The Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Monguno, says the National Assembly has introduced a bill to guarantee the electronic tracking of livestock across the country.
Monguno said this at a three-day National Conference on the Transformation of Nigerian Livestock Industry in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the bill, which was geared towards tracing livestock and their owners, would help to reduce farmers/herdsmen crisis, when passed.
Monguno, who described the conference as apt, said the livestock industry had been relegated to the background by successive governments and emphasis placed on crops production.
“The National Assembly has introduced a bill for possible passage, for electronic tracking of livestock to forestall issues of conflicts.’’
On his part, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, suggested the setting up of policies and programmes to promote the livestock industry before considering ranching as an option to open grazing.
According to him, the livestock industry is key to citizens’ protein requirements in the country.
“For us to reap the benefits in the livestock industry, we must look critically at how to promote the sector.
“We must look at the root causes of these problems between farmers and herdsmen.
“Yes, we want to modernise through ranching but how do we want to achieve that. Do we want to frog-jump to achieve that, definitely no.
“These herdsmen might not have voice so we have to consider them too,’’ Adamu said.
He assured that the National Assembly would consider any bill that would emanate from the conference for possible passage to promote the livestock industry.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that conference was attended by stakeholders from the agriculture sector across the country.