Buhari Inaugurates Model Ranching Hub in Nasarawa

Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday inaugurated a 22,000 hectres of Awe Model Ranching Hub Project (AMRHP), under the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), in Awe Local Goverment Area of Nasarawa State.

Nasarawa State is one of the states in Nigeria selected by the federal government for the pilot of the NLTP to provide land for livestock farmers to practice their profession.

THISDAY gathered that the federal government has secured €400,000 grant from the Netherlands to kick off the project in five states of Nasarawa, Adamawa, Plateau and Gombe.

The AMRHP, which was launched by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Sabo Muhammad Nanono, on behalf of President Buhari, has a capacity of accommodating about 360 households, while about 96 pastoralists were said to be available to settle.

President Buhari said the essence of the NLTP was to stem the tide of insecurity, not only in Nasarawa State, but across the country as 22 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have so far registered for implementation of the plan in their geographical divides.

“The NTPL will also improve the value chain of animal husbandry better the lives of the pastoralists. It will also be a game changer in the history of Nigeria, which will confine livestock even in dry season,” he said.

The president then thanked the Governor of Nasarawa State, Mr. Abdullahi Sule, for accepting the NLTP in his state and donating the 22,000 hectres of land for its take off.

Buhari, however, called on other states in the country yet to embrace the scheme to do so in order to curtail the prolonged herders/farmers clashes in the country as according to him, “seven states in the country have created their implementation team which is being trained by the NLTP, even as the states have earmarked about 400,000 hectares of land for the take-off of livestock transformation project.

Flagging off the 22,000 hectares AMRHP, Sule expressed optimism that with the advent of the ranching hub project in his state, the farmers/herders clashes being experienced on the border line of Nasarawa and Benue States would be solved.

“My first official engagement as the executive governor of Nasarawa State was a peace visit to the neighbouring Benue State to brainstorm with my colleague towards tackling the persistent herders/farmers clashes on the border of the two states,” Sule maintained.

Also speaking, the Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Simon Bako Lalong, said that the 19 northern states in the country have thrown their weight behind the implementation of the NLTP and were ready to see to the take-off of the project in their various states.

According to Lalong, who is also the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, “the NLTP is not only meant for the northern states of the federation, but also very useful to states from the southern part of the country as the farmers/herders clashes are not peculiar only in the north but all over the country.

The Nasarawa State Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Mr. Bala Dabo, said the establishment of the model ranching hub in Nasarawa State was a welcome development for the herders as they look forward to reaping from the enormous benefits the NLTP would bring to the threshold of the pastoralists in the state.