Apart from the Boko Haram insurgence, another scourge confronting us as a nation is the menace of frequent Fulani Herdsmen and farmers clashes across the nation and the bloody and dastardly act of cattle rustling – another word for stealing. Both emanate from cattle farming which ought to be a very lucrative agribusiness as in other nations. Cattle farming as being practiced in Nigeria today is basically traditional, primitive and rudimentary. The herdsmen rear their cattle for forage in the direction of the moisture bearing trade winds. They move the cattle from the Sahel and Sudan Savannah vegetation zones in the North to the Guinea and Rain forest zones in the Middle belt and the Southern Nigeria in the direction of the nation’s bimodal rainfall pattern. The Herdsmen follow the rain bearing South East wind to the North when it takes off between March and April and return back to the South as the dry/harmattan bearing North East wind comes from the Sahara desert in November/ December driving the South East wind to the Atlantic Ocean. In the process the cattle stray or deliberately forage on crops planted by farmers thus leading to bloody clashes across the land.
Cattle rustling, on the other hand, is the act of stealing cattle. It originated from the desperate repossession efforts of cattle owners whose cattle had been stolen by the herdsmen engaged to rear them. It used to be a bloody recovery task by the cattle owners who employ men and dangerous weapons to reclaim their lost cattle. Now cattle rustling is a big illegal business by those who attack the herdsmen with sophisticated weapons and transport their loot with trailers to numerous cattle markets in the country and across the border. They attack the few underfunded and poorly developed cattle ranches scattered across the country and act as a disincentive for further investment in modern cattle farming business.
Nigeria must be one of the few nations in the world that transports the bulk of her cattle over long distance by trekking on the hoof through bush paths and highways all the way from the North (Sokoto, Kano and Maiduguri) to Southern markets (Ibadan, Lagos, Benin, Enugu, Port Harcourt) for forage during dry season and for sale to consumers, processors and other end users. Some are transported by road. The poor means of transportation lead to deleterious effects on the welfare of the cattle, which lead to significant loss of value in terms of quality of meat and milk production capacity.
The problem became compounded with the collapse of our narrow gauge rail system which was built by the British colonial masters between 1898 and 1960. It is most unfortunate that we sold crude oil at average price of $55 per barrel in the past 25 years up to 2014 and we did not have the vision to build trans-geopolitical zones standard gauge Rail Line to move our people and goods across the nation and boost domestic trade and productivity.
Cattle farming is a primary agricultural production value chain for meeting vital protein needs. It produces beef and milk, which are sources of protein for the teeming population. It also provides raw materials for industries and serves as source of employment and foreign exchange earnings for the nation. Nigeria, according to Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, had cattle population of 16.01 million in 2006. The population grew by 17.86% in five years to18.87m in 2011 (annualized growth rate of less than 4 percent) which is very unimpressive. Cattle farming has always been a lucrative business as some nation’s economy were built on dairy and meat products. Nigeria with vast land area and a rich blend of tropical and semi-temperate weather conditions ought to be a net exporter of cattle products. However, we are still importing milk and beef to meet our nutritional needs. The Honourable Minister for Agriculture, Audu Ogbe, was quoted on assumption of office that “We import milk to the tune of 1.3billion dollars a year, some of it not very good; why can’t we produce milk if Uganda and Kenya are doing it”? We have the potential to be self-sufficient in milk production but we can only attain the feat if cattle farming is treated as a business and not as cultural hobby which it appears to be now.
Cattle rearing is one of the least developed agribusiness in Nigeria due to our failure to invest in ranches, grazing lands, rail transport, processing facilities and power.
While our farmers had been investing in poultry farming which had been growing at over 30 percent per annum, there seem to be little or no investment in ranches and grazing land. Cattle farming, which entails fattening cows for meat or raising cows to produce milk, has been neglected for long. Our large cattle owners should establish ranches where forage for all year round feeding of the cattle could be cultivated and stored for use in the dry season to be blended with concentrates made from cereals and tuber crops. The state governments in the North and the middle belt should create grazing reserves equipped with boreholes, salt points and modern pasture to upscale our cattle farming. The locations should not only serve as forage point but also centres for providing extension services to boost animal care, feeding and health.
The cattle population in Nigeria is not growing as expected because entrepreneurs are not investing in the business. The business of fattening cattle for meat, hides and skin production, and raising cows to produce milk can be practiced in all the six geopolitical zones. Up till mid1970s most secondary schools in Ibadan use to take fresh milk produced on the farm at Iwo road dairy farms. Fashola town near Oyo town was in the 80s famous for cattle fattening and people from the South West use to travel there to buy quality cows. It has been established that rearing cattle of both local and exotic breeds that are resistant to trypanosomiasis, which causes sleeping sickness among cattle, is feasible in all the geopolitical zones. Nigeria must rise up and develop its transport infrastructure especially the rail system. We should create the capacity to move slaughtered cattle from the ranches to the markets in the urban areas. The President at his maiden media chat hinted on his commitment to build the North West and East west rail lines. That will address the transportation issue in the long term.
State governments across the federation must be encouraged to acquire land and build grazing reserves since cattle can and ought to be reared all over the country. We need to equip our Extension services to teach farmers how to use stored forage and concentrates for cattle consumption during the dry seasons. The use of cheap concentrate made from our grains and tuber crops should be encouraged.
The young college trained agropreneurs who are investing in farming must be encouraged to practice mixed farming as a business diversification and risk management strategy. Conscious efforts must be made for them to add to their business plan cattle rearing for milk production and cow fattening for meat production. There is no doubt that the capital outlay for cattle farming is higher but the risk of mortality is lower while the return is higher. Cattle farming could therefore be used to de-risk agriculture. The peculiar features should be considered while arranging credit for the young farmers.
The Federal Government should provide incentive for private sector managed adoption of national livestock identification starting with cattle and using the wireless Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID). The device will put an end to cattle rustling and Farmers/Herdsmen bloody clashes as the tamper proof devise would make stealing difficult while herdsman can control movement of their cattle from remote location. The devise is being used in Kenya to stop cattle from foraging on farmers’ crops. In Canada it is mandatory for calves, as they are being born, to have RFID as life time identification process. We can start it in Nigeria. Who knows; it can be as successful as e-wallet if incentives like vaccination, supplements supply and feed ration are added to it.
Bolade Agbola
