Gombe State Governor Inuwa Yahaya, has appealed for harmonious relationship between farmers, and herders.
Yahaya made the call on Wednesday at the commencement of sale of 20,000 metric tons of assorted fertilizer to farmers in the state, which was pegged at 5,000 Naira.
He said 80 percent of the state population is agrarian adding that support for the Agric sector is crucial to the economic development of Gombe and Nigeria.
According to him, “Let me seize this opportunity to appeal for peaceful and harmonious relationship between our farmers, pastoralists and all other members of our communities. While it is gratifying that Gombe State has enjoyed relative peace and stability in that regard, our administration is determined to maintain and improve on that. That’s why we created the Ministry of Internal Security and Ethical Orientation to help with security coordination through community-driven approaches.
“Our administration will not tolerate violent conflicts and lawlessness of any kind and we shall continue our efforts towards proactively identifying potential areas of conflict and preventing and managing them across our State. It is on this note that I’m appealing to our farmers against encroaching into grazing reserves and cattle routes and also calling on our herders and pastoralists to avoid grazing on farm lands prior to harvest and evacuation of farm produce.”
He added that a bag of NPK fertilizer will be sold at N5,000 per bag saying that the price of other brands like Urea will be determined when issues relating to security protocols as directed by the office of ONSA are finally resolved.
On his part, the Director Federal Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Musa Inuwa said for the ministry to reduce perennial conflicts between herders and farmers in Nigeria.
“The federal government has earmarked two and half Billion naira in its 2020 Appropriation budget for the development of Zange-Wawa grazing reserve in Gombe state. This will lead to significant increase in wealth and job creation amongst the citizenry,” he said.
