Herders Now To Pay For Destroyed Farmlands In Edo- Alhaji Bako Dogwo

From Chris Akhabue

The Chairman of Edo state chapter of the All Farmers Association Of Nigeria (AFAN),His Royal Highness, Alhaji Bako Dogwo( JP) has said that cattle herders who destroys farmers crop with cattles would henceforth be held responsible for payment of damages for such farmland.

He made the disclosure yesterday during the inauguration of members of Cattle Breeders and Dealers Association into Edo State Chapter of All Farmers Association Of Nigeria (AFAN, yesterday at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Benin city the Edo state Capital.

According to Alhaji Dogwo, " everyone seems to know the problems of herdsmen and crops farmers in Edo state which seems to have defiled all remedies put forward by the government.

" Through the inauguration of Cattle Breeders and Dealers Association into Edo State Chapter of All Farmers Association Of Nigeria today, we are going to embark on education of our herders and crop farmers to avert incessant clashes.

" As from today, all cows in Edo state would be registered with this body with the assistance of authorities of the Federal, State and local governments so as to achieve the desired objective.

" Herders activities would be closely monitored and co-ordinated by AFAN, Edo state. Henceforth,all agrieved person which may include herders or crop farmers must register their grievances with AFAN for amicable resolution of such problems. No one has any right to kill any cow or beat herder or use cows to destroy farm produce in the guise of rearing cows. Any cow rearer that wants to graze his cows must wear AFAN/ EDO State stipulated uniform before they can be allowed to operate.

Also speaking at the event, the National President of Cattle Breeders and Dealers Association of Nigeria (CBDA), Dansalu Olusegun said that there must be Security of lives and properties for meaningful development to be achieved in any given society.

"Economic development cannot be achieved in an atmosphere of insecurity, thus it is our cardinal focus to reduce conflict between farmers and herders. A conflict resolution committee will be set up in each state comprising all critical stakeholders with a clear mandate of: 

" Profiling herders with clear identity in each state to curb crimes associated with the business. 

"Clear identification of animals e.g. ear tagging. We are willing to partner with development partners and Government in achieving the recently launched: laudable programme of the Federal Government on National Animal Identification and Traceability System (NAITS). 

" Quick resolution of conflict, I charge you today to develop a clear conflict resolution mechanism that will ensure sustained peace and a mutual trust and cooperation between largely crop farmers and cattle 

" Geo-fencing is to curb the menace of wondering of animals , therefore, we will encourage our members to ranch their herds. 

He therefore concluded by soliciting the support of the government so as to be able to achieve the objectives.

"We cannot achieve the above goals without the support of the government. I would therefore seize this opportunity to appeal to the good government of Edo State to make the state a model state in the development of cattle value chains. We solicit your maximum support towards eradication of the menace of herders and farmers incessant conflicts.  

  Also speaking at the event, the representative of the Deputy Governor, the functioning Permanent Secretary, Min. Of Agric, Mr Erhumwonsere Sunday pointed out that the Godwin Obaseki administration has been in the forefront of creating enabling environment to engender food security for the populace and providing employment opportunities for the teeming youths of Edo state.

According to him," the governor is very keen in providing enabling environment for people who are in the business and that is why he is setting up signature projects like the Edo state oil palm program, the commercial agric scheme and others, but above all, the governor is desirous of capping all these agricultural schemes with a properly recognized College of Agriculture with the main campus at Iguoriakhi and other campuses at Aganebode and Uromi.

The main campus at Iguoriakhi would be taking off this semtember and I can assure you that the school is better than some of the Universities we have in Nigeria and Mr Governor made sure that the best man power that can also serve as expertriates across the various commodity lines to other countries.

He said that the Edo state government is setting up garri processing plants for cassava and also making adequate arrangements to halt the excavating prices of garri by commissioning those processing plants to set up their cassava farms to grow enough cassava for their plants so that the populace would have enough for their local consumption.

According to him, the Green hills has planted 4,000 hecters of cassava that would be ready for processing this year and another 3,000 hecters of land is being prepared in Uromi in Edo central to produce raw materials for the ethanol processing plants in the state.

He added that the Edo state government has approved the state involvement in the federal government animal identification program, he concluded.