By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), Aug. 26, GNA – The Changing Lives in Innovative Partnership (CLIP) has engaged stakeholders in the Upper West Region on livestock trading to help create a favorable environment for livestock production and trading in Ghana and the West Africa sub-region.
The stakeholders at the week-long informed debate included transhumance, herders, representatives of the Fulbe community, crop farmers, the media and representation of state departments including the Regional Department of Agriculture.
Funded by Acting for Life (AFL), the workshop focused on issues including the push and pull factors, challenges and mutual benefits of livestock mobility and trading and the socio-economic impact of the livestock value chain on the lives of the people within the value chain.
Speaking at the workshop, Mr Lukman Yussif, the Director of CLIP, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) in the livestock sector, indicated that livestock mobility was inevitable due to some environmental factors.
“We know that mobility is a necessity, it is not a choice because climate change and insecurity have forced most of these herders from the Sahel into our territory and they are coming in brings a lot of challenges in terms of competition for water and grazing resources.
These challenges sometimes degenerate into community-level conflicts, which sometimes are fatal, not to mention the destruction of property,” he explained.
He explained that aside from climate change and insecurity, the demand for grazing resources is not met in the Sahel areas, which compelled the producers to move to places where they could get enough grazing and water resources for their animals.
Mr Yussif, therefore, stressed the need for the stakeholders to identify solutions applicable within the community and national levels to reduce those challenges including farmer-herder conflicts to the barest minimum.
He said despite the benefit of transhumance to the region and the country in general including producing improved breeds, improving the local economy and jobs creation within the livestock value chain, some sections of the population focused more on its negatives.
The CLIP Director stated that to promote the livestock sector, the government commissioned a committee in 2017 mandated to advise the government on appropriate transhumance management practices and livestock production to enable the country to harness the potential in the sector while mitigating the farmer-herder conflict.
He said the committee, facilitated by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of National Security, was called: “Ghana Cattle Ranching Committee” in 2017 and later renamed: “Ghana Cattle Ranching and Transhumance Committee”.
He said the committee, of which CLIP was a member, had since produced the “Ghana Pastoral Policy and Strategy Document” which was currently at the consideration stage.
The Policy outlined strategies and policies that if the government adopted would help sanitise the farmer-header conflicts in Ghana and improve livestock production.
Mr Yussif said the private sector actors including CLIP were also collaborating with communities to identify grazing areas, secure livestock corridors and develop water points to facilitate the mobility of transhumance.
Mr Mamudu Ibrahim Tall, the Upper West Regional President of the Livestock Farmers Association of Ghana, said difficulty in finding gracing and water resources for their animals was a serious challenge to them.
“The farmers think it is their farmlands so they can farm anyhow. There is no route for the animals to pass to grace and drink. So, because these things are not it is difficult for us to rear animals,” he explained.
Dr. Adams Yussif, a Veterinary Officer at the Sissala West District Agricultural Directorate, indicated that the livestock sector served as a source of revenue for the government, especially the District Assemblies.
He, thus, reiterated the need for initiatives to promote the sector by supporting transhumance in the country.
He mentioned unnecessary harassment by security personnel and communities against transhumance and herders as some challenges, which needed to be addressed.
Mr Huudu Abu, the Upper West Regional Director of Agriculture, said the workshop was timely since it would help find solutions to the challenges in the agricultural sector since agriculture comprised livestock and crop farming.
GNA