The Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle has announced, his government is currently battling desertification and has concluded plans to plant one million trees to contain the spread.
The governor, who hosted the Zamfara state side event, at the ongoing COP26 in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, said that the tree planting project would be executed in partnership with the Nigeria’s Great Green Wall project aimed at also fighting soil erosion in the state.
He said that Zamfara is one of the frontline desert states in Nigeria with 50 per cent of its landmass under threat of desertification, coupled with soil degradation caused by annual flooding during rainy seasons.
“My administration ventured into the scheme to save the largely agrarian society cultivating millet, guinea-corn, maize, rice and other crops and guaranteeing Nigeria’s food security.”
Governor Matawalle lamented that climate change, which is a major driver to armed banditry bedevilling the state, is the result of the taking over of pastoralists’ grazing reserves, water and resting points,
Matawalle said that the state government is presently channelling resources to address these issues, including establishing modern pastoral settlements known as RUGA, where herders are being settled in one place with all the required amenities provided for them and their animals.
The project, according to him, had mitigated the perennial skirmishes between farmers and herders that gave birth to armed banditry in the first place.
The governor also said that the state government had already keyed into the World Bank-funded Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes programme, which has desertification control and landscape management as one of its components.
According to him, his administration is doing its best to protect natural habitats, protect and restore the eco-system and reclaim the land by building defences, including resilient infrastructure and agriculture.
“The state government requires collaboration with partners to raise the finances that will strategically support this drive.”
Source: NAN.
