Fast-tracking ranching

Conflicts between farmers and herders usually result from livestock grazing, which often destroys cultivated crops, leading to economic loss and retaliation by farmers.

These conflicts are driven by a need for survival, with both groups competing for the same resources -- primarily land and water -- to maintain their livelihoods.

The ranching option -- transitioning away from open grazing -- is increasingly viewed in official quarters as the definitive solution. Significantly, ranching has the potential to increase productivity, enhance socio- economic infrastructure, create employment, and prevent animal rustling, among others.

Notably, in 2018, as the death tolls from clashes reached a crisis point, the Buhari administration launched the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP). Designed to be voluntary and state-led, the NLTP proposed “Pilot Ranches” where herders could settle, access water/feed, and sell milk/meat to a structured market.

To further address the problem, in 2024, President Bola Tinubu took the historic step of creating a dedicated Ministry of Livestock Development. This marked a definitive policy shift. The government stopped treating ranching as just a “peace treaty” and started treating it as a multi-billion-dollar industry.

When President Tinubu visited Brazil in 2024, he underscored his administration’s effort to end the recurring farmer-herder clashes and promote economic prosperity at the signing of a Letter of Intent between the Nigerian government and the JBS S.A, one of the top three meat processing companies globally. The partnership aims to establish six industrial-scale processing plants, signalling a shift toward global competitiveness and food sovereignty.

He said: “We are solving a problem that afflicts humanity in that part of Africa, clashes between farmers and migrating cows that have caused some life and bloodshed when there is a modern, civilised way to solve those problems and even bring a successful economy out of it.

“We are trying to turn a situation of tragedy, hopelessness into economic opportunity, see through problems and see the opportunity that is involved in it.”

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According to current 2026 data from the Ministry of Livestock Development, Nigeria’s livestock sector is already valued at approximately $32 billion. The government’s official target under the National Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy (NL-GAS) is to grow this into a $74 billion to $94 billion industry by 2035.

Indications suggest the National Ranching Policy is firmly on course. For instance, the Federal Government has selected Kwara State as the primary pilot for the ranching policy, where it is establishing “demonstration ranching clusters” that include feedlots, veterinary clinics, water infrastructure, schools, and organised community settlements. The goal is to establish six of these clusters -- one in each geo-economic zone -- before a full nationwide rollout.

The import of this move is that while open grazing has not been banned nationwide, steps are being taken to gradually phase it out in favour of ranches.

Importantly, the National Economic Council (NEC), in December 2025, set up a special committee to “fast-track” implementation. This suggests that the government realises that statistics alone cannot resolve the problem -- only the physical establishment of ranches, clear land tenure, and digital livestock tracking will break the cycle.

The authorities must remain focused and pursue the implementation of the ranching policy with a sense of urgency.