Food and social security: we will grow grass, restrict nomads, Ogbeh vows

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has said that agribusiness in the livestock sector will be improved and expanded to include commercial production of grass for feeding cattle. This, the minister said, would bring an end to the roaming of the cattle rearers and perennial conflicts between the pastoralists and crop farmers all over the nation.

 “We are taking a radical step and we are beginning now. We are going to grow grass on a very large scale all over this country. I am as rigid as a rock that we are going to grow grass,” Chief Ogbe maintained. He disclosed that some grasses taken from Africa to Brazil and subjected to 16 years of research for use in that country, producing 28 per cent crude protein, will be brought in for use under this programme. “By April ending (2016), the first grass supply should be on the way if not already arrived,” he said.

The minister was emphatic that, with the continued existence of “cattle grazing and stock routes, conflicts still continue to grow, with cases of deaths rising along the routes.” To reverse the untoward trends, Chief Ogbeh said “cattle roaming has to end. We just have to grow grass.” He noted that “the largest cattle ranch in the world is in Saudi Arabia, with 153,000 cows, and the country sells milk to other gulf states. They buy grass from Sudan and from US, and they are going to buying grass from Ethiopia.”

He therefore noted that “The north is not yet a desert, it is only arid. There are many dams that could be used for irrigation, although irrigation may not be necessary in certain areas, particularly in the south. If certain countries sell grass to Saudi Arabia, there is no reason we cannot grow grass in Nigeria in the south and sell to the north of this country.”

The minister observed that there are problems with animal grazing that need to be solved urgently as the “old grazing reserve is not feasible anymore. States are having problems with it.” For Nigeria, he said, “in another five years, there should be no roaming of cattle.” He expressed concerns on the issue of cattle rearers from other neighbouring countries coming into Nigeria with cattle and with sophisticated weapons, killing people indiscriminately. He said this has to be dealt with at the ECOWAS level.

He was worried that, in 2050, the world population will be 9 billion people, with 25 per cent living in rural areas, while Nigeria’s population will be 500 million, and all this have to be fed. According to him,  “the school feeding  just started in Kaduna, with 1.4 million children. If we are to give them one pint a day of milk per child, where is the money to import such milk? We have to produce locally? We are in desperate need of foreign exchange.  We have to have cows feeding and giving us good milk.”

 The Surveyor-General of the federation, Mr. Ebisintei Awudu, noted that his office has mapped the entire Nigeria. “We have satellite image of the entire Nigeria at 2.5 metre resolution,” he said, adding that “we have surveyors posted to ministries. It is important for your ministry to have one surveyor, to be involved in survey and mapping of soils.”

Surveyor Barde Jatau, a director in the office of the Surveyor-General of the federation, lamented the neglect of their office, promising to support and assist the ministry of agriculture. He disclosed that their office has been neglected for long, and was given zero allocation last year. According to Jatau, “we have collaboration with the federal ministry of agriculture on geospatial imagery, which will play a key role for site selection for animal husbandry.”

While assuring that the placement of canals and other infrastructure can be mapped by his office, Jatau pleaded with the minister to be a voice for the office of the Surveyor-General, promising to support the ministry with “equipment and manpower.”