Farmers/herders clash: Ekiti govt trains livestock farmers on alternative feed source

The Ekiti state government has commenced the training of no fewer than two hundred livestock farmers on alternative feed sources as a way of resolving the lingering farmers and herders crisis in the state.

The training through the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project(L-Pres) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security had participants across all the local government areas of the state.

They are expected to be trained on how animal and crop wastes can be transformed to feed to ease the financial burdens by livestock farmers to feed their animals.

The programme which was held in Ado-Ekiti is expected to run for three days as experts train participants on how to manually convert waste to feeds for their livestock.

Declaring open the training, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Ebenezer Boluwade who commended the training initiative, described it as a panacea to massive productivity in the agricultural sector in the state.

He added that while the state government would continue to regulate the activities of herders to avoid unpleasant scenarios through anti-grazing laws, ” the government is also engaging all livestocks owners to enlighten them on the modern system of rearing livestock.”

Boluwade said, “We are ensuring that animals that graze especially cows do not have a negative impact on cash crop farmers.

“Both can coexist peacefully in the ecosystem if they are properly managed and that is why we are putting up this training to find alternative feed for the animals especially when the season is off and there is a shortage of feed.

“These farmers also have the mandate to train the other farmers across the state while we continue to engage them in productivity through scientific methods of rearing animals.

“We will continue to provide support to farmers and livestock owners in the state to enhance productivity and food security.”

The state project coordinator of L-PRES in Ekiti state, Olayinka Adedipe said the training was necessary to expose the farmers on how to convert waste from the farms and animals to feeds that can help grow the animals.

He said the initiative would help the farmers reduce the cost of production and maintenance, especially procuring feeds for their animals which is understandable due to the economic doldrums in the country.

According to him, “We are embarking on this training to educate the farmers and practically show them how they can convert these farm wastes to feed mechanically.

“Most of these residues from our homes, yam peels, cassava peels even wastes generally can be used to feed their livestock.”

Some of the participants who spoke commended the state government for the initiative while promising to implement the skills they were taught to further boost livestock productivity in the state.