Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

Benue State Governor,  Samuel Ortom has urged the Soil Science Society of Nigeria (SSSN) to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to find a lasting solution to the underlying causes of the seasonal migration of herdsmen and their cows from the North to the South and back.

The governor also called on the Federal Government to dump the controversial idea of the proposed Fulani settlements.

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Instead, he urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to seek solutions to the issue of desert encroachment and lack of sufficient vegetation, which are responsible for the movements of nomadic herdsmen in the country.

Ortom was represented by his deputy, Benson Abounu at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Soil Science Society of Nigeria at the Federal University of Agriculture, (FUAM) Makurdi. He recommended desert encroachment as was done in Israel, where a complete desert was transformed into a rich agricultural hub that now feeds the rest of the world.

“If the sandy Negev desert, which had no water or vegetation could be so transformed, there is no reason the same cannot be done in the northern part of Nigeria, where there is water and vegetation but where the only problem is desert encroachment.”he said.