Cownexxion to roll out 4 cattle ranches in Northern States

Cownexxion to roll out 4 cattle ranches in Northern States of Nigeria

The Federal Government has entered into an agreement with an international dairy consultancy, Cownexxion of The Netherlands, to roll out four cattle ranches in select northern states and the process has already began according to the president/CEO of Dutch Business Association, Mr. Eric Okunde who disclosed this to The Voice news magazine through a press statement he sent to our office. The Chief Executive of Cownexxion, Klaas Struiksma, disclosed that the agreement would see Cownexxion work with the Federal Government of Nigeria to jump start the ambitious National Livestock Transformation Plan which has been put into a well written document containing over 80 pages on how the various level of the project would be executed in Nigeria. The contract entails setting up pilot cattle ranches in Nasarawa, Plateau, Gombe and Adamawa States. According to Struiksma, the set up ranches will serve as a training centre for farmers and extension workers in the vicinity with the ultimate goal to spread it across the country to curb the present challenges of headmen’s encroaching into people’s farmlands and destroying corps and conflicts among the people. “The Training of Trainers program will also take place on the pilot farms. The focus in the 3 year project will be on feed production, development of knowledge and skills and the transformation of management,” he said. Struiksma further disclosed that the Dutch Agricultural industry is involved in the project through an Impact Cluster supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). Other members of the consortium include Aeres Group, Agriterra Dairy Delta Academy, Scherjon Dairy Equipment,

Barenbrug South Africa, Dutch Sustainable Energy Group, and Queens Company, he disclosed. The National Livestock Transformation Plan has been in the pipeline for some time as a solution to the incessant clashes between farmers and cattle herders. It is believed that the recent surge in the clashes and cattle-herding related criminalities might have led to the activation of the plan now. The plan will see to the creation of different sizes of cattle ranches in a period of 10 years an after that period, it would be evaluated to see the progress and challenges faced and how best to improve on it. On the part of Mr. Okunde, he welcomes the start of the pilot project and he says Nigeria stand to benefit tremendously and he thank Mr. President who is putting his words to practice after his visit to the Netherlands few years back.