Nigeria to Establish Grazing Reserves Across the Country

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina disclosed on Monday that the Nigerian government has approved the constitution of a committee to work out modalities for establishing grazing reserves for cattle grazers across the country. This step was taken to find a lasting solution to the ugly clashes between cattle grazers and farmers in Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau and other states in the country. A meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), which is made up of the governors of the 36 states of the federation and some ministers, has been set for Thursday to give direction to the proposed policy aimed at finding a lasting solution to this issue. The minister disclosed that the grazing reserve would also help to check the smuggling of arms and ammunition across the Nigerian borders by foreigners who come into the country disguised as cattle grazers. Dr Adesina announced that the government had put in place short term measure including the creation of new functional grazing reserves, deployment of satellite imagery, remote sensing and GPS maps to track movement of animals across the country.