Story from Ibraheem Hamza MUHAMMAD
Being the state selected to pilot the National Livestock Transformation Project (NLTP) in the country, Nasarawa State is set to launch the project in Awe Local Government Area, on Thursday.
Nasarawa State governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, disclosed this while hosting stakeholders from Awe Local Government Area, who came on a thank-you visit at the Government House.
A visibly excited Engineer Sule informed the stakeholders that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, some state governors and other top government functionaries, will be in Awe to launch the project.
The NLTP is a scheme adopted by the National Executive Council (NEC) on 18 January 2019. It is an initiative designed to partner with interested state governments to provide land for livestock farmers to practice their profession.
Through this programme, livestock farmers, including Fulani herders, will have access to land for ranching. When fully implemented, NLTP will make land available to farmers at a considerably cheap rate.
Recall that, the Federal Government, already secured a €400,000 grant to kick off the project in four states namely Nasarawa, Adamawa, Plateau and Gombe.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Project for Agricultural Coordination and Planning (PACE), earlier announced that President Muhammadu Buhari, secured the grant from the Dutch Investment Agency, RVO, after approval of the grant, which Buhari signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, during his visit to the Netherlands.
Also recall that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Dr Andrew Kwasari, who was accompanied by members of the FMARD-PACE Team, paid a two-day visit to the Nasarawa State Livestock Transformation Office to ensure that the State Livestock Transformation team was fully aware of the requirements for successful implementation of the pilot.
During the visit, Dr Kwasari disclosed that the €400,000 covered 50 per cent cost of the pilot start-up of the NLTP model in Nasarawa State for 30 pastoralist households with a start date of March 2021.
Though the project was earlier billed to commence in March, Nasarawa State is now ready for the launching of the scheme on Thursday, August 5, 2021.
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