FG, Edo Develops Synergy to Check Farmers, Herders Clash

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

In order to check the incessant clashes between farmers and herders in the country, the federal government and Edo state, through the National Animal Identification and Traceable System (NAITS), a scheme under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, have developed a partnership that would check herdsmen farmers clash and other vices that have led to cases of killings, kidnaping, destruction of farms and livestock.

Speaking at a stakeholder’s engagement in Benin City, the Edo State capital on animal identification processes and inherent benefits, the Edo Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr. Stephen Idehenre in a welcome address yesterday, said Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration keyed into the scheme because it would boost his MEGA (Making Edo Great Again) to re-launch the state into national reckoning.

 Represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Minister, Dr. Peter Osagie, Idehenre, said he hoped the scheme “will help put an end to the incessant clashes and dignify our livestock system, boost our productivity and acceptance outside the shores of the country.”

Earlier, the Group Company Secretary and Legal Adviser of  Mega Corp Nigeria Limited and Gamla Group,  Elonna Ezulu said the scheme would reform the sector in line with global practices.

He said “For a long time now, Nigeria has been inundated with a lot of incidents of clashes between herders and agriculturists as well as farmers and also, the issue of cow rustling or stealing of cows because of lack of data and other means of identification.

“People steal other people’s cows, go and sell in the market, to slaughter houses and places close them. And in the global village we are in today, there are lot of issues; borders are no longer a limit to inter relationship between nations.

“We see a lot of diseases, infections and other things, they move from one jurisdiction into the other. So until we are able to develop this sector and make sure that we have proper data for planning, it’s a difficult thing. 

“So that’s why at the federal level, the company and the Ministry of Agriculture were able to come together to agree on a means of animal enumeration, it is not going to be limited to only cattle, it is meant to cover other animals.”

   On checking clashes, Ezulu said with the identification marks on the cows, anyone that strays into farms could easily be detected and know their routes through which they come.

   Also, the Chief Operating Officer of ranch ID which is the NAITS operations management centre, Uchenna Ononye took the participants on the merits of the scheme and the processing for registering and tagging of the animals.