The federal government has proposed a combination of ranching and open grazing as the most viable solution to the farmer-herder conflict.

The Presidential Committee on Implementation of Livestock Reforms has recommended a combination of ranching and open grazing as the most viable solution to the farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria.

The chairman of the presidential committee on implementation of Livestock Reforms, Attahiru Jega, made this known after the 23-member committee submitted a report to President Bola Tinubu in Abuja on Thursday, September 19, 2024.

According to Jega, the committee has put together a report that contains a wide-range of recommendations on the transformation of the livestock sector.

“The committee recommended that open grazing and ranching would coexist until enough awareness and adequate infrastructure were created for full adoption of ranching. We’ve also made recommendations in terms of how some of these challenges can be addressed,” Jega said.

The former INEC chair also said, “We believe that our recommendations are quite comprehensive, and if we can meticulously implement them, no doubt, very soon we will begin to see its positive impact on our economy. Whether it is in terms of job creation or in terms of development of products and services, or even opening up opportunities for exports.”

Explaining the report, Jega listed various recommendations including, how to create jobs, ensure food, feed, and nutrition security, and export many of the products associated with the sector.

“We believe that there has been a neglect of this sector for a very long time. We are happy that Mr President has recognised the need to redress this neglect and has invited us to contribute to finding ways and the means of unlocking the opportunities in this sector.

So, I’m very pleased to say that today we presented an inception report to Mr President, and it’s a document of about 152 pages divided into five sectors.

We’ve been able to make specific recommendations on each of these areas. In addition to that, we were also able to identify achievable targeted indicators, about 3,146 of them. We believe that by pursuing these and actualising them, there is no doubt that within a reasonable time frame, a maximum period of 10 years, we would see remarkable improvements in virtually all aspects of the livestock sector,” Jega said.