South-West: In need of modern ranches, not open grazing of old
01 October 2024 |
4:40 am
The bill to establish a National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the Regulation, Management, Preservation, and Control of Ranches throughout Nigeria, and for Connected Purposes, 2024, sponsored by Senator Titus Zam
With over 25,000 cattle slaughtered daily in the South-West, and a princely sum of N2.5 billion spent on protein by residents daily, attaining meat sufficiency and ending the perennial farmer-herder clashes in the zone, may be elusive if the region consistently fails to take deliberate steps, including bringing back cattle ranches of yesteryears, SEYE OLUMIDE reports.
The bill to establish a National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the Regulation, Management, Preservation, and Control of Ranches throughout Nigeria, and for Connected Purposes, 2024, sponsored by Senator Titus Zam, who represents Benue North-West has, yet again brought to the fore, the perceived nonchalant disposition of southern governors to investment in agriculture.
The bill, which is aimed at providing ranches for pastoralists in their states of origin, is also designed to address the unending herder-farmer conflicts, which have affected food production over the years.
When enacted, the bill shall be overseen by the National Ranches Commission, which shall manage, preserve, and control all ranches nationwide. But before this comes to pass, several questions have been asked regarding the failure of southern governors, especially those in the South-West to revive ranches that were established across the old Western government of the First Republic, which was headed by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Awolowo, who happened to be a pioneering rancher in the region, established the Western Nigeria Livestock Development Programme in 1955 – a modern ranching practice, and improved livestock production. This initiative was seen as being far decent from the crude, current open grazing being practiced by Fulani herders across the country.
In the Western Region then, there was Ikeja Ranch in Lagos; Oke-Ako Ranch in Ogun State; Fasola Farm in Oyo, and others. Awolowo also introduced new breeds like the Brown Swiss and Simmental cattle breeds to improve the quality of local cattle. However, the collapse of the First Republic, after the 1966 Military Coup abruptly destroyed the ranches as successive governments in the zone no longer showed interest.
Several years down the line, specifically in 2021, states’ assemblies across the South passed the anti-open grazing laws in a bid to address the persistent conflicts between armed herdsmen and farmers, but the laws have failed to achieve the desired purpose because of the high demand for meat consumption in South-West.
For instance, Lagos State alone slaughters between 10,000 to 15,000 cattle daily, close to 5,500 are slaughtered in Oyo; 2,500 in Ogun, and approximately 1,500 to 2,]000 in Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo respectively.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, recently confirmed the figure, while the former governor of Ondo State, the late Rotimi Akeredolu, in a presentation before his demise disclosed that the South-West alone spends not less than N2.5 billion daily to purchase cattle.
The high demand for meat consumption has, however, left the South-West region with no option but to continue to accommodate the herders. It is this development that many believe, has saddled the herders with something close to an entitlement mentality given the brazen manner that they have carried on with grazing on even farmlands across the nation.
While the scenario subsists, stakeholders in the region expect South-West governors currently headed by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State to massively invest in ranching, or encourage private sector investment to turn things around. This is important since the region is seen to consume and because a large chunk of the 20.9 million estimated population of cattle in Nigeria is consumed in the South-West.
These stakeholders are therefore demanding that southern governors revisit the abandoned ranches scattered across Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun, Oyo, and Lagos states.
For a Professor of Agriculture Engineering, Adewunmi Taiwo, the political leadership in the South-West should be blamed for the failure to invest massively in agriculture as the old Western Region administration did.
According to Taiwo, no amount of laws or legislation can address the herder-farmer conflicts until the South-West governors invest massively in ranching like Chief Awolowo successfully did during his era.
“Ranching business existed side-by-side with the open grazing practiced by Fulani herders in those periods, but without conflict. The herders of those days knew their limits because there were better alternatives in place by the Western Region government,” the academic said.
He added that some of the major factors contributing to present-day farmer-herder struggle include, politics and the lackadaisical attitude of the state governors towards taking necessary steps to end the menace.
According to him, “If our leaders in the South can return to what Chief Obafemi Awolowo did and stop playing unnecessary politics with food production, farmer-herder conflicts would automatically stop.”
He also blamed past military administrators in the South for the collapse of the ranches saying: “When the military toppled the First Republic, they were not interested in developing agriculture, not to talk of the various ranching projects, which Chief Awolowo laid the template. That was when Nigeria experienced the oil boom. The military leaders rather slaughtered all the grandparent’s animals, known as Ndama, which were used to reproduce the commercial stocks. That was the beginning of the collapse of the ranches in the South-West.”
