Musa Na Allah Sokoto
Sokoto state Government and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are working closely towards establishing ranches and grazing reserves in parts of the state to improve livestock farming and curtail the preponderance of banditry and sundry crimes in the state.
This was what is part of the meeting between Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto state and a team of his commissioners and the management of the AfDB, led by 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 Usmal Junaidu, the move is in furtherance of the state government’s ongoing efforts to achieve the same goal.
Professor Junaidu, who 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 partnership that will enhance achievement of the set objectives.
These, he explains, includes the monitoring 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 further intimated that the Sokoto state government deliberated on cattle breeding program, artificial insemination, and embryonic transfer as well as pasture development with the AfDB team.
More issues discussed at the meeting 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.
