By Babaji Usman Babaji
Barely five months after The ICIR’s investigation on Bauchi’s Galambi Cattle Ranch taken over by illegal loggers, the federal government has renovated some of the abandoned structures in the ranch.
The investigation revealed how the ranch had thick vegetation and ample forest resources taken over by the loggers due to the Bauchi State government’s failure to sustain the ranch.
The ICIR’s visit to the ranch discovered that some abandoned structures were renovated by the National Agriculture Land Development Authority (NALDA), while the state government is pushing to revive the ranch after decades of negligence.
The Bauchi State Commissioner for Agriculture, a professor, Simon Madugu Yalams said Galambi Cattle Ranch would receive an agricultural boost to generate more revenue and employment opportunities for the state.
Yalams stated this when he paid a familiarisation visit to the ranch, explaining that their recent trip to China with the governor, Bala Mohammed, was to invite investors to the agricultural sector to ensure food security and sufficiency in the state.
The commissioner indicated that NALDA would provide entrepreneurial skills to the teeming youth with employment in the communities around the ranch.
He said the state government is planning to build a benefiting abattoir where, after slaughtering animals, the meat would be processed and sold to people, thus benefiting the communities in the areas of dairy production, milk collection and small ruminant’ improvement.
He explained that the governor has provided all the requirements of the World Bank for the project to be implemented in the state.
The Commissioner also interacted with communities neighbouring the ranch, which include Jirr, Mararaban Liman Katagum, Galambi and Kusada, where the communities were sensitised on the upcoming livestock productivity and resilience support project.Earlier, Iliyasu Aliyu Gital, the special adviser to the state governor on agriculture and also oversight coordinator of the NALDA project in the state, said the governor has allocated some hectares of land from Galambi Cattle Ranch for NALDA to improve agriculture projection in the state.
He said the agency has already renovated some buildings, provided four tractors and restored electricity with dedicated transformers in the ranch.
Gital added that NALDA would also establish primary and secondary schools and an agricultural entrepreneur institute for farming skill acquisition in the state.
He corroborated that a demonstration farm, a mini earth dam, has also been constructed by the authority.
In her opening remark, the State coordinator of the project, Rose Idi, called on the communities in the areas to key into the project through their various value chain roles of improving livestock production, commercialization and conflict management.