Nigeria: Government steps in to curb farmer-nomad clashes

KANO: The national government has started marking out grazing reserves across Katsina and Bauchi states in northern Nigeria, as well as the capital Abuja, to curb often deadly clashes between farmers and nomads over pasture.

The three planned reserves, to serve about 15 million pastoralists, involve demarcating 175,000ha of grazing land, building veterinary service centres, and constructing settlements for nomads to use en route, at a cost of US$247 million, director of livestock and pest control in Nigeria's Agriculture and Water Resources Ministry, Junaidu Maina, told IRIN.

The government is also demarcating a 1,400km livestock route from Sokoto state in the northwest to Oyo state in the southwest; and another 2,000km route from Adamawa state in the northeast to Calabar in the delta region, said Maina.

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