FG trains extension workers on pasture establishment

The Federal Department of Husbandry Services in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has trained 80 extension agents on how to effectively establish and manage pasture to address the challenges of food security bedeviling the country especially with the lingering clashes between farmers and cattle breeders.

Speaking Monday in Kaduna at the training which is expected to be stepped down to 2,000 farmers in Kaduna, Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states, a former Director of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) in the ministry, Dr. Nyam Leo said, “I have worked for 35 years in the livestock industry and for all the productive herds in the country we had what we called a grazing reserve which has a minimum of 5000 hectares. In the past, if an animal ate maize belonging to a farmer, there is a way they settled. Today, nobody is looking at how to settle disputes. Before, the Ardo will just report it and the Sarkin Noma will get involved and they will amicably settle, but these days, people claim they are independent.”

He canvassed enforcement of cattle route, saying, “The farmer must not farm up to the route in order to avoid his crops being eaten by the cattle. Today, farmers are encroaching on the route and the livestock person cannot pass. In the end the cattle will eat the crops and instead of settling as a community, they take up arms.”