Northern Governors Forum chairman and Plateau Governor Simon Lalong said states in the region have started the process of turning beef farming into a huge business for the benefit of ranchers and the economy. of the region.
Governor Lalong made the disclosure at the 7th annual Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation Conference on Saturday in Kaduna.
He said governors in the region have since February 2021 agreed open-air grazing is not sustainable and have taken action to end it.
He also noted that the Forum had been at the forefront of finding solutions to open up the pasture and was energetically sensitizing the shepherds to adapt new breeding methods through breeding or other acceptable modern methods.
“Let me stress that we have no intention of politicizing this issue.
“Our interest is to transform it into a purely economic activity and also to put an end to the negative aspects of the current practice without creating new problems.
“As governors of the North, therefore, we adopted the National Livestock Transformation Program (NLTP) and called on the federal government to release funds to states wishing to get started.
“In fact, some states have started processes to end open grazing in their states.
“Kaduna has a Ranch with DANO milk as a pilot; Plateau sent livestock bill to state assembly, Zamfara, Kano, Taraba, Niger, Nasarawa started ranching.
“Benue State has had an anti-grazing law for a few years. Northern governors are already preaching the word, ”Lalong added.
On unemployment, the Forum president said governors in the region have focused on creating more economic opportunities for young people.
This, he said, was “to make sure that they are not inactive and vulnerable to abuse and misuse by criminal groups and ill-advised politicians.
“In particular, we are very interested in encouraging technical and vocational education which will give our employees the skills necessary to solve daily challenges.
“And expand our processing and production capacities in agriculture, which remains the backbone of the region’s economy.
“The days of paper qualifications are over and if we are to build economic prosperity in the era of COVID-19, we must encourage our young people to become entrepreneurs and job creators rather than job seekers.
“I am pleased to see that in this direction, many states have put in place various strategies to try to alleviate the suffering of the general population in order to improve struggling economies and create an environment conducive to economic recovery.
“Such efforts must be supported and institutionalized in order to avoid political interference which tends to destroy good programs, especially during a change of power,” he said.
Governor Lalong expressed concern about the high level of poverty in the North, low school attendance, drug addiction among young people, religious intolerance, insurgency, banditry, clashes between farmers and herders, kidnappings and many others.
“We must work together and act quickly to save our people from the difficult situation they are currently facing,” he said. (NAN)
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