World enews: Act Fast On Livestock Programme, 30 Grazing Reserves

The 19 Northern state governors have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to speed up the national livestock programme.

This was contained in a communiqué signed by the chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, Simon Lalong, after their meeting in Kaduna on Monday.

The governors noted that the programme would serve as a springboard in transiting from open grazing widely practised in the North.

“The forum also calls the federal government to expedite action on the well-established National Livestock Transformation Programme as a springboard in transiting from the open grazing system as widely practised in the North,” the communiqué stated.

Buhari’s regime In 2019 introduced a 10-year National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) to end the open grazing and farmers-herders crisis which is expected to run from 2019 to 2028.

It is part of the federal government’s collaborative projects with states under the auspices of the National Economic Council.

In March 2021, six state governments, namely Delta, Cross River, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, and Edo had said they would not donate any land to be used as grazing reserves for herdsmen under the National Livestock Transformation Programme.

However, 17 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory, including three southern states, namely Ekiti, Ondo, and Ebonyi, have signed up for the programme.

The Federal Government had in February said it had mapped out 30 grazing reserves across the country for the planned implementation of the NLTP.

The implementation of the programme would result in a lasting solution to the farmers-herders crisis in the country, government noted.