Niger govt to reactivate 23 cattle grazing reserves

MINNA – The Niger State Government will soon reactivate its 23 Cattle Grazing Reserves following recommendations of the Committee on Domestication of Pastoralists, the State’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Ibrahim Matane, has said. Matane announced this at a news conference after the state’s Executive Council meeting at Government House in  Minna on Tuesday. He said that the committee had stressed the need for the reactivation of the reserves owing to their strategic importance to animal production. He said the committee also recommended the education of pastoralists on how to live peacefully with farmers in the various communities they shepherded their cattle. He said the government took the decision to ensure peaceful co-existence between nomads and farmers. The commissioner government would also set up an all-encompassing committee that would settle Fulani pastoralists. “It would also enumerate the Fulani nomads; determine where they are and what they are doing, so that the government could adequately take care of their interests.’’ Matane said 56,000 hectares had been sourced for the Dangote Farms following request by Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Executive Chairman, Dangote Group of Companies, when he visited Gov. Babangida Aliyu in February. The land, he said, runs across three local government areas and covers 26 communities while buffers would be created within the farm areas. (NAN)