 500 hectares of shelter belts, 620 hectares of community buckets and we intend to procure 3.6 million seedlings, that is including all assorted seedlings, the trees and the forest trees and so on. And the funds which the Council precisely approved this morning are for the procurement of 8.5 million seedlings.”

    “And of course as earlier stated by the Minister, it includes ploughing procurement of the lands and the establishment of the orchards which the communities are going to do in collaboration with the programme.

    “This is only about 60 percent of the total requirement if we do the outside details, the balance of the 40 percent are at the cost of N164 million will be established by the community. We have 9 communities in the programme and all of them are going to participate producing 70, 000 each. And this cost I mentioned will be use to provide inputs for seedlings and labour that they are going to use,” he added.