The Federal Government made a provision of N2.258bn for the implementation of the Rural Grazing Area programme in the 2019 budget, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, stated in Abuja.
Enang, who spoke when he played host to students of the Law School, Abuja, who are indigenes of his home state, Akwa Ibom State on Friday night, defended the RUGA policy.
The budget has been passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, RUGA has been receiving yearly funding from the government before now.
The presidential aide said the money was captured in Volume 1 under the Ministry of Agriculture and numbered ERGP 5208 to promote cattle breeding and meat production.
Aside from the N2.258bn, the ministry has N300m for water sanitation; N400m for sweet potato development; and another N350m for ginger development, among other budget items.
Urging states in the South to support RUGA, Enang defended the scheme, saying that many critics of the initiative did not know that RUGA had been in existence since it was introduced by the colonial administration in 1956.
He added that RUGA had nothing to do with Islamisation or ‘Fulanisation’ as lately being interpreted.
However, Enang admitted that there was another emergency RUGA programme approved for interested states in May to provide an integrated farm settlements with schools, roads, mechanised farming and veterinary services.
”RUGA is not a plan to seize land from people, and it is not meant to Fulanise or colonise anybody. The programme is meant to address the issue of cattle roaming and destruction of farmlands, which will put an end to the herders/farmers’ crisis,” he told the students.
Enang explained that the RUGA idea was contained in the 1978 Land Use Act, which he claimed stated that a portion of land should be reserved for grazing to avoid the destruction of farm produce by cattle.
He cited the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State and the Yankari Games Reserve in Bauchi State as practical examples of successful RUGA projects.
The leader of the students, Ndifrake Inyang, said they were happy that Enang enlightened them about the RUGA initiative.