Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh says the country will soon begin cattle ranching to stop cattle and herdsmen from roaming.

Ogbeh made the disclosure on Monday while speaking during his official visit to a beans market set up by the Catholic Diocese of Abuja and operated by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Auta Ballefi community of Nasarawa State.

He said: “We are starting the ranches soon. We will see if we can buy large number of shell and keep before we start. We want to stop the cows roaming about and causing fights and killings.

“We will buy and give them to feed their cows now until they get used to the ranches. We want to know if you have up to a trailer load. We will see what we can do if we can purchase the shell from you.”

He added: “We are proud of what we are seeing here today because this is not what we normally see in the IDPs. Most of the IDPs we visited are always waiting for people to bring food to them.

“But here, you are producing food and making money. You have told us what you need and as we go back to the office, we will find ways of helping you. I have never seen any beans market as big as this.

“And because you are farming, we are going to help you improve on what you are doing. I assure you that before the next planting season, we will bring three tractors here. You manage the tractors to do your farming.

“The first thing I will say now is nobody should put sniper on the beans again for storage because it is poisonous to human health. Instead, use pepper for preservation. That is why when we export beans, they are rejected in Europe.”

While reiterating the Federal Government’s commitment towards providing a bigger market for farm produce to avoid post-harvest losses, Ogbeh revealed that the country has saved about ₦51 billion in 34 months from importation.