Nomadic commission begins training to check herders, farmers clashes

The National Commission for Nomadic Education has begun training of over 100 field level extension agents and officers from the six geopolitical zones of the country to contain the violent conflicts between herdsmen and farmers.

The four-day workshop, which began on Monday at ABU Hotel, Kongo, Zaria, Kaduna State, is aimed at promoting the adoption of intensive livestock production, otherwise known as ranching.

The commission’s Executive Secretary, Prof. Bashir Usman, said the objective of the training was to enthrone field officers that could build the capacity of pastoralists to key into that system of production.

Other aims, according to the NCNE boss, were to acquaint the participants with the roles and responsibilities on ranching, capacities to work effectively with the identified critical stakeholders to promote the project, peace and conflict management, and to develop local action plans on the concept.

Titled national training workshop on ranching for grazing reserves development for nomadic education extension agents, Usman explained that the implementation of the ranching programme entails the provision of the requisite resource and infrastructure to serve as window of opportunities for livestock producers to have access to improved production facilities and social amenities, including schools and vocational and technical training centres.

“Other provisions include security markets, clinics, livestock service centre, access road, milk and meat processing centres along with value chains as well as other critical infrastructure,” he added.

He told the participants that the transformation and modernisation of the livestock industry entailed a paradigm shift from the predominantly extensive and uncoordinated tradition to a more formal and systematic industry of ranching or intensive livestock production system.

Usman also stated that currently “there are 416 grazing reserves in the county spread across the six geopolitical with a total of 3.4 million hectares of land, out of which 141 are grazed while 275 are yet to be grazed.”