Taiwo also blamed the South-West leaders for succumbing to the alleged propaganda of the North that cattle bred in the South, especially the South-West, carry transmissible diseases such as zoonosis.
“Zoonotic diseases can spread in many ways, such as working closely with infected livestock; contact with infected pets; exhibited animals or wildlife; contact with soil or water contaminated by animals; consumption of contaminated unpasteurised dairy products.”
These, he said are mere propaganda that led to the collapse of the ranches in Western Nigeria. Which eventually gave northern herders a kind of entitlement mentality to breed cattle in Nigeria.
Taiwo pointed out that Governor Seyi Makinde is trying to revive the Fasola Agribusiness Industrial Hub in Oyo, along with ranching. So, “other governors need to key into it. The various governments of South-West need to encourage the private sector to invest in ranching. If this is done, it will reduce unemployment, boost food production, and also reduce capital flight from the zone. We may not necessarily stop the Fulani from practicing open grazing, but it will reduce their menace drastically.”
The Director-General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Seye Oyeleye, also agreed that something urgent musts to be done in the South-West to revive the old Western Region system of ranching if the estimated 50 million population must be fed with quality protein.
He noted that by 2050, the population of the zone may increase to about 70 to 80 million, a development that will also increase the demand for meat, more land space to accommodate the growing population, as well as, more land space for farming and grazing. He also canvassed the immediate registration of herders and their herds for proper documentation.
Meanwhile, The Guardian’s visit to the Skaal Meat Processing Plant, situated along Old Ibadan Road, on the outskirt of Iperu, owned by Mr Ladi Adebutu, justified the argument that the old Western Region ranching method cannot only be resuscitated, but can also be improved upon to meet modern standards.
Adebutu while conducting reporters around the farm, emphasised that cattle bred on the farm are healthier and stronger than the ones that travel several miles across the forest from the North to the South. He added that ranched cattle usually receive appropriate medical care, which makes their meat better and healthier for human consumption.
Aside from the fact that the farm has over 5,000 cattle, Adebutu added that the farm also generates jobs for many indigenes of Ogun State, “including those who process; graze the animals veterinary doctors, and over 100 to 200 butchers.”
He also disclosed that out of over 10,000 cattle slaughtered in Lagos daily, the farm alone produces more than 200 cattle. Adebutu emphasised that judging from what is currently taking place at the Skaal Meat Processing Plant, the South-West can successfully resuscitate the ranching programme and improve on it for the betterment of the people.
Also challenging the South-West region governors to focus more attention on agriculture and food production is Mr Wale Oshun, a farmer, who stated that no law stops the zone from investing, or rebuilding the derelict ranches.
He said that even though the new ranching bill will be beneficial when passed, and signed into law, the South-West region need not wait for such to do whatever is needful to liberate itself and guarantee meat sufficiency.
Harping against the idea of waiting on the North to supply protein to the South-West, Oshun urged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is the chairman of South-West Governors Forum to deliberate with his colleagues on how to revisit the abandoned ranches scattered across the six states because slaughtering cattle worth almost N2.5 billion naira daily for 365 days simply shows the sheer amount of money that is leaving our shores annually.”
Taking a look at past efforts at cattle ranching in the country, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Robert Clarke, recalled how a former governor of Kano State, Audu Bako, built the biggest ranch in Africa, but regretted military incursion into politics turned matters upside down.
He said: “Today, except for the Obudu Ranch, which has been sustained by the Cross River State government all other notable ranches have been abandoned.”
He said herdsmen incursion into the South was not very clear during the First Republic because the herdsmen only brought in their cattle and distributed them to the existing ranches in the region. “But no sooner than the ranches collapsed, the Fulani/herders started migrating into the region through the Benue and Savannah corridors.”
Clarke said that the population of Nigeria was not as large as it is today, just as farming was not at the level that it is today, therefore there were no issues among the farmers and herders “but with the increasing population and extensive farming, the herders could no longer find enough space to graze so problem started.”
Clarke alleged that the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan administrations did nothing to address the farmer-herder conflicts such that in 2014, under the Jonathan government, Nigeria witnessed a high number of killings of herders and farmers. Unfortunately, under the Muhammadu Buhari government, the challenge was compounded with the incursion of bandits and terrorists into the country,” he said.
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