Solutions to Farmers Herders Conflict
Farmer herder clashes refer to the conflict between farmers and herders due to disagreement resulting from the destruction of the farmers’ crop or loss of the herder’s cattle.
This farmers-herders conflict is due to the movement of the herders with their cattle in search of pasture or forage for their animals.
In the process of searching for pasture, some cattle unknowingly stray out of the herd to damage crops on the farmer’s farm. At times, this happens intentionally.
This movement of herders and their cattle from one location to another has led to clashes between Farmers and herders in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government, elders, statesmen, and cattle socio-cultural organizations (i.e. Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore) in the country are working hard to find solutions to these clashes between farmers and herders.
However, despite their effort, the problem seems to be escalating daily, and the efforts of these concerned individuals seem to have yielded little or no results.
This problem has affected the entire country and has negatively impacted food production in many agricultural states. large areas of land that were predominately used for agriculture have been abandoned.
Crop production has been abandoned for animal farming which has not boosted the country’s image in animal production.
Nigeria, which is gradually boosting its food production and becoming one of the leading food producers a few decades ago, has resulted in large food production importation.
Inflation has been on the increase, due to farmers’ neglect of their fertile agricultural land that favors the cultivation of many varieties of crops.
The ongoing clashes between farmers and herders across the country have resulted in the loss of thousands of lives, leaving many people incapacitated, homeless, and displaced.
Some of the Solutions to farmers herders Conflict in Nigeria as highlighted by Aliyu S.A are;
Establishment of Ranching
The federal, state, and local governments should liaise with each other to provide large expanses of land for the Establishment of Ranching.
The ranch should contain forages and fodder for feeding livestock. Ranching is one of the modern systems of cattle rearing practiced all over the world, to replace the traditional method of movement of cattle from one place to another.
The ranch should be adequately large and contain state-of-the-art ranching facilities compared to what is practiced in other countries.
The ranch should be equipped with modern facilities such as pipe water, electricity, nomadic schools, a hospital, markets for trading cattle, and so on.
Passing and Strengthening of Anti-Grazing Bills
After the establishment of ranching, the next strategy should be to make and strengthen the Anti-Grazing Bill’s work. The use of the bill is to prevent the movement of cattle in and around the state of Nigeria.
For example, In 2019, the then-governor of Benue state, Chief Samuel Ortom proposed and passed into law anti-open grazing bills which were initiated to stop the open grazing of farm animals in the state.
This is a perfect example of an anti-grazing bill, the federal government should pass such bills into law to prevent the movement of cattle from one location to another.
The anti-open grazing bill should not be seen as a target for a particular group of people. The farmers, and headers in Nigeria should see it as a means of preventing further clashes and blood baths in the country.
The Nigerian military and paramilitary should be drafted to arrest and prosecute any farmer or herder who is found wanting.
They should enforce the law with a sense of modesty and in conformity with the rules and regulations guiding the establishment of the bills.
Livestock that was seized from herders should be returned after the due fine has been paid for breaking the law, and the amount paid should be that which is stated in the bills and not otherwise.
More so, the cattle seized by the livestock volunteer guides should be kept safe from parasites and disease attacks.
Establishment of Security against Cattle Theft
To prevent the stealing of cattle by rustlers or loss of cattle which in most cases are the major causes of the clashes.
The cattle sociocultural organization in Nigeria (Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore) should work with information technology experts to see how chips can be inserted into any part of the body of the cattle where it will not be seen or falling off, to facilitate tracking of lost or stolen cattle.
The cattle sociocultural organization in Nigeria and other West African countries (Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore) should design customized tickets that are special to only themselves and should be issued to cattle buyers and sellers to enable them to track cattle lost or stolen cattle.
A good private security outfit license by the government can be engaged to prevent cattle rustlers in every location where herdsmen are grazing.
Establishment of a State Security Outfit
The federal government, in arrangement with the state government and other relevant stakeholders in the country, should establish a state security outfit to protect lives and properties.
The security outfit established must comply with the law-abiding Nigeria security system and must be licensed by the federal government.
The Nigerian security systems operating in every state are overloaded and not even familiar with the state or localities.
Therefore, a private security outfit, whose activities are well known by the state or federal government can be employed to work with the Nigerian security men to protect lives and properties.
