Nasarawa State to open first grazing reserve under NLTP plan after receiving Dutch funding

FEDERAL government officials have begun negotiations with Nasarawa State with a view to opening Nigeria’s first mega grazing reserve under the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) having received €400,000 for the project from the Netherlands government.

Nigeria is currently being torn apart by the menace of marauding Fulani cattle herdsmen who have terrorised the country with violence. These herdsmen have destroyed farms as their livestock eat farmers’ crops and when local communities complain, the response is for the pastoralists to attack villages with AK47 assault rifles.

Of late, the herdsmen have graduated to other crimes like kidnapping, rape, banditry and armed robbery. With Nigeria facing the prospect of a total breakdown in law and order over the crisis, Dr Andrew Kwasari, President Muhammadu Buhari’s senior special assistant on agriculture, said the federal government intends to address the issue with the establishment of 30 grazing reserves across the country.

With the Netherlands providing €400,000 worth of funding for the project, federal government ministers have begun talks with the Nasarawa State government about kicking-off a pilot programme. Under the scheme, Nigeria will aim to maximise her over N30trn assets in livestock which had been neglected over the years.

Dr Kwasari, who met with key state officials in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital recently, said it was important for the state to understand the requirements for the establishment of the pilot Awe Grazing Reserve. President Buhari recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Netherlands, under which the Dutch Investment Agency approved a grant of about €400,000 to cover 50% of the costs of the pilot start-up, involving 30 pastoralist households, with a start date of March, 2021.

During a recent meeting between Dr Kwasari and Dr Emmanuel Akabe, the deputy governor of Nasarawa State and the state commissioner for agriculture and water resources, Allananah Otaki, both sides agreed to use the pilot project as part of a major transformation process. Dr Kwasari said the engagement was to further ensure that the state livestock transformation team was fully understood the requirements for successfully implementing the pilot project

Dr Akabe said: “We are quite enthusiastic about this programme starting in Nasarawa state and we feel it is a great honour that Nasarawa State was picked to pilot this project. We as a state have resolved not only to be in charge but also in control.

“We want to own it and make Nasarawa an envy of other states because we are supposed to showcase not only Nasarawa State, but the whole of Nigeria. This team has the support of the state governor in making the project a huge success.”

Under the initiative, Cownexxion, the lead consultant in the bilateral collaboration, leading the Dutch consortium, will serve as technical partner for the implementation of the NLTP pilot ranches in four states. They are Nasarawa, Adamawa, Plateau and Gombe, where in each of these states, a pilot farm, which will also serve as a training centre, will be developed.