Adamawa Allocates 9,000 Hectares for Federal Ranching Project

By Atlantic Reports

The Adamawa Government says it has allocated about 9,000 hectares of land for the Federal Government’s Ranching Pilot Project as part of efforts to improve livestock production and reduce conflict between farmers and herders.

The Commissioner for Livestock and Aquaculture Development, Alhaji Umar Lamurde, disclosed this in an interview on Monday in Yola, commending the Federal Government’s intervention.

Lamurde said the project complemented the state’s existing approach to ranching, which included the rehabilitation and demarcation of grazing reserves.

“Long before the Federal Government’s Ranching Pilot Project, the state government had embarked on the rehabilitation and demarcation of 69 grazing reserves across the state for ranching,” he said.

According to him, the reserves comprise 32 gazetted and 37 ungazetted sites, alongside stock routes and dams.

He identified the Model Pilot Ranch at Gongoshi Grazing Reserve in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area as one of the sites allocated for the federal initiative. He said the ranch was established under the National Livestock Transformation Plan to demonstrate a transition from open grazing to modern ranching.

For farmers and livestock keepers, the intended benefits include more organised access to grazing areas, water and animal health services, alongside reduced pressure on cultivated land.

Lamurde said protecting grazing reserves had substantially reduced tensions between farmers and herders. However, he provided no comparative conflict figures or assessment period to establish the scale of that reduction.

The commissioner said Adamawa had established a State Livestock Transformation Office to coordinate with the Federal Government.

It also developed a programme titled “Improving Livestock Productivity and Mitigation of Herder-Farmer Conflict through Effective Utilisation of Grazing Reserves”, submitted in May 2024 through a Natural Resource Fund grant application. His account did not indicate whether that application had secured funding.

Lamurde said the state government had separately approved ₦5 billion to strengthen livestock value chains, including upgrades and construction work involving 12 major livestock and grain markets, and the rehabilitation of eight international cattle markets.

The approval represents a funding commitment. The interview did not specify how much had been released or spent, or provide completion dates for the market projects.

He said the markets would have holding pens, water points, veterinary inspection units, loading ramps, drainage systems and improved access roads to support safer and more efficient trading.

According to Lamurde, the intervention is being implemented under the Adamawa Agribusiness Support Programme and managed by a newly established State Market Management Company.

He said livestock production accounted for almost 40 per cent of Adamawa’s annual internally generated revenue. He also put the Mubi Livestock Market’s annual contribution to the state economy at more than ₦29 billion, saying it handled millions of animals each year. No supporting revenue records or market-volume data accompanied those figures.

Lamurde said the Yola Ultra-Modern Abattoir had been rehabilitated, while modern veterinary hospitals, clinics and laboratories were under construction.

He added that the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development had established a Strategic Artificial Insemination Excellence Centre at Adamawa State University, Mubi, operated through the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support project.

The commissioner said 23,000 livestock farmers received inputs and equipment from the state government in January 2025.

He also reported the commissioning of six livestock projects through federal and state collaboration. Among those he named were a solar-powered animal vaccine cold-chain hub with a stated capacity of 40 million doses, an integrated waste management plant, a cattle resting point and the rehabilitated Gongoshi Grazing Reserve.

Adamawa also hosted the maiden National Council on Livestock Development meeting in Yola, which Lamurde described as part of efforts to attract investment.

The next measure of the ranching and market interventions will be their operation: who gains access, whether facilities remain functional and how effectively they improve livelihoods and reduce disputes over land.

Atlantic Reports: Voices. People. Facts.