Work is in
progress on the fifty hectares acquired for the planned, rotational grazing project, aka
PRGP, designed to teach Fulani
herdsman the system of successfully rearing their cows on one piece of well-maintained
grassland rather than along expressways, in abandoned bush and temptingly close
to developed farmland!
The fifty
hectares has been properly surveyed by state-certified surveyor, beacon stones are in place, and
the documentation and survey plans will soon be available.
A qualified
and experienced borehole driller with his team has done the geophysical work and identified the
best location for a high-yield well.
This particular well will service cattle needs, (concrete drinking
troughs in a well-fenced area,) surrounding crop fields and a future visitor’s
and training center. A second
well will be drilled at the far boundary of the land.
My happiness
is, ‘school’ on this site has already begun!
Several Fulani herdsmen led by Alhaji Bature Musa are being walked
through the process of locating an appropriate grazing site, working with
surveyors, identifying land boundaries, dividing and fencing paddocks. They will observe as the boreholes are placed
and fencing is arranged around the water point, to protect our precious
grass. They will learn that it’s
possible to settle in one place with their cows and thereby lead a peaceful and
cooperative existence with their neighbors and their cows. What they learn here, they will begin to pass
on to others. School has begun at this
planned grazing site!
The work at
present is to decide the size and location of the grazing paddocks and divide
the land off the access road into at least ten or eleven paddocks through which
we’ll rotate the cows over thirty day periods.
Alhaji and several herdsmen have walked the boundary of the fifty
hectares and confirmed the beacon stones set by the surveyor. They are now measuring for paddocks off this
winding road.
We have
contracted with local village boys to clear the perimeter boundaries of the fifty
hectares, and with the Fulani living on or around the site to work with Alhaji
in identifying paddocks and fencing them.
Again, the
importance of involving the Fulani is that they learn by doing all that is needed to set up their own
grazing lands! And, the work we do
should be easily replicated by the Fulani themselves! Hence the low-tech fencing, local materials
and local participation involved. Whatever we do here must be such that our
students will say to themselves, “Hey! I
can do this by myself on my own land!”
Much of this
area is in crop fields. The Fulani have
beautiful farms located within our boundaries!
The last thing we want to do is to disrupt these people’s lives and
drive them away, when our whole purpose is to teach cooperation and peaceful
coexistence with our neighbors! So,
we’ve told the farmers that of course we won’t disturb their crops, and the
fields will be untouched until after harvest.
Once the crops are taken in, however, they will have to cultivate new
farms outside of the boundaries. And the
three Fulani villages within our fifty hectares will have to be gently
relocated just outside of the boundaries as well. We will do this gradually to make the moves
as painless as possible.
Our strong goal is to also establish a revolving fund to be used to assist
qualified herdsmen in putting down-payments on their own grazing land. These funds will be given as loans, to be
repaid within a two-year period of time. The money would then be loaned to another set
of herdsmen.
The PRG system is great – it is tried and proven, and it works. BUT
FOR IT TO BE ANY HELP TO HERDSMEN, THEY MUST HAVE THEIR OWN LAND ON WHICH TO
PRACTICE IT!
The first step is to learn planned rotational grazing.
The second is to acquire land and
PRACTICE it!
ICCM is able
and willing to work with our Fulani contacts throughout Nigeria to screen
applicants, walk them through the process, monitor repayments of loans and
monitor the MIRG practiced on their lands.
It’s a BIG
VISION, but also a BIG SOLUTION to the Fulani/farmer crisis at hand. If we work together, we CAN make it happen!