Sometimes some of these clashes are not even farmers/herder clashes but inter-community clashes perpetuated under the guise of farmers/herder clashes. Therefore, the establishment of a good private security system will go a long way to reducing farmer herder classes.
Establishment of Good Channel Communication
The federal government, in collaboration with the state governments, should establish a good channel of complaints in every local government within the states of the federation.
These channels should serve as avenues where farmers or herders can lay complaints for damage done to their crops, and their animals.
Appropriate communication channels will help to ameliorate farmers’ and herders’ grievances and avoid the breakdown of laws and order.
These complaints should be channeled to the appropriate authority and the people assigned to handle such complaints should act on them as quickly as possible and serve justice when necessary.
Payment for Damages Caused to Crops and Animals
The government, stakeholders, and the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore social-cultural organization should ensure that compensation is paid to farmers whose crops are damaged and to herdsmen whose cattle are stolen in a particular area.
The Federal and state government should work with the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore social cultural organization to ensure that herdsmen grazing in the state are licensed against their area of location or grazing site.
This will enable the government and miyetti Allah Kautal Hore to hold herdsmen and farmers responsible for any damages to crops or cattle that take place in their location.
The owners of cattle should train herdsmen recruited from other countries to be familiar with the culture and some crops particularly grown in villages, and towns, in and around Nigeria. This will help prevent the harvesting of farmers’ crops to feed cattle by the herdsmen.
Establishment or Strengthening of Nomadic Schools
The government and other educational stakeholders should work out modalities to ensure that Nomadic schools are established in some strategic locations near villages close to where herdsmen and farmers reside.
Farmers, herdsmen, and their children should be taught how to read or write in the English language. Research has shown that most herdsmen in Nigeria cannot speak the English language or the Hausa language.
This language barrier makes communication between farmers and herders difficult, which in term of leads to misunderstandings and clashes.
Therefore, herdsmen should be trained to learn about the culture of the people living in their area of grazing to promote peaceful co-existence.
Preservation of Fodders and Forages
Herdsmen should not depend mainly on green forages and fodders. Instead, they should be able to make hay and silage, during the rainy season, in preparation for the dry season when fodders and forages will be scarce.
To ensure that cattle have sufficient forage during the off-season. Herdsmen should put modalities in place to harvest forages during the dry season, that are abundant in the south, and transport them to other states to feed their cattle.
Similarly, forages and fodders in the south can be preserved into hay and silage, and transported to the north.
Fodders and forages can also be harvested in the south during the dry season and transported to other states of the federation for the feeding of cattle during the dry season.
Provision of Cattle Tracks / Paths
The Federal government should liaise with the state ministry of land and survey, and revisit the map of the state to see how cattle tracks or paths can be created to facilitate the movement of cattle from one place to another.
The government should ensure that cattle tracks or paths are provided for the passage of cattle to prevent the destruction of crops along their route.
Regular Vaccination of Herdsmen and Cattle
The federal government should carry out regular vaccination of both herdsmen and their cattle against various cattle diseases. Some of these cattle diseases have the potential to cause brain damage when contracted by man.
For example, mad cow disease which is a zoonotic disease can be transferred from cattle to man when consumed and this can lead to serious brain damage.
Establishment of regional anti-grazing outfits
The economic community of West African countries (ECOWAS) should set up a regional anti-grazing unit to prevent the movement of cattle from one country to another across the West African sub-region.
This is because most herder that resides in Nigeria are migrants from other countries, and this occurs across the West Africa sub-region.
Therefore member countries should ensure that the anti-grazing law is strictly monitored to ensure that there are breakdowns of law and order.
Moreover, Immigration officers stationed at the border of the countries should work together to ensure the movement of cattle from countries to another without the appropriate permit is prohibited.
In conclusion
For Nigeria to take its rightful place as one of the peaceful and food-producing countries. The government must take drastic action to resolve the problem of the farmers-herders conflict in Nigeria.
Some of the solutions to farmers herders Conflict in Nigeria are: the establishment of Ranching, passing and Strengthening of anti-grazing bills, the establishment of regional anti-grazing outfits, regular vaccination of herdsmen and cattle, and provision of Cattle Tracks/paths