By Muhammad Goronyo,Sokoto
Sokoto state government and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are working closely towards the feasibility of raising ranches and grazing reserves in parts of the state so as to improve livestock farming and curtail the preponderance of banditry and sundry crimes arising therefrom.
Muhammad Bello in a statement said this was part of the take-always from a meeting Gov. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto state and a team of his Commissioners had with the management of the AfDB, led by the President of its President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, in the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
According to the state Commissioner for Animal Health, Prof. Abdulkadir Junaidu, the move is in furtherance of the state government’s ongoing efforts to achieve the same goal.
Prof. Junaidu, who also briefed the AfDB management team during the Abidjan meeting, said the thrust towards the realization of this objective with the support of the continental bank would entail a public-private partnerships that will enhance achievement of the set goals.
These, he explains, includes the monitoring and and improvement of the health of both the livestock and pastoralists to stem the tide of the escalation of zoonotic diseases akin to the one that heralded COVID-19 outbreak and others worldwide.
The Commissioner also intimated that the Sokoto state government also deliberated on cattle breeding program, artificial insemination and embryonic transfer as well as pasture development with the AfDB team.
More of the issues discussed are: the preservation and enhancement of the breeding of the Sokoto Red goat (listed among global goat breeds known as farm animals of domestic goat (Capra hircus) and small ruminants species), and other livestock for the production of meat and dairy; and, the involvement of women in the whole gamut of these enterprises.
