Herdsmen, Farmers Clashes May Escalate in 2019 – FG warns

‘ If we don’t do it, next year will be worse than this year I assure you, said Minister of Agriculture, Ogbeh, after the meeting on Monday.

“We have to move the cattle to the good old grazing reserves and we just have to create environment for them; clusters of ranches where they have water, grass and security against rustlers.

“For nearly 40 years we didn’t do much about cattles, we also forgot that cattle contribute 6 percent to GDP. The cheapest way of rearing cattle is by roaming around with them as you see now. If you go into a ranch it is not cheap and government cannot subsidize cattle rearing like they do in Europe, where they subsidize every cow with €6 which is about N2,400. We cannot afford that.

The council meeting was chaired by Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, who is the Vice Chairman, also charged the President to quickly approve the establishment and training of Agro-rangers as special unit to assist security agencies check the clashes between herdsmen and farmers, which have cost hundreds of lives.

Also at the meeting were Governors of Ebonyi, Dave Umahi, Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode, Delta, Ifeanyi Okowa, and Plateau Simon Lalong; the Ministers of Agriculture; Audu Ogbe, Finance; Kemi Adeosun, Trade and Investment; Okechukwu Enelamah, Interior; Abdulrahman Dambazzau, Environment; and Water Resources; Ibrahim Jibril, Sulieman Adamu, and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele.