The clashes between herdsmen and farmers has been going on for a very long time and is getting worse. Why?
i) Farmers are now making use of their previously unfarmed lands in the bush due to increase in population and higher demand for food.
ii) Herdsmen are being armed by their ex-military, military and political beneficiaries to protect their cattle from theft.

As we can see, both parties are bound to have a clash of interests. Unfortunately, the current proposed National Grazing Bill which seeks to seize lands from farmers in favour of Fulani herdsmen is an unjustice and will cause bloodier clashes in the future. Now, what is the solution?

I propose three measures for a lasting solution to prevail.

1) FENCING OF FARMS:
This is easier said than done because of the huge funds involved. Nonetheless, if the state governments can assist farmers in fencing off their farms, I do not foresee a situation where cattle start flying over fences.

2) INSURANCE FOR STOLEN CATTLE
The government needs to have a record of each Fulani herdsman coming into the country and the exact number of his cattle. If any cattle is stolen, the government should first pay for it while investigating the reported theft.

3) COMMUNITY VIGILANTE
There should be a specially trained group of young men in each rural community whose primary responsibility is to monitor the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle as they graze from place to place and ensure that they do not feed on farm crops. They will also help in protecting the cattle from local thieves/robbers. This will obviously create jobs for our able-bodied idle youths.

What do you think about my proposed measures? Do they make sense? Abeg I no be Ben Murray Bruce o! Lol.

Ngene Chibueze John
(The Light of Africa!!)

4) USE SAMBISA FOREST
This is Chinedu Mbaekwe's idea (friend him on www.facebook.com/chinedu.mbaekwe). He argues that instead of leaving the Sambisa forest after flushing out Boko Haram, the large expanse of land should be given to Fulani herdsmen and their cattle to occupy.

Fencing? That is no way realistic going by cost and land distribution pattern in rural areas as people inherit land spread in different locations.

The owners of the cattle and their herdsmen should be educated on the benefits of rearing their herd in a fixed location as it is less stresful to the cows and with proper management it would produce more milk, their dung would a continuous source of biogas for cooking and electricity generation while the slurry serves as organic fertilizer that would be sold to farmers. There is so much to gain in being fixed, if the knowledge is there.

JohnNgene:

1) FENCING OF FARMS:
This is easier said than done because of the huge funds involved. Nonetheless, if the state governments can assist farmers in fencing off their farms, I do not foresee a situation where cattle start flying over fences.

Pavore9:
Fencing? That is no way realistic going by cost and land distribution pattern in rural areas as people inherit land spread in different locations.

Pavore9, you're on point. 100% right. I have come to realize it is greatly expensive to manage recklessness, lawlessness, illiteracy and unfaithfulness. There's hardly need for fencing commercial scale farms as they are in hundreds and thousands of hectares. So, when theft and vandalism can't be handled, fencing is an unnecessary expense that could have been avoided. The root of the problem must be identified and solved. Nevertheless, I have seen small scale farmers using Jathropha, moringa, fruit trees etc which are nice as they add values to the farm. Maybe, such can be adapted.

Nonetheless, goverment should be left out of doing it. It's not government's business to get involved in business operations. Government can create programs and fund them but not doing farming operations like fencing farms for farmers. Perhaps, government can make some of the above named seeds of the trees cheaper and easily accessed; thenafter, educate farmers how to plant them. This is the help or assistance I can advise government to do. It's left for farmers to take the opportunity and really, if government doesn't give funds to some government departments to embezzle, it's almost sure such programs won't see the light of the day. So sad, this is the present Nigeria.

Explanation above applies to the option of government insuring cattle for herdsmen. It's not just wise but I agree that a database should be created for herdsmen if possible and updated frequently. It may be expensive too and some might want establishment of a body to do it. Really, it's a good concept but might be expensive.

JohnNgene:
4) USE SAMBISA FOREST

Nice suggestion. Just wish you gave a link to the article rather than the time line of the writer. I can't read his article.

Violent people might be good candidates for terrorism. Don't you think having them in a region dominated by terrorists can make recruitment very easy?

Yeah, opening up the area and making use of it might be good for SAMBISA but having mainly herdsmen there as occupants might be laying an excellent platform for easy recruition and rapid development of "cells" for terrorists.

Also, government is going to consider forest reservation . Forest deforestation, preservation of wild life, preservation of almost extinct species etc are all big debates in this present world.

Generally, I love this brainstorming thread. OP, keep it up and blessing!

[size=14pt]I have a different approach:[/size]

1. Change the market dynamics. Cattle farming is not the exclusive preserve of anyone. There can be thousands of Cattle ranches across the middle-belt, south-south, south-east and south-west. This will change the market and disrupt it. It will deepen the business and the country will reap the benefits. It will drop prices and make beef available everywhere. The current set-up where cattle is grazed from the North down to the South with the attendant chaos is not acceptable anymore.

2. Reject Bloody Meat: People should stop eating beef. I cannot have it on my conscience that my craving for beef is feeding the madness of ethnic cleansing, genocide, arson, rapes and land annexation. There are lots of alternatives to beef.

GodisGood08, you mean farmers planting fruit trees, moringa etc as fences?

midastouch:
[size=14pt]I have a different approach:[/size]

1. Change the market dynamics. Cattle farming is not the exclusive preserve of anyone. There can be thousands of Cattle ranches across the middle-belt, south-south, south-east and south-west. This will change the market and disrupt it. It will deepen the business and the country will reap the benefits. It will drop prices and make beef available everywhere. The current set-up where cattle is grazed from the North down to the South with the attendant chaos is not acceptable anymore.

2. Reject Bloody Meat: People should stop eating beef. I cannot have it on my conscience that my craving for beef is feeding the madness of ethnic cleansing, genocide, arson, rapes and land annexation. There are lots of alternatives to beef.

I agree with your first suggestion and I think that's what is being done at the Obudu Cattle Ranch.

As for a boycott of beef, that's impossible o! Do you know how tempting suya and kilishi are? What happens to "Share the GALA, share the..."? Lol. Unless, Nigeria becomes India where consumption of beef is a religious abomination.

JohnNgene:
4) USE SAMBISA FOREST
This is Chinedu Mbaekwe's idea (friend him on www.facebook.com/chinedu.mbaekwe). He argues that instead of leaving the Sambisa forest after flushing out Boko Haram, the large expanse of land should be given to Fulani herdsmen and their cattle to occupy.

good idea. d remnant of boko haram wil deal wit dem

JohnNgene:


I agree with your first suggestion and I think that's what is being done at the Obudu Cattle Ranch.

As for a boycott of beef, that's impossible o! Do you know how tempting suya and kilishi are? What happens to "Share the GALA, share the..."? Lol. Unless, Nigeria becomes India where consumption of beef is a religious abomination.

@JohnNgene,

Maybe i did not elaborate further. Currently:

1. There is a worldwide movements against Conflict Diamonds (a.k.a blood diamonds)
2. In Nigeria, generally we have an aversion to Blood money (i.e. ritual money, kidnapping, armed robbery etc etc

We can now start a new movement against Conflict Beef!, and create a structure of reporting/declaration at markets/purchase points; that the meat you are buying was:

1. responsibly raised and sold and that nobody had to die for the meat to get to the market.
2. raised in a ranch / holding area devoid of violence
3. not bought off cattle rustlers who stole the meat from unlucky farmers

The expected backlash will put pressure on the suppliers and the Fulani herdsmen/and their sympathisers; to rein in impunity. It will also make cattle rustling less attractive.

midastouch:


@JohnNgene,

Maybe i did not elaborate further. Currently:

1. There is a worldwide movements against Conflict Diamonds (a.k.a blood diamonds)
2. In Nigeria, generally we have an aversion to Blood money (i.e. ritual money, kidnapping, armed robbery etc etc

We can now start a new movement against Conflict Beef!, and create a structure of reporting/declaration at markets/purchase points; that the meat you are buying was:

1. responsibly raised and sold and that nobody had to die for the meat to get to the market.
2. raised in a ranch / holding area devoid of violence
3. not bought off cattle rustlers who stole the meat from unlucky farmers

The expected backlash will put pressure on the suppliers and the Fulani herdsmen/and their sympathisers; to rein in impunity. It will also make cattle rustling less attractive.

Sir, you seem to be mistaking Nigeria for America o! Lol. Such campaigns don't work here unfortunately. Have you ever wondered why even with all the campaign against formalin frozen chicken, Nigerians are still stubbornly consuming it?

The only solution for now before the govt does something is urban agriculture. Lots of space wasting in the city can be used.

fencing is d best option and I don't mean blocks but with wire(like d ones they put on fence in residential buildings that look spiral)and concrete pole,if u've been to ministry that have large expanse of land u will HV seen what I'm talking about before.

the concrete pole stand with equal spacing while the rope about 3 to 4 lines pass through d concrete pole,no cattle,goat,or sheep can pass through it even human being will not find it funny to cross because of the way it's normally done

Ademat7:
fencing is d best option and I don't mean blocks but with wire(like d ones they put on fence in residential buildings that look spiral)and concrete pole,if u've been to ministry that have large expanse of land u will HV seen what I'm talking about before.

the concrete pole stand with equal spacing while the rope about 3 to 4 lines pass through d concrete pole,no cattle,goat,or sheep can pass through it even human being will not find it funny to cross because of the way it's normally done

Something like this?

