Katsina state government has commenced the demarcation of 1,141 kilometres of cattle routes covering 11 local government areas of the state.
The chairman, standing committee on improvement of relationship between farmers and herdsmen, Abdulaziz Lawal Kofa, stated this during the commencement of the exercise at Mashi.
He said the demarcation exercise would cover Mashi, Katsina, Kurfi and Katsina local government areas.
Others, he said, include; Malumfashi, Kafur Danja, Sabuwa, Funtua, Kusada, Kankia, Musawa and Muazu, saying the exercise would cover 70 days.
Lawal said the affected areas were categorised under three phases and teams would be assigned to monitor and supervise the exercise.
He recalled that similar demarcation exercise of 905 kilometres of cattle routes was carried out in eight local government areas in the recent past.
He said the local governments include Jibia, Batsari, Danmusa, Faskari, Dandume, Daura and Sandamu.
Lawal said the demarcation of the cattle routes helps in ensuring peaceful coexistence between farmers and the herders.
“The demarcation of cattle routes ensures peace among Fulani and herdsmen. For many years, Katsina has not witnessed farmers/Fulani clashes,” he further said.
The state government, had, last year said it expended a whooping N200 million on the demarcation of grazing and cattle routes as part of effort to curtail herdsmen and farmers clashes in the state.
It also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Maradi state government in Niger Republic on the movement of cattle and herdsmen as well as the tracking of cattle rustlers and other criminals within the two countries.
“We have so far spent N200 million in demarcating the grazing areas and cattle routes. The last phase of the exercise will be done in Southern Katsina around Sabuwa local government area.
“By the beginning of dry season, we are going to kick start the programme again and if the repentant bandits see us rendering some of these services to them, they will have more confidence in us as a government,” the governor was quoted to have said this in some media reports.
