STAKEHOLDERS in the agricultural sector, Tuesday, expressed mixed reactions over President Bola Tinubu’s creation of the Livestock Ministry considering the impact it would make on the peace, Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of the economy, and attraction of investors.
Speaking with Vanguard, the National President of the Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria, POFAN, Chief Daniel Okafor, asserted that the creation of the Ministry is not necessary.
Okafor said there are a lot of issues surrounding the clashes between farmers and herders, which the Federal and State Governments ought to put their heads together to address holistically, and also call for a conference of crop and livestock farmers to find a lasting solution and not just creating a ministry of livestock.
He said: “One thing is to create a Ministry of Livestock, and not monitoring what they do is a waste of time. Also it is to allow the farmers and herders to discuss and solve their problems.
“How many times have the government called on herders and farmers to solve this crisis, they should have looked into the issues and solved their problems, and there is a way to go about this crisis.
“Creating a Ministry without monitoring is just a waste of time. Even the one that is on the ground is not even monitored, and up till now there is no budget for the sector, and Nigerians are suffering. The Ministry of Livestock is not needed.
“Creating a Ministry of Livestock is to give jobs to the politicians and increase the cost of governance amid the suffering of Nigerians.”
The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, EA Daniel Farms, Engr Daniel Ijeh, said, “It is good the President created the Ministry of Livestock because the crisis between farmers and herders has lingered for so long, and I think that is an audacious move by the President in that there is nothing the past presidents have done and for him to have taken this step.
“But the intent for him to solve this crisis with that ‘we can do’ attitude on the part of the security and the government to execute their plan is where time needs to pass before anyone can say whether it can solve the crisis.
“Now, the President has created the Ministry, the problem is herders trespassing and destroying cultivated crops in the farms, and now that work to checkmate the herders is to be done by the State and Local governments because it is not a federal government affair.
“Whether it will put an end to the clashes for now it will not because nothing has been done to reduce the crisis.
“However, the Ministry of Livestock will positively impact the economy because it will attract investors in the dairy subsector, poultry, and other value chains, and also we should not conclude by criticisms because it is too early to assert anything.”
