THE Minister
of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Monday, disclosed that
everything has been put in place by the Federal Government to establish
cattle
colonies that would solve the continued herdsmen/farmers conflict in parts of
the country.
Ogbeh made
this known during a two day ‘2018 Strategy Retreat’ organised by Synergos for
special advisers and directors in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Abuja,
where he said facilities will be provided to take care of the herdsmen and
their cattle, which they (herdsmen) have said if water and grass were provided
they would not be moving with their cattle. According to him the cattle colony
project will start immediately following the offer of five hectares of land
each by 16 states in the country, which also President Muhammadu Buhari has
promised to help the ministry with money for the project. He also stated that
in terms of job creation, no sector of the economy could match agriculture, as
he debunked claims that 4 million jobs were lost in last the last one year
based on calculations on ministries, industries and cities, rather failed to
see over 6 million jobs created in agric sector alone, and added that Hibiscus
also known as Zobo has earned $35 million in the last one year to exporters as
demand continues to increase. He said: ‘On the issue of cattle we have to start
immediately, 16 states have given us land to work on. The programme is not
going to be cheap. Mr President has personally informed me that if we seek help
from him he will give it to us over and above the budget we have, and when that
budget is released I plead with all of you to come on board to work hard to
achieve results. “We are talking of cattle colonies not ranches so to speak,
where we will provide water, grass, training for herdsmen, cattle breeding and
insemination. “We have to deal with an urgent problem, cattle rearing and the
conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, and actually bring it to a halt. I know
that some people argue that the culture of open grazing is our culture, but
when a culture begins to develop dangerous trends leading to warfare between
people and bloody clashes and death that culture is due for re-examination; if
it is harmful we reform it. “Nigerians are getting extremely uncomfortable with
these killings and we may make political statements and issue palliatives and
ask the police and army to go after killers. Let us do our own duty by
eliminating the conflict by creating cattle colonies.”
According to the
Minister as reported by vanguardngr, 2018 Frontiers for the sector will focus on new plantations for cashew
nuts, also relaunch of cocoa that will move the country up from number seven to
number one in the next five years, improve fertilizer blending, which
micronutrients will be included. The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr
Bukar Hassan, in his remarks revealed that Nigeria will soon export organic
fertilizer to Europe in February 2018, Hassan made this known while he called
on ministers’ aide and civil servants to work together, because the ministry
has enormous work to deliver Buhari’s change agenda before 2019 elections.
Meanwhile, in his remarks, the country representative, Synergos, Adewale Ajadi,
called on directors and political advisers in the ministry to synergies and
work assiduously and not to allow politics distract what has been started,
because of no time to waste in achieving the mandate given to the ministers
heading the ministry by Mr President and also to meet the expectations of
Nigerians and investors. Ajadi also urged the federal, state and local
governments to work together and have proper coordination of activities and
policies in the sector.
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