The Kano State government has resolved to tackle farmers-herders conflict through public enlightenment and arbitration with a view to improving farming activities in the state.
The Chairman of the state Stock Routes Demarcation Committee and Managing Director of the Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA), Dr Junaidu Yakubu Muhammad stated this during a meeting with members of the committee in Kano.
He identified public awareness and knowledge as essential elements in addressing issues regarding stock routes management.
Dr Muhammad said competition and conflicting interests regarding the routes could be resolved through public enlightenment and systematic community engagement, which are the major focus of the committee.
He also said that in Kano and by extension in the country as a whole, stock routes were a vital component of livestock production systems and livestock and herdsmen movement, adding that, “Regrettably, the routes are increasingly being encroached or blocked, often leading to conflict between herdsmen and farmers.
“There is a need to protect the stock routes in order to sustain livestock production and mitigate the crisis in a context of increasing pressures on land.”
The chairman maintained that taking undue advantage of the stock routes could be stopped if farmers and other stakeholders were made to understand the implication of the routes encroachment for farming or infrastructural use.
“Reclaiming the routes, arbitration and dialogue among farmers and herdsmen, with the support of our traditional leaders are the strategies for resolving the conflict and foundation of peace in our rural communities,” he said.
The State Project Coordinator, Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP), Malam Ibrahim Garba Muhammad lamented that for several years, there were many herdsmen and farmers conflicts that threatened peace and stability in several places with negative consequences on food security, as well as the economic development of the state.
He explained that the project, funded by the Islamic Development Bank and the Lives and Livelihood Funds, would support survey, demarcation, documentation and gazettement of 1,950 major and minor routes in the state.
He said administrative procedures for recruitment of a consultant for the work were completed and the exercise would commence within the next few days.
