Separating Herdsmen From Farmers For Enduring Peace

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Separating Herdsmen From Farmers For Enduring Peace

By James Hughes

The escalation of the bloody clashes between herdsmen and farmers, and cattle rustlers and herdsmen in the Middle Belt and Northern Nigeria in recent years might not be unexpected given the volatility of the economy that recently went through recession, security challenges in the North East Nigeria and the debilitating impact of climate change on availability of pastures.The herdsmen that traditionally carry sticks and cutlasses strangely now carries dangerous weapons such as AK47 and Bazokas to kill defend-less farmers and invade  communities that resist grazing of cattle on their farm land .The other narratives was that the herdsmen acquired the deadly weapons as a form of self-defense against notorious cattle rustlers whose trade is to violently steal their cattle and transport them for sale in our poorly organized domestic cattle markets in southern Nigeria or ferry them across our porous borders to neighboring countries. The ensuing unprecedented human casualties in the annals of our nation is now on the verge of being classified as ethnic cleansing and religious sectarian war based on the tardiness of federal government response and seemingly inability of our security apparatus at a stage to curtail the menace and bring to justice the perpetrators of the dastardly act. As calm returns to the land on the heels of renewed efforts by the government to stop the carnage, it is apt for us now to find permanent solution to the problem which traditionally reach the zenith during the dry season (February to April). There is no doubt that the causative factors of these crises are attributable to a combination of several factors including
  • Economic recession which made life generally difficult and fueled desperation and criminality,
  • Degradation of Boko Haram insurgents which might have dispersed arms bearing former actors across the country,
  • The global warming following climate change that is shortening raining seasons, elongating dry seasons, drying up rivers and dams and limiting availability of pastures especially at the peak of dry seasons,
  • Moribund state of our dams that are not discharging their duties of irrigating our farmlands due to poor funding and
  • Proliferation of small arms in West Africa with ending of wars in the sub region (Liberia, Cote de voir, Sierra Leone) and the Maghreb/Sahel zone (Libya, Chad Mali and Southern Sudan)
The clash between farmers and herdsmen is a typical problem of externalities which most developed and developing nations have contended with in their quest for economic development and food security. Farmers acquire right to use their land through outright purchase, lease or inheritance for the purpose of planting crops. They invest capital which could be savings or debt to clear the land, buy seeds/seedlings, hire labor, buy fertilizer to grow the crops up to the luxuriant state that makes them edible for cattle. Herdsmen in search of free pasture in the bush to grow and nourish their cattle or on their way to the large urban markets largely in Southern Nigeria markets veer into farmers’ farms and eat up the luxuriant crops leading to huge financial losses for the hapless farmers. The farmer’s output is the herdsmen’s input. Unfortunately, the herdsmen do not pay for the input. The cultural belief that cattle ought to be fed on free foliage worsens the matter. Incidentally both the farmers and herdsmen need themselves in relative terms. The farmers need the cattle dung or waste to fertilize the soil while crop waste and residue after harvesting could be fed to the cattle. These mutual needs can only be synchronized if the cattle are confined in a ranch.The real issue is who compensates the farmer for the cost he has incurred in raising the crops up to the point of being edible for the rampaging cattle which at times invade the farms in scores. Is it the herdsmen or the state? Most of these cattle graze in the night creating the problem of unknown herdsmen. These incidents happen in largely isolated and remote villages hence, policing is a huge challenge. The crux of the matter is how to restraint the cattle from foraging on the farmer’s farm. If the state or its institutions like agricultural insurance scheme are not there to protect or compensate the farmers when these losses occur, then the state must rise to the occasion and do everything possible to separate the farmers from the herdsmen.We need to use the security apparatus to stem the present crisis but that will not solve the problem. The three-pronged solution to the menace that is a fast becoming a global embarrassment to the nation and threat to our unity are
  1. Creation of incentive for cattle to be reared in ranches
  2. Use of information communication technology ICT to give identity to our estimated 20million heads of cattle and
  3. Restoration of our transregional rail lines to move cattle across the country by rail instead of trekking with the herdsmen
We have to create incentives for large cattle owners to invest in ranches so that they can raise their cattle intensively through minimal or zero grazing. Ranching is capital intensive but highly profitable as cattle attain market weight speedily. The yield in terms of beef and milk is marvelous. The benefits of ranching should be propagated by the government. Movement of large herds of cattle should be discouraged. Rather than outright ban on open grazing by some state governments, what should have been done is to restrict the number of cattle a herdsman can take out for open grazing to between 5 and 10. Policing that where there are no state police will be absolutely impossible. The truth is there is so much free pastures the animals can eat without an incursion to a farm land. That will be possible if the herdsman to cattle ratio is not outrageous.The Federal government in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement should drive nationwide adoption of livestock tracking using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which MTN is already promoting in some Northern states. The Federal government should immediately take possession of the identification scheme by setting up an agency that will drive it with mandate to ensure full coverage of the nation within a specified period not more than 2 years. The agency will work on laws at state and federal level on use of RFID nationwide, set compliance rules for Cattle entering the country through our borders, set rules for identification of cattle at point of slaughter in all our Abattoirs, set rule for identification of Calves at birth and as part of immunization, set targets for full compliance at local and state levels, engage Myetti Allah and other cattle breeder associations for collaboration and co-ownership of the project. If we are able to put identity on all our estimated 20 million heads of cattle in Nigeria we will eliminate cattle rustling as domestic or international markets for the stolen cattle is effectively cut off. We will minimize herdsmen farmer’s clashes since the herdsmen can direct their cattle off farmers farms as they are able to monitor their movement. The identification scheme will enable us know our true cattle population and create policies that will help us develop the value chain. Nigeria’s cattle per head ratio of 1cattle to 10 people is grossly inadequate in a world where there are nations with 5 cattle to 1 individual. No wonder we massively import milk and other animal protein to augment our needs.The on-going efforts of the Federal government to resuscitate our rail system is commendable. The spate of clashes will abate once we have the North-South (Kano- Lagos and Maiduguri -Port Harcourt) and East-West (Calabar, Port Harcourt, Enugu Benin Lagos) standard rail gauge lines to move humans and goods across the nation thus boosting domestic trade.The bloody herdsmen farmers clashes are avoidable. Nothing mirrors the neglect and the underdevelopment of our agriculture in spite of our oil wealth than the primitive open grazing of our cattle and the resultant bloodletting especially in an area endowed to be our food basket. A situation whereby our farmers are now residents of Internally Displaced People (IDP) Camp cannot help our quest for food security. The Federal government must create incentive for our large cattle farmers to adopt ranching through grants and creation of access to soft loans and extension services. The government must take ownership and drive the RFID scheme in a PPP arrangement such that within 2 years all our estimated 20million heads of cattle can be identified as to ownership and their location. Our dream should be to join the rest of the modern world in clearly separating our herdsmen from our farmers in about 2 years’ time when the ambitious trans-geo-political zone rail lines should be working.Source: businessdayonline.com

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