Despite their initial opposition to ranches in their states, Benue, Ondo and other states have applied for grants to establish model ranches in their states.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture and coordinator of the National Livestock Transformation Plan, Andrew Kwasari, confirmed to Daily Trust yesterday, that Benue and Ondo were among the states that had expressed interest in the project.
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Others, according to him, are Ekiti, Ebonyi, Kogi, Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Bauchi, Yobe, Borno, Gombe and Niger, Sokoto and Kwara States.
Kwasari said the government would disburse funds to Nasarawa and Plateau States for the establishment of model ranches in about a week under the National Livestock Transformation Programme, having met all the conditions.
He said Adamawa, Plateau, Ondo Taraba, Gombe, Kogi, Kwara and Nasarawa States were about meeting the conditions.
He said the project, in some states, would be funded with collaborations and counterpart funding.
The NLTP is a 10-year plan (2019-2028) and was developed to tackle farmers-herders clashes.
A retired agriculturist, Mallam Sanusi Ahmed, told Daily Trust yesterday that some of the states claiming to be interested in the project were doing so for money.
But Sunday Owoeye, a livestock expert, said: “The important thing is to find lasting solutions to the incessant crises between herders and farmers as well as ways of developing the livestock subsector.”
