By Yunusa Isa, Gombe

The Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES) has trained 114 pastoralists in Gombe State on modern best practices to utilize crop residues as livestock feeds to improve their business.

Speaking during the training, the Gombe State Project Coordinator L-PRES Professor Usman Bello Abubakar, said the project aims to modernize livestock farming for maximum profit and to serve as the best way to address farmer-herder conflicts bedeviling the country.

He said livestock farming is left behind as against other farming practices, hence the intervention by L-PRES to ensure animal rearing gets the required attention for modernization and to make it a more appealing and lucrative business.

The State Project Coordinator said with the support being received from the state government, L-PRES has come along with an array of programs to improve livestock farming and its value chain for employment generation, fight poverty and end the lingering farmer-herder crisis in Nigeria.

While calling on the 114 participants to step down the knowledge gained, Professor Usman Bello charged them to put the new ideas into practice for more gains in livestock business.

While declaring the training open, the State’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives Dr Barnabas Malle represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr Ibrahim Yakubu said the state government is poised to address farmer-herder challenges through modern initiatives like the L-PRES.

In their submissions, the state MACBAN Chairman Modibbo Yaya said there has never been a good time to modernize livestock farming than now when pastoralists are faced with multifaceted challenges in the business.

He appreciated the foresight of the state government and other stakeholders for the initiative, maintaining that with L-PRES, pastoralists and herders will come to reap the benefits of their years-long labour.

Speaking on behalf of the participants, the Gombe State Chairman Kautal Hore, Ardo Chindo Abubakar, appreciated L-PRES, Gombe State Government and other stakeholders for coming to the aid of the pastoralists at the most critical moment in their business.

He assured to utilize the knowledge gained, and step it down to their local communities.

During the training, an expert in animal ranching Mahmud Ibrahim Bello took the pastoralists through a technical session with the theme “Holistic Grazing Management on Land and Livestock in Gombe State”, where the nitty-gritties of how best to preserve crop residues to make animal feeds are discussed.

Comments, observations as well as question and answer sessions were entertained during the training.