The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has called on stakeholders in the agricultural sector to support the activities, efforts and actions of the government as it work to build lasting harmony between farmers and herders.
This came as the stakeholders gathered in Abuja at a regional summit on human and climate security challenges, farmers herders conflict resolution in the livestock sector to brainstorm on the way forward for achieving peaceful coexistence between crop farmers and livestock herders whose incessant conflict in the region is threatening food and national security in Nigeria.
Minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar told participants that the conflict has taken new dimensions lately and call for deep introspection into unravelling the causes of the heightened, unwarranted attacks by both actors in the conflict and more innovative ways of addressing it.
He said stakeholders must brainstorm, discuss and arrive at the common objective that seeks to achieve, the theme of the summit which focused on, “Promoting Regional Peace and Climate Security in the Crops Farming and Livestock Sector”.
He said, “Very soon we will unveil a new scheme in which will provide support to both sides, we need to try and make up something that will bring more harmony, in the whole relationship between farmers and herders so that we all feel being carried along fairly and adequately.
“The best you can do is support and complement the effort of the government by working together and creating peace and honestly nobody can do it better, so, I’m appealing to you to support the activities, the effort and actions of the government so we can increase and improve the agricultural sector which we have seen since 2015 outperform any other sector in contribution to the gross domestic product.”
