Herdsmen should continue with open grazing, ranching, says Tinubu’s presidential committee

The Presidential Committee on Implementation of Livestock Reforms has proposed a combination of ranching and open grazing as the most viable solution to the farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria.

The chairman of the committee, Attahiru Jega, said this on Thursday after the 23-member committee submitted a report to President Bola Tinubu on Thursday in Abuja.

Briefing journalists, Mr Jega said the committee, inaugurated on July 9, had been able to produce an inception report, which he said contained wide-ranging recommendations on the transformation of the livestock sector.

“The committee recommended that open grazing and ranching would coexist until enough awareness and adequate infrastructure were created for full adoption of ranching. We’ve also made recommendations in terms of how some of these challenges can be addressed,” Mr Jega said.

He said Mr Tinubu had given his committee full support and encouragement to drive the process of the committee’s implementation of the recommendations, with the new ministry driving the process.

The former INEC chair also said the committee provided detailed guidelines on establishing the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development. He emphasised the need for focused implementation of the recommendations and periodic review to see where there would be a need for repositioning or strengthening the focus and effort in actualising the recommendations.

“We believe that our recommendations are quite comprehensive, and if we can meticulously implement them, no doubt, very soon we will begin to see its positive impact on our economy. Whether it is in terms of job creation or in terms of development of products and services, or even opening up opportunities for exports,” Mr Jega said.

He said the report specifically contained recommendations on how to develop the value chain of the livestock sector to tap its potential to enhance economic growth and development.

Mr Jega added that the recommendations included how to create jobs, ensure food, feed, and nutrition security, and export many of the products associated with the sector.

“We believe that there has been a neglect of this sector for a very long time. We are happy that Mr President has recognised the need to redress this neglect and has invited us to contribute to finding ways and the means of unlocking the opportunities in this sector.

“So, I’m very pleased to say that today we presented an inception report to Mr President, and it’s a document of about 152 pages divided into five sectors,” said Mr Jega.

He said in the report that the committee addressed 12 terms of reference and developed 22 objectives for the reform effort in the livestock sector.

“We’ve been able to make specific recommendations on each of these areas. In addition to that, we were also able to identify achievable targeted indicators, about 3,146 of them. We believe that by pursuing these and actualising them, there is no doubt that within a reasonable time frame, a maximum period of 10 years, we would see remarkable improvements in virtually all aspects of the livestock sector,” Mr Jega said.

He said the committee’s recommendations included mitigation of the perennial conflicts associated with the activities of pastoralists and nomadic herders.