The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe has said there would be more deaths if nothing is done against cattle rustling and if cattle ranching is not created across the country.
He made the disclosure while briefing State House correspondents after National Food Security Council meeting at the State House, Abuja chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari who was represented by Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State.
Ogbeh said: “We have to move the cattle to the good old grazing reserves and we just have to create environment for them; clusters of ranches where they have water, grass and security against rustlers.
“For nearly 40 years, we didn’t do much about cattle, we also forgot that cattle contribute six per cent to GDP. The cheapest way of rearing cattle is by roaming around with them as you see now. If you go into a ranch it is not cheap and government cannot subsidise cattle rearing like they do in Europe, where they subsidise every cow. We cannot afford that.
“So, the thing is to create those ranches and the herdsmen are prepared to pay tax to support the programme. If we don’t do it, next year will be worse than this year, I assure you.”
He further said, “Today, we resolved that we must make agricultural lending cheap and we are looking at interest rate at the lower end of one digit. We don’t have any figures yet but we are hoping that by the time we meet again we can announce that.”
