President Buhari’s cattle ranch in Daura
Nigeria to spend N179 billion on cattle ranching
Nigerian government will spend a total of N179 billion over a period of 10 years to acquire and equip cattle ranches at the gazetted grazing reserves and in the pilot states.
Ranching is the topmost consideration for the solution to the lingering farmers-herders crises across the country, especially in the North, according to a solution plan presented to the government on Tuesday.
The event was attended by several public officials including the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh; and the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom and presentation was made by the technical adviser to the National Economic Council (NEC), Andrew Kwasari, on Tuesday in Abuja.
But Ortom argued that apart from implementing the new plan, the federal government must ensure that perpetrators of previous killings in the state are arrested and prosecuted.
In terms of size, the proposed ranch size models are “Cluster 30, 60, 150 and 300 cows ranch models in a location within the donated gazetted grazing reserves; and “a minimum 1000 cows breeder ranch in 7 of the 10 pilot states.”
“A Ranch Design Plan has also been proposed in models of various sizes clustered in 94 locations in the 10 pilot states. The government intends to transition pastoralism to ranching in order to reduce the struggle for common resources. Total spending over the 10 year period is slightly in excess of N179 billion,” Mr Kwasari stated in his presentation of the plan.
“FGN-States funding is meant for the first 3yrs in the pilot phase, totaling about N70billion.”
Some of the benefits of the plan include “Expected milk output to be in excess of 200million litres by the 2nd year of the project (but the first year of productivity.”
“Expected milk output of 700m ltrs of milk by the 4th year of the project.” the expert said.
Hundreds of people have been killed in 2018 alone in violence involving nomadic herdsmen in states like Benue, Plateau, and Kaduna.
Aside the loss of lives, the federal government has said that Nigeria loses about $14 billion (₦5.04 trillion) annually to the conflicts, reports Premium Times.