JohnNgene:

Something like this?

exactly! @lalasticlala,seun Dis is national issue

Inviting VivianUdeogu, Fortune02, GreatIyk4u, Totorimi, Orosunbolb, Macfarland, Superstar1, coolitempa, UyiIredia, Funkybabee, UdomoSam23, Abagworo, Slam7000, malton and months to the round table.

Come and invite others too let's brainstorm on lasting solutions to this menace.

The major issue here is that it is very difficult to control and even manage a stark illiterate of different religion,culture and ethnicity...........these guys spend major parts of their lives in the bush with animals, this alone has subjected them to an absurd orientation about life and the society.

Painfully,the real owners of these animals they rear are in the Northern cities enjoying peaceful life while they direct their boys to go and cause havoc elsewhere.

Fulani herdsmen are troublesome in nature, they listen only to their kinsmen and women



I think I agree with some of the points you guys raised here especially, relocating the Fulani herdsmen to Sambisa forest todo their permanent grazing there since the chief of army staff claimed that Sambisa is larger than Enugu state.

The fencing of farmlands is not a bad option but believe me these fulani's will surely destroy the fence intentionally whenever they want to destroy a farmland in addition to the cost.

It won't be a bad idea if a special chemical in the form of herbicide that will be harmful to the cattles is created for farmers in these troubled areas........this will automatically scare them away once they experience mass death of their cattles..................many villagers in Enugu have tried this option using Garmalin 40

my own opinion for now is for government to provide in anyway,even if they will import the grasses just for their cow to eat.if food is sufficient for them they can't be doing rampage from one farm to another.if government settle that after then if they are still roaming we will now know their intention if its war or not.but the main problems for them is the banned of grasses into our country they don't have any other means for them to survive is only on cow in it they bring out miik,and some other stuff they used to sell. and if government enlighten them is total zero cuz most of them don't attend to school all they know is for them to eat and survive my opinion thou!!!!!

the cattle business operate thus
in the north: retired force men own the cattles and hire the herdsmen to take them out for grazing from north down south while tracking their movement

in the south: rich men/retired force people do same thing their northern counterpart do,but they acquire large expanse of land in core rural area and hire herdsmen to take the cattle for grazing in d morning n evening but they **return to the farm late in d evening**d only diff BTW d north n south cattle rearing

greatiyk4u:
The major issue here is that it is very difficult to control and even manage a stark illiterate of different religion,culture and ethnicity...........these guys spend major parts of their lives in the bush with animals, this alone has subjected them to an absurd orientation about life and the society.

Painfully,the real owners of these animals they rear are in the Northern cities enjoying peaceful life while they direct their boys to go and cause havoc elsewhere.

Fulani herdsmen are troublesome in nature, they listen only to their kinsmen and women



I think I agree with some of the points you guys raised here especially, relocating the Fulani herdsmen to Sambisa forest todo their permanent grazing there since the chief of army staff claimed that Sambisa is larger than Enugu state.

The fencing of farmlands is not a bad option but believe me these fulani's will surely destroy the fence intentionally whenever they want to destroy a farmland in addition to the cost.

It won't be a bad idea if a special chemical in the form of herbicide that will be harmful to the cattles is created for farmers in these troubled areas........this will automatically scare them away once they experience mass death of their cattles..................many villagers in Enugu have tried this option using Garmalin 40

So that d villagers will feed on the d dead cattle left behind & die abi?cow meat is Tempting even to nnamdi kanu.

planting of castor plant round your farm.it is poisonous to cattle.you can google it to verify

JohnNgene:


Sir, you seem to be mistaking Nigeria for America o! Lol. Such campaigns don't work here unfortunately. Have you ever wondered why even with all the campaign against formalin frozen chicken, Nigerians are still stubbornly consuming it?

You are wrong.

Nigerians do respond to campaigns and have reduced consumption of the imported chicken.

A lot of people now buy live chicken and slaughter in the market.

A beef boycott even for a week will reset the situation

Is it only Nigeria that has the highest cows in this world? Why can't we adopt what other countries do to rear this animals.

All cows should be indoor while their food is taken to them!
Intensive animal care

Pls all the above not really needed, why? There is a chemical am using on my 25 hactere of land that send cow back from my farm, this chemical does not kill the cow, it will send them back and they will not come back again