FG embarks on Ruga replacement scheme.

– Awotula Temidayo.

In July 2019, after much uproar and biting criticism, Federal Government stepped down its Rural Grazing Area Scheme ( RUGA). Prior to its being stepped down , government had made wider consultation with stakeholders and had tried to make some states of the federation buy into the scheme.

However there was a plethora of outrageous and unflattering criticism against the project which led to the suspension of scheme.

Meanwhile, Federal Government has expressed its readiness to reintroduce the scheme under another brand, the livestock intervention programme with the hope that it will resolve the recurring farmer- harder imbroglio across Nigeria.

In a document gleaned from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Federal Government’s Livestock Intervention Programme is poised to see to the establishment of at least six large herders settlements in each of the six pilot states across the country. States to benefit in the first execution of the pilot project are Gombe, Kaduna, Bauchi and Niger. The rest are Kwara and Adamawa states. The document indicated that pending when other states will join the scheme , these six states will commence the exercise from which slight challenges observed will be regularised before the scheme is extended all through the states of the federation.

It will be recalled that sometimes in May , 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari made a public pronouncement, calling for the reawakening of the colonial era grazing routes across the nation. This call was made in President Buhari’s bid to encourage the ancient practice of cattle Grazing with the hope that it will end farmers/herders crisis in the country.