By Straightnews
Fears are rife that the proposed Cattle ranches may birth the suspended RUGA Settlement at long run in the country, Straightnews has gathered.
This is as the National Agricultural Mechanisation Cooperative of Nigeria voiced out plans to establish cattle ranches in the 774 local government areas across Nigeria.
The National President of NAMCON, Dr Aliyu Waziri, stated this when he addressed journalists on Saturday in Kaduna.
Relative posts
- National Water Resources Bill Is Another Version Of Ruga Settlement – Ortom
- As FG Budgets N2.3b On RUGA Implementation, Ita Enang Throws Weight Behind The Policy
- Igbo Youths Beat War Drum As North Insists On RUGA Amid Fresh Tensions
The Ruga policy was a Nigerian policy intended to reduce herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria.
Introduced by the immediate past Buhari presidency, it was poised to resolve the conflict between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and sedentary farmers.
According to the cooperative society, the move is part of sustained plausible efforts to modernise livestock production in the country and bolster value-addition.
Mr Waziri said that the ranches would be provided with adequate animal feeds, mega dams and an array of features of world-class equipment.
He added that they would also be provided with clinics, western and Islamic schools and other necessary infrastructure.
Mr Waziri said, “These ranches will be fully equipped for both rainy and dry season farming activities for the sustained production of food. This is crucial to boosting food security in the country, jobs creation, poverty eradication and jerking off Nigeria’s foreign reserves.”
The national president explained that the ranches will also have plantations of various economic trees such as mango, guava and cashew, among others.
Mr Waziri said that the gesture would also greatly help in combating the recurring herder-farmer clashes in the country.
RUGA Settlement
Two years after the suspension of the controversial Rural Grazing Area scheme in July 2019, the Federal Government introduced a replacement scheme called the Livestock Intervention Programme to address the lingering farmer-herder crisis across the country.
This came amid the Federal Government’s intensified efforts to revive colonial-era grazing routes in many states across the country as per the directive by the ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to documents from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the LIP scheme will see the Federal Government establishing eight large herders’ settlements in such six pilot states as Adamawa, Kwara, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna and Gombe.
The scheme is expected to be extended to other states, following a successful outing in the pilot states.
The immediate past Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, had in May 2019 announced that Buhari approved the RUGA initiative to address the farmer-herder crisis.
A month later, a former Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mohammed Umar, announced that the Federal Government was to commence the pilot phase of the RUGA project in 11 states for a start, including Sokoto, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Kogi, Taraba, Katsina, Plateau, Kebbi, Zamfara and Niger.
The scheme, however, met with stiff opposition by southern states whose people saw the move as a land-grabbing move by the Federal Government for Fulani herders.
Why FG created Ministry of Livestock Development
The proposed cattle ranches may not be unconnected with the creation of Federal Ministry of Livestock Development by President Bola Tinubu in July 2024, a covert move to end the perennial clashes between pastoralists and farmers but seen as land-grabbing tactics.
Tinubu approved the creation of the ministry when he inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms at the Council Chamber of the State House in Abuja.
Though the Federal Government may subtly support in the ranches, the state governors who are custodians of land in their respective states hold the axe head in the success or otherwise of the controversial project.
