In this exclusive interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, the Emir of Muri, Alhaji Abbas Njidda Tafida, highlighted the efforts he has been making to transform the activities of nomadic herdsmen to the modern day practice as a solution to the herders/farmers clashes in Nigeria. Excerpt:
You often describe yourself as a farmer and herder of the 21st century; what does that connote?
The essence of rearing in a proper way is to combine biology, chemistry, marketing and social interaction into a whole to create a cow.
What distinguishes you from the average herder?
What distinguishes us is that I have gotten the benefits of what the average herder has – correct education, maturity, social responsibility and conscience of my role in the country.
How do we take the average herder to your level of knowledge and application?
This is the objective of Taraba Farms Limited. You teach through the formal classroom by trying to use radio and other forms of communication to convey knowledge, as well as actions that are seen and emulated by other persons.
In my privilege as an educated person and traditional ruler, I have combined all the opportunities, that is why I decided that those in my position and I are the right people to be the vanguards of this change.
The principle of Taraba Farms Limited is to gather all the knowledge available in the world. We are developing a perfect formula for rearing cattle to serve the interest of farmers, consumers and the country. It is very simple. Livestock and land coexist as they eat the grass from it. The first thing is that I spent a lot of time studying soil management and expansion; and the answers are two. First and foremost is an efficient and high-quality pasture that can generate more feed. The average Fulani man of the era of my grandfather would need about 10 hectares to rear only two cows. Today, I have pastures, where one hectare can sustain 30 cows.
We have moved from land-intensive grazing to a major sustainable one. With this we have expanded the efficiency of utilisation of land by almost 300 per cent.
However, to keep land alive, you need water. My grandfather would always wait for the rainy season because his cows would be hungry, so my role is to create rainy season in the dry season by irrigation. With irrigation, instead of grazing for six months in a particular place, you will graze for 12 months. I have developed four systems that are common all over the world and within the reach of the average farmer.
This can be done with flood irrigation. This is done with pipes and holes placed in them, through which water goes into the farm. There are rain guns which you align with holes and it throws the rain as a gun, and there are spray tapes, which are simple tapes that can spray water everywhere. With this, we have developed an effective profitable irrigation system.
The next thing is where the water will come from to irrigate. I have spent my creativity and time on developing a simple dam construction system. We are building dams, irrigating the land and putting high quality pasture. At the end of the day, what we have achieved is that we can rear 30 cows with one hectare and they get whatever they want. That is about the most efficient utilisation of land anywhere on earth today.
Also, with the pasture improved and introducing irrigation, there must be hospitals. Through that, we can improve the speed of reproduction through embryo transfer. It is done in human beings too. Thirty cows can be produced from one donor.
As a professional, I realised that the best cow in Nigeria is called Bokolo. I looked around the world and also found similar species in Brazil and India called Gild. And it produces 20 liters of milk. They stand fairly well with our diseases and survive our weather.
What I will do next is to bring them into Nigeria; and the best way is embryo transfer. But the biggest embarrassment for me is the Ministry of Agriculture. They are keeping to British laws of the 1960s that you need protocols.
All over the world, people are going out to get technology, but here, professionals are stopping us from getting the technology. So I will bypass them because the needs of this country are supreme. I am a citizen of Nigeria, so I am going to do what is necessary to keep the country working and productive for every direction that serves the public good. So I am not going to ask any minister because they come and go; our problems must be solved by us.
Where do you think the encouragement should come from – government or private individuals?
It should be both. Private individuals are meant to be served by the government, so they are not different entities. I am communicating with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other organisations that have interest. At the end of the day, I am confident that the path will remain the same. I know that everyone will follow my way, the only question is: When?
Are you frustrated by the system?
No, the system does not frustrate me; I am going to defeat every part of the system that fails to meet my expectations of what is good for the people of Nigeria. The system and I, where it is possible to go together, we go, but where we don’t agree, I find my way out.
How can these solutions resolve the farmers-herders clashes?
The farmers and herders are not doing what is right. They are not to be separated from each other. Today, the world has rediscovered organic agriculture. In this system of farming, you need the waste of the cow. The best form of agriculture is to combine both sides. In the pasture I am talking of, one hectare of napier grass will give you a profit of N500,000 per annum, but one hectare of maize will only give you N150,000.
All we need is to educate our farmers and cattle owners to cooperate. Since the farmers have land and cattle owners need grass, the farmer can produce the grass to make profit. That is why we have introduced the silage packaging and transportation system, where anybody can turn grass production into his business. You produce the grass and sell to cattle farmers, and vice versa.
I believe the clashes are as a result of the failure of leadership. For example, states are enacting anti open grazing laws, which means that they are fighting somebody. And if you are fighting someone, there is no chance to create cooperation out of the person. It is a failure to use the brain to find effective solutions to problems. Unless we learn to use our brains creatively and develop effective solutions, we will never solve any problem, and it will kill us.
We as leaders must develop the understanding that we are genuinely educated, not people who assume that they are educated. A genuinely educated person understands issues and develops the capability to proffer solutions to these issues.
What is the innovation you are working on to stop the hectic transportation of cattle from the North to the southern part of the country?
A trailer can carry 20 to 25 cattle, and when it develops faults on the road, it costs more money. My principle is very simple and world standard. We set up slaughter houses within a reasonable distance of both the cows and the consumers. In my own case, the bulk of the cows come from the North. We set up what is called the finishing point.
Our finishing unit needs less land. In any case, with the new technology we can produce the grass and feed from high production areas and transport to low production areas. Already, I am negotiating with my Idoma friends around Otukpo and my Igala friends around Ankpa, as well as my brothers in Ilroin. We will set up abattoirs within a maximum of three hours to Lagos, even if you are moving the yarn cows, you are still moving them for less distances.
When we finish this we will put them in a refrigerated vehicle. One refrigerated vehicle can carry a hundred instead of 25. So the transportation cost is reduced by 75 per cent. We can deliver these cows in a refrigerated vehicle within a maximum of six hours. Even if you don’t refrigerate you will do well, but we are supposed to look at the future.
My dream is to establish dealers on the route, the same way we have cement dealers. We will give them refrigerated facilities so that when we deliver these cows they are immediately put there. From here, consumers can buy in whatever proportion they want.
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