MACBAN Pushes Community Ranching as Rising Costs, Insecurity Threaten Pastoral Livelihoods

Community-based ranching is emerging as the most realistic path forward for Nigeria’s pastoralists, according to the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, which has warned that private, capital-heavy ranching remains far beyond the reach of most herders.

Source: .vanguardngr

MACBAN President Baba Othman Ngelzarma painted a stark picture of life on the move for pastoral families. He noted that the average herder is deeply vulnerable, often carrying an entire family’s wealth—valued at more than ₦1 million per cow—across vast distances, a situation that exposes them to rustling, kidnapping and chronic insecurity.

Ngelzarma stressed that many herders inherit their cattle rather than build them through formal investment, shaping a mindset focused on increasing herd size instead of improving quality. This approach, he explained, fuels the transhumance system and reinforces resistance to expensive private ranches that demand education, capital and long-term planning. As he put it, herders are not hunting for conflict but survival.

He also revealed that breeding patterns within herds help MACBAN track criminal activity, noting that most cattle are female for reproduction. Consequently, the appearance of female cows for sale in open markets often raises red flags and helps identify suspected rustlers.

Working with the newly created Ministry of Livestock Development, MACBAN is now refining a settlement model that aligns with pastoral realities. Ngelzarma pointed to the Mori land settlement system in the Netherlands, where fenced reserves host both herders and livestock while providing veterinary care, milk and meat processing facilities within the same space.

Experience from past milk collection programmes, he added, shows that when processing facilities are located close to grazing areas, herders are more willing to settle in one place. Such incentives, MACBAN believes, could gradually curb open grazing and offer a lasting solution to the recurring and violent farmer-herder clashes destabilising communities across the country.