The Kogi State Government gave pasture seeds and fodder choppers to 510 farmers on Thursday in an effort to prevent the farmer-herder issue and increase livestock output.
Speaking at the event was Dr. Olufemi Bolarin, the Kogi State project coordinator for the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support project.
He maintained that the cattle industry is essential to the socioeconomic advancement of Nigeria.
He identified the farmer-herders’ dilemma as the cause of the nation’s present food inflation.
In his words:
“The end result of this is to curb farmers-herder conflicts in our state. The distribution of pasture seeds and fodder choppers to 210 and 300 farmers, respectively, is coming at a time when our nation is faced with the issue of the farmer-herder crisis.
“We can all see the prices of food materials in the market. It is a result of farmer-herders crisis. By the time we minimise it, it will enhance food security. It is a known fact that if farmers are free to go to their farms, there will be an increase in productivity and there will be food on our table.
“Forty-two per cent of Nigeria’s population own at least one type of livestock; 30 per cent of the population are living directly from livestock production, while an estimated five million people are productively engaged in upstream segments of the livestock value chain.
“However, one of the challenges increasingly affecting the sector is the continuous decrease of limited natural resources, especially pasture; which has also become a significant source of the framers-herders crisis in Nigeria. It is in recognition of the sector and the need to address its challenges that the L-PRES project was launched.”
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cc: Daily Post Ng
