The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has rejected a bill that seeks to establish a national agency for the regulation and management of ranches in Nigeria.
Grassroots Parrot recalled that a bill for an act to ban open grazing and establish ranches as an antidote for the perennial clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders in Nigeria scaled second reading after a slightly heated debate in the Senate.
But Alhaji Baba Usman Ngelzarma, MACBAN president, rejected the bill at the weekend.
Ngelzarma told newsmen that pastoralists were looking for the creation of a pool-blown Federal Ministry for Livestock and Fisheries instead of the National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the Regulation, Management, Preservation, and Control of Ranches.
He spoke in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, shortly after the inauguration of the state executive council of the association.
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Ngelzarma said that with the creation of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, ‘‘the entire livestock value chain issues can be addressed holistically rather than what is going on now at the National Assembly, which is working to create a bill for animal husbandry or ranching.
‘‘Ranching is just an aspect of livestock; instead of going for ranching, why can’t the president create a pool-blown ministry for livestock so that all the value chain related to livestock issues can be addressed holistically by that ministry?
‘‘Issues of production, processing, marketing, transportation, and even security-related issues can be addressed if there is a ministry dedicated to that purpose’’ He said.
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He called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the recommendations of the Livestock Reforms and Mitigation Committee headed by the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, set up to seek a lasting solution to the perennial farmers-herders conflict in rural areas.
‘‘We submitted Jega’s report on livestock reform and mitigation sometime last year, and we are looking forward to the President establishing the implementation committee so that implementation of that report starts immediately,’’ he said.
‘‘Major requirement of that report is the creation of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries so that livestock-related issues can be given due attention.’’
