12th April, 2017
The Kogi Government says it may enact laws that would prohibit cattle grazing in the state if the measures it put in place to stem farmers-herdsmen conflicts fail.
Mr Kehinde Oloruntoba, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, said this on Wednesday in Lokoja at an advocacy meeting with Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON).
Oloruntoba, however, expressed hope that the strategies being put in place by the government to foster harmonious relationship between herdsmen and farmers would work.
“All the same, if the measures fail, we will hesitate go to the House of Assembly to get a law, prohibiting the activities of herdsmen in the state.
“But that will be our last option. We may not need to go to that extreme of prohibiting the herdsmen’s activities if they all agree to live harmoniously with others and refrain from destroying farm crops.”
Oloruntoba said that the national executives of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association and some officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture recently came to the state to organise a sensitisation programme for herdsmen and farmers.
Besides, the commissioner noted that more women were engaged in agriculture than men, saying: “If we want agriculture to succeed, we must ensure that women are given their rightful position in all our policies.”
He pledged that women farmers would not be marginalised or sidelined in the government’s agricultural programmes, assuring them that they would have fair representation in every programme.
According to him, the ministry will also be gender-sensitive in the allocation of resources and the implementation of programmes.
Earlier, Mrs Gift Omoniwa, the Executive Director, Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID), urged the state government to involve women farmers in the formulation and implementation of agricultural policies.
Hajiya Safiya Yahaya, Kogi State Coordinator of SWOFON, said that the organisation, which had members in all the 36 states, would strive to facilitate the efforts of women farmers to access farm inputs from government and donor agencies.
Also speaking, Mrs Esther Audu, the Publicity Secretary of SWOFON, who said that 80 per cent of the agricultural activities in the country were undertaken by women, solicited increased women participation in all the programmes of the ministry.