After many years of confusion and wrong-headed policies, the Federal Government appears to have finally grasped the imperative of adopting fresh thinking in growing the cattle industry.
A plan unfolded recently by Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, that will hopefully end the primitive practice of cattle perennially traversing hundreds of kilometres for pasture, signposts a paradigm shift that should be pursued with urgency and uncommon vigour. According to the minister, a special grass cultivation programme is planned under which nutrient-rich forage will be available for cattle and other livestock. It calls for the supply of grass from across the country, including the southern states, to feed the large population of cattle, goats and sheep found in the northern states. Significantly, this is just one plank of Ogbeh’s solution to the age-long problem of cattle herding that has resulted in permanent warfare between herders and farmers/local communities and frozen animal farming in its primitive state. Ogbeh’s progressive policy direction is a welcome departure from the politicking and self-serving response to incessant and increasingly violent clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farming communities across the country by successive administrations.
 

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