Behun Fulani: A herders’ community revolutionising dairy business

With their wives and children, Shehu Mohammad, along with his siblings, fled their ancestral home at Falgore with their herds of cattle five years ago in the heat of cattle rustling and kidnapping in the forested region bordering Kano and Bauchi states. After several days and nights in the wilderness searching for good pastures and […]

With their wives and children, Shehu Mohammad, along with his siblings, fled their ancestral home at Falgore with their herds of cattle five years ago in the heat of cattle rustling and kidnapping in the forested region bordering Kano and Bauchi states.

After several days and nights in the wilderness searching for good pastures and water for their flocks, the Fulani brothers settled at Behun Fulani on the fringes of Dawakin Kudu, the headquarter of Dawakin Kudu local government area, about one-and-a-half hours drive to the city of Kano.

It is unequivocal that the presence of these herders on the outskirts of this fast growing local government headquarters, with evolving modern architectural designs has added a natural beauty and traditional look to the environment with retrospective effect, reminiscing the old traditional history of the people of the state.

Their isolated thatched booths scattered in a shrubby fields are an attraction to this sleepy community, where visitors hardly discern the wealth of its residents from their kind of lifestyle.

When Chronicle visited Behun Fulani camp recently, cows were on the fields for grazing, women and children and a few of men were at home attending to some local chores.

It was an interesting sight as brooks of traditional breeds of poultry, including chickens, turkeys and guinea fowls graze freely for pebbles in the expansive space with no one cares to restrain them either for fear of predators or thieves.

Though no government presence is visible in the community in terms of basic amenities, Chronicle observed that the residents of the sedentary camp have already adapted to their new home with children playing around their young calves suggestive of a simple and comfortable lifestyle envious to an ever-busy city dweller.

The Ardo of the community, Shehu Mohammed, recalled how they were forced to flee their ancestral home, leaving behind their kinsmen and relatives.

“We are all from Falgore, our parents were born there, it was our ancestral home, but we had to flee that place with our herds and children about five years ago because of recurring cases of kidnapping and cattle rustling in the region.

“Many of our kinsmen there have lost their cattle; some even gruesomely murdered during raids by the bandits. As a Fulani man, you know our lives and everything revolve around these animals, so youc an imagine how devastating it could be losing them to rustlers overnight.

So it was on the basis of that we decided to flee our ancestral home to safeguard ourselves, our animals and our dignity” he said.

He said they were attracted to their current settlement due to the availability of grazing land and water for their cattle.

He said the camp was acquired on facilitation of the management of L&Z Integrated Farms in its quest to settle nomadic herdsmen to enhance its daily uptake of dairy cow milk.

Mohammed said, during their routine search for grazing land, they were introduced to the initiative of the management of the company which uptakes the milk daily.

“Observing the opportunities that such initiative entails we grabbed it and the company’s management went ahead and secured a land for us to settle on and also secured 20 hectares of grazing field for us. A solar powered borehole was constructed as source of water for us and our animals.

He revealed that within less than two years at Behun Fulani, they have recorded numerous successes in their business, adding that the agreement with the L&Z Farms had saved their women from the troubles of hawking raw cow milk in the city.

“I must tell you that apart from the enduring peace we have here in terms of insecurity for our lives and properties, our settlement in this place has opened our eyes to numerous opportunities in our business as herders especially as regards to dairy milk production.

“Presently our women are safe from troubles related to hawking of milk in the town, they can now go into other businesses and our young girls can go to school” he said.

He added that the health of their herds have improved within a very short period, thereby reflecting in the quality and quantity of their daily milk output.

He said each of the families produce a minimum of 100 litres of milk daily for uptake by the company at the cost of N170 per litre the price he said is better than the market price.

Another member of the community, Malam Abubakar Muhammed told Chronicle that, their settlement has accorded them the opportunity for their children to go to school and also has improved their cattle business.

Abubakar further revealed that, they have been equipped with various milking techniques under a routine hygiene atmosphere and on the other hand the company has provided an instant market for their milk as it uptakes every litre of their milk at a cost higher than what the open market offers per litre.

“With the company’s effort in up-taking our milk at N170 per litre which is higher than what the open market offers we are indeed far better than what we used to be. Though, some of our cattle go out for grazing during the rainy season, the movement has been reduced drastically and also we don’t go far as we were used to. Presently there are many Fulani girls and boys from these clusters that have access to education courtesy of the initiatives.”

Many of them, who spoke to our reporters, urged the government to key in vigorously into the initiative and replicate same in various parts of the country so as to be able to address the issue for farmer/herder clashes.

The residents further appealed to the government to ban importation of dairy cow milk and processed meat from other countries, saying the country has enough to meet the demand of the population only if the problems of insecurity involving farmers and herders are addressed.

Speaking to Chronicle, the Managing Director L&Z Integrated Farms, Muhammad Damakka Abubakar, said that his company has come up with two educational packages for the nomadic herders that would assist the herder’s children in getting access to education.

“We have initiated Fulani girl child education initiative, where we add N20 to each litter we uptake from any Fulani woman living in each of the cluster that agrees to allow her daughter go to school, we also assisted them with uniforms and books. The excess N20 is to enable the mother augment the proceeds if the girl is allowed to hawk the milk.”

If a woman gives us 40 litters a day then she is having N800 extra every day because instead of paying N170 we are now paying her N190 per litter. Then we have the second initiative which is the Fulani children education initiative; this is where we identify brilliant Fulani children within our various clusters and source for sponsorship for them. This has been working out greatly as many individuals and cooperate bodies have shown interest to be part of the sponsorship,” said the MD.