In order to checkmate clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers, 11 Northern states have donated a total of 55,000 hectares of land for cattle ranching.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe disclosed this during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Katsina, Taraba, Niger, Adamawa, Jigawa, Sokoto and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja made the donation.
Ogbe lamented the low milk production of the Nigerian cow which can only produceone litre of milk a day while a cow in Saudi Arabia or Brazil produced 30 to 40 litres.
``Saudi Arabia produces 4.7 million litres of milk daily while Nigeria imports about 1.3 billion dollar worth of milk annually to make up for the deficit.
``The way forward in improving our livestock and dairy industry is to intensify efforts on adding value to the industry along the respective livestock value chains.
``In line with our goal of attaining self sufficiency in animal protein, this administration has set out to establish ranches to be planted with high quality improved tropical grass and legume species.
``We shall provide irrigation for all year commercial fodder production to enhance settlement of pastoralist and ensure cattle, sheep and goat improvement through an expanded breeding programme through artificial insemination.
``We shall group dairy farmers in clusters, build their capacity and equip them with milk collection facilities and facilitate single digit loan for them,’’ he said.
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