FG launches Agro Rangers Corps to patrol farms, ranches

Federal Government has started the training of 3,000 personnel as part of the implementation process of the recommendations by a committee jointly set up last year by the Agriculture and Interior ministries to deliberate on the operational modalities of a special unit that will act protect farmers and their investments from attacks by criminals, especially kidnappers.


The unit, known as Agro Rangers, will operate under the auspices of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and will be drawn from the NSCDC arms squad. Officers in the unit are currently undergoing training in weapon handling facilitated by the Nigerian Army. At the end of the training, they will be deployed to farms and ranches across the country.

Their presence, it is hoped, will forestall attacks on hitherto vulnerable farms so that farmers can begin to work on their farms without fear of attack.

In recent times, there has been an escalation of clashes between farmers and herdsmen in parts of the North including Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Niger, Nasarawa and Kaduna. The attacks resulted in loss of lives and farm investments worth billions of naira, thus threatening the country’s drive towards food security. This is in addition to rising cases of cattle rustling and kidnapping.

Explaining the decision to go along with the initiative, Interior Minister Dambazau said the issue bordered on his ministry’s responsibility to secure the lives and property of Nigerians and to protect the country’s agricultural investments.

“This duty is directly connected to the ease of doing business and we want to encourage investors to come to Nigeria. We are solidly behind the ranching programme and we’ll provide adequate support to the Ministry of Agriculture to succeed”, the minister added.



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