Cooperative Farm Estate: A Replicative Model to Mitigate Farmer-Herder Conflicts

The Federal Government through the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project, L-PRES, under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, recently, made the Nigeria Farmers Group and Cooperative Society, NFGCS, Farm Estate, a model to mitigate farmer-herder conflicts in North Central geopolitical zone and the nation at large.

Speaking to journalists during a tour of the 3,000 hectares NFGCS Farm Estate located in Ga’ate, Kokona Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, the National Project Coordinator, NPC, Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project, L-PRES, Sanusi Abubakar, said the NFGCS Farm Estate is operating according to the mandate establishing L-PRES.

According to Abubakar, the NFGCS Farm Estate under the management of Managing Partner, NFGCS Farm Estate and Convener BATKASH National Farmers Forum Cooperative, CMS, Retson Tedheke, more support is coming to the Farm after expressing satisfaction of the efforts of the farm in bringing and achieving harmonious relationship between farmers and herders including high-level production of farm produce and byproducts for livestock.

He said: “We are here to see what we have been supporting for some time. Our major project development objective is to improve productivity, resilience, and commercialization of our livestock value chain.

“We are in this farm because we are collaborating with him (Tedheke). We want to see what he is doing on the ground. We have gone round the farm and have seen what he is doing.

“We have seen the value addition, what he’s doing on livestock, and what he’s doing on the community, and most especially what is trying to do on the conflict resolution and mitigation.

“One of the components of our project is conflict resolution and mitigation. We have a model here, and we believe this model will work for this zone, especially the North Central zone, where he is taking all the communities along; he is working with the communities that are resolving the problem between farmers and herders.

“You can see the farm products, byproducts of the farm coming back to livestock, and livestock also complement what the farmers are doing, so we have a model here so we want to emphasize and support the model.”

According to Abubakar, the farm has been given technical support, and now it is at the implementation stage. “We will give him more apart from the technical support and that is why we are here to reassess what he is doing.

“In the livestock value chain, we will support him including infrastructure, and also do a needs assessment to know what he wants”, he added.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that about 10 states have signed into L-PRES which are Adamawa, Taraba, Gombe, Borno, Kogi Oyo, Kano, Sokoto, Niger, and Kwara.

Earlier, the Managing Partner of NFGCS Farm Estate, Retson Tedheke, pointed out that both government and private sector need to galvanize farmer-herder relationships with farm estates.

“We have been working in partnership with the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project, L-PRES, from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

“They have been supporting the project here over the past two years, and have come to see what their support has provided for us here.

“I always say one unique thing about rural agriculture, it is all about community integration. Once we are able to integrate the community with the agricultural process, then we can actually feed the nation.

“A Fulani man, Likita is the Chief Security Officer, CSO, of the farm. Once there is a conflict between the farmer and the herder, we call them together, and if it is the herder that is wrong, he pays and if it is the farmer that is wrong he pays.

“Since 2017, which is about six years now, we have not had one single farmer-herder clash or crisis in over 3000 hectares of farm around here and that is progress. So it is all about relationships.

“We should have models as this in every geopolitical zone, not just that in every state of the Federation because when you do that you have a place where the Fulani herdsman or the man that owns cattle can go and have medical support for his cattle and training and support program, a place where the farmers and the herders don’t have a crisis or challenge.

“We are going to have less insecurity because the truth is rural Nigeria is a gold mine, so why do we focus on the sentiment rather than the solution? Our own is to let us have food and let us have peace.

“Build the community, stop conflicts ensure that the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project is able to look at if livestock conflict is one of the biggest challenges that farmers are having, how do you use projects like this to stop that conflict?

“There is no way there can be conflicts with projects like this in Nigeria. So their support and partnership with them have actually led to a situation where we have not had any crisis here”, Tedheke stated.

However, he added that Nigeria’s agriculture needs more value addition for more foreign exchange, profit, jobs,s and wealth creation, especially at the rural farm estates.