Tuesday Live:Gombe boasts of 50 grazing, 30 forest reserves – gov Yahaya
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
No fewer than 88 reserves have been identified by Gombe State Government, with all said to fully gazetted.
Governor Muhammadu Yahaya, made this disclosure on NTA flagship programme Tuesday Live, while analysing the topic: perspective on reviving grazing and forest reserves, monitored by our correspondent.
Wawa-zange one of the 58 grazing reserves is said to have about 144,000 hectares believed to be the largest in Africa.
Yahaya said, “The Wawa-zange grazing reserve we have talked about is gazetted and as at today Gombe has 58 grazing reserves and 30 forest reserves. Majority have been bastardized because of the encroachment.
“Now it will mean for you to sort it out you need to do a thorough analyses to know where to site what at what point, once you do that the rest of the things will follow. If you don’t allow anybody else that doesn’t have business to do with animal husbandry in an area left for grazing you will not have an problem again.
“You could support people that wants to set up an abattoir, instead of taking the animals life to where they would have been consumed, you can cut and process and take them processed to the places they are going to be consumed. The first grazing reserve was established as far back as 1927.”
Speaking, Prof. Babagana Gambo, Dean faculty of Agriculture, Yobe State University also uged government’s across all divides to follow suit by gazetting the specified reserves in order to rid encroachment.
“It is time to adopt the zero grazing method, it can only be done within the grazing reserve. The best way to go is to keep the animals in one place. The major issue is legislation, if the grazing reserves are not gazetted definitely another Government will come and turn the place to Airport, school,” Gambo said.
