Taraba trains livestock feeds producers

In an effort to tackle farmers and herders’ conflicts, Taraba State government through the Taraba State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project has commenced training of livestock feed producers in Jalingo.

The training programme, an initiative of the World Bank, was aimed at checking frequent clashes between herders and farmers, mostly caused by destruction of farms by animals belonging to herders.

Speaking at the training of selected beneficiaries at a workshop held at the SISFEN Events centre in Jalingo, State project coordinator, Mr. Hananiah Albert, said the training objective was to enhance the livestock value chain, sustain the resilience of livestock farmers and to build the capacities of the authorities to respond to the violent conflict between herders and farmers.

He said the project was a strategic input to Nigeria’s long-term approach to developing and transforming the livestock sector by supporting measures that will help livestock farmers to mitigate and increase their adaptive capacities to climate change.

He further explained that the training will also promote the use of climatesmart technologies and climate practices that will help improve their value chain performances to prevent conflicts.

“The importance of livestock production and productivity to the Nigerian economy cannot be overstated. In the second quarter of 2023, the contribution of livestock production to Nigeria’s GDP experienced an increase of 2.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and the story is still looking up,” he said.