Federal Government has been urged to establish National Livestock Development Authority (NLDA) as part of concrete measures to solve the lingering clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the country.
Chairman of the Committee on Strategic Action Plan for the Development of Grazing Reserves and Stock Routes Nationwide, Prof. Yusuf Abubakar, who made this call in Abuja, said the NLDA when established, would implement national livestock breeding policy as well as ensuring the development of grazing reserves as well as stock routes in Nigeria.
He explained that Nigeria does not have national breeding policy, adding that already a national breeding policy had been drafted and submitted to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development waiting to be implemented.
He also explained that the NLDA would articulate programmes that would help herdsmen to settle in a place rather than the current trend of their movement for one place to another.
The Chairman of the panel also called for the establishment of a National Programme on grazing reserves and stock routes development as well as strengthening of existing conflict resolution and prevention mechanisms.
Abubakar, who is also the Executive Secretary of National Agricultural Research Council, identified urbanization, lack of right to land, increased livestock production activities as some of the challenges confronting grazing reserves and stock routes nationwide.
He lamented the non-implementation of the reports of various committees set up in the past to resolve the age-long conflicts between farmers and herdsmen in some parts of the country.
As part of the recommendations of the Committee, Prof. Abubakar called for the review of the Grazing Law, noting that livestock sub-sector should given adequate attention as part of the process to diversify Nigerian economy.
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