Cattle Rustling: Miyetti Allah plans Cow identification workshop

The South-East Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, (MACBAN), Allahaji Gidado Siddiki, said the association would soon organise a sensitisation workshop on cow identification programme.

The MACBAN chairman, who disclosed this in a statement in Awka, said that the workshop would be a regional sensitisation exercise on the National Animal Identification and Traceability System, NAITS, which is to be implemented across the country.

According him, the workshop is one of the measures put in place by the association to curb cattle rustling, farmers/herders clashes and other ethnic challenges confronting the unity of Nigeria.

The programme would enable Miyetti Allah and their host communities in the regions to identify owners of each cow and the boys tendering them, and to also help in tracing the herders in case of any incident, warning that after the exercise, no unregistered cow would be allowed in the southern states of the country.

“It is being driven by the Department of Animal Husbandry of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), with whom we are in a tripartite Agreement since 2018 for the rollout of the NAITS project.

“The workshop, holds in Enugu State on August 28th, 2021, the stakeholders, such as political office holders, farmers associations and traditional rulers in the Southern Regions of the country would find the exercise useful,” Siddiki explained.

The Chairman, explained that NAITS project is a unique animal information management system for tracing of all livestock in Nigeria, from birth to exit (slaughter), using forgery proof Ear Tags, livestock passports and electronics database developed to global standards stipulated by the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR).

He listed the benefits of the system to include: reliable data for livestock planning and management, transparency in revenue generation, security management and conflict, prevention and deterrence of cattle rustling.

Other socio-economic benefits, included animal disease surveillance, prevention and emergence risk management; livestock movement control and tracing; genetic improvement and employment opportunities.

Siddiki warned that from August 28, 2021, no cow would be allowed to enter the southern states without registered tag, as constituted by the National leadership of MACBAN.