The Yobe Government on Tuesday appealed to the Agriculture and Rural Development minister, Audu Ogbeh to develop the 5,000 hectares of land it received from the state to establish the proposed grazing reserve.
The Manager of Yobe Pilot Development Programme Mustapha Gaidam, who said this in Damaturu, explained that Yobe Government has donated 5,000 hectares of land to the ministry to enhance the implementation of its cattle ranch programme.
“The Yobe Government provided Federal Ministry of Agriculture with 2,500 hectares of land at Jakusko/Nazari in Jakusko Local Government Area and another 2,500 hectares at Gumsa in Nguru for the development of the grazing reserve.
“Yobe State has 28 grazing reserves, out of which 16 have been gazetted,” he said.
Besides, Mr Gaidam said that the state government had demarcated 1,560 kilometres of cattle routes from 2007 to date.
“The state government has also constructed water facilities along the cattle routes to curb cattle encroachment into farmlands in search of water.
“Government has, within the same period of time, vaccinated over six million herds of cattle, goats, sheep and dogs against trans-boundary animal diseases and rabies.
“It has become a deliberate policy of this administration to maintain healthy animals for public consumption.
“When a country, state or society has healthy animals; the animals produce healthy meat and milk and this, in turn, translates into healthy human population,” he said.
NAN
