A university don, Professor Alaba Jolaosho, has identified all- year-round feed availability for ruminant’s animals, especially during the dry season, as a way to curtail the incessant problem of farmlands destruction and conflict between Fulani herdsmen and farm owners.
Jolaosho, a professor of Pasture Agronomy, Production, Conservation and Utilisation in the Department of Pasture and Range Management, College of Animal Science and Livestock Production (COLANIM) of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), stated this while disclosing her research findings bordering on the problems of production, conservation and feed availability to the pastoralists.
According to her, seasonal changes and environmental differences affect the availability and quality of feeds, submitting that there are always excess forages.
She said, “During the raining season, there are always excess forages to the extent that they become a nuisance but in the dry season, there are limited quantities, leading to scarcity of feeds, thereby causing damage to people’s farmlands, the longer the dry season, the more limited the quantity.”
She observed that the location of the pastures varied with the type of trees, grasses and legumes, adding that the Northern part of Nigeria is drier with longer dry season, making the pastoralists to move about during the dry season towards the southern part of the country.
She further added that there should be a way of preserving the excess feeds all through the dry season, stressing the need to have regular high quality feeds at low cost.
Professor Jolaosho called for the establishment of Farmers’ Forum to create a platform to discuss existing problems and the way forward in agriculture.
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