The Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP) has announced plans to develop 1,950 kilometre cattle routes to encourage livestock production in the state.
The Project Coordinator, Mr Ibrahim Muhammad, in a statement by Ameen Yassar, Communication Specialist of the project in Kano, said that the project would embark on a multimillion Naira demarcation exercise to develop stock routes.
This he said, is with a view to check pastoral migration and check pastoralists/farmer clashes.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the KSADP programme is being implemented by the Kano State Government with support from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
KSADP is designed to encourage livestock production through the development of grazing reserve, fodder, cattle routes, veterinary services, and provision of schools, water, roads, clinics and other basic amenities in pastoral settlements.
The programme also focuses on improving value addition in livestock chains, diary processing and enhance farmer enterprising skills.
“The state already has about 1,450 kilometers of major routes and 500 kilometers of minor stock routes mostly encroached by farmers and converted to other purposes.
“The trend resulted in farmer/pastoralists clashes and made it difficult for the pastoralists to access grazing areas and water points.
“KSADP is to spend millions of Naira to support the survey, demarcation, gazettement and monumentation of 1,950 km of stock routes in the state.
“The aim, therefore, is to mitigate recurrent pastoral/farmer clash due to the encroachment of the cattle stock routes.
“Such conflicts normally spiral to disrupt economic activities, loss of lives and livelihoods.
“For decades, pastoralists and farmers have engaged in conflicts, threatening the peace and stability in several places, with negative consequences on food and nutrition security as well as the economic development of the state,” he said.
According to Muhammad, conflict mitigation activity is very strategic toward achieving the development objective of the programme, stressing that it is important for the prospective stock route development consultant to come up with a pragmatic proposal.
He expressed optimism that effective implementation of the stock routes demarcation project would bring lasting and fast tracked sustainable social and economic development of the state.
(NAN)
