Agri NationalNATIONAL NEWS

Fulani herdsmen destroy farms at Ejura

The scourge of the activities of Fulani herdsmen and their cattle has reared its ugly head again in the Ashanti region.

This time, it is maize farmers in the Ejura Sekyedumase district who are suffering the brunt of their activities.

They have, therefore, appealed to the security agencies and the government to help them deal with the nomadic herdsmen in the area.

They alleged that the herdsmen have been allowing their cattle to graze on their farms and thereby destroying their farms.

According to them, all their investment have been lost to the activities of the herdsmen and their herds and all their complaints fell on death ears.

The farmers who vented their concern during a field trip organised by Support for Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa (SARD-SC) to introduce the farmers to new maize varieties, said although they have made several complaints to the police, the latter seemed to be dragging their feet.

The project was aimed at introducing farmers to new and improved varieties of maize as part of efforts to increase food production and improve the income level of small holder farmers.

The farmers also accused the traditional leaders of conniving with the Fulani herdsmen by allocating them land to keep their animals.

According to David Yamful, who is also the assemblyman for Adidwan, the activities of the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle were really affecting farming activities in the area particularly maize farmers.

He said the herdsmen bring their cattle during the night to graze on their farms and when they are confronted, they denied it.

Mr Yamful recounted an incident where a farmer had to lay ambush in his own farm at night and saw the cattle grazing on his farm and shot one of them.

“For trying to protect his farm, he was detained for four days at the police station, meanwhile if we complain about the activities of the herdsmen, the police do nothing,” he lamented.

His point was corroborated by David Awuley Awuni, also assemblyman for Atonsu also in the Ejura-Sekyedumase, who said most of the farmers in his area also complained of the same problem.

This, he said, has affected farming activities in the area and also their income.

Aside the rains patterns which affected farming activity in general this year, he said the activities of the herdsmen made the farmers run at a bigger loss.

According to him, most of them took loans to buy farming inputs for their farms and were unable to harvest anything to pay back their loans.

The farmers appealed to the government to turn its attention to other farmers in the country and not to concentrate only on cocoa farmers by supplying chemicals and fertilisers.

According to them, “we are all farmers and we all contribute to the development of the nation and without food crops farmers, the cocoa farmers would not survive.”

Explaining the rationale of the field trip, the country project coordinator, Dr Kwadwo Obeng-Antwi, said it was to expose the farmers to new varieties that have been developed to help increase their yields.

He said currently the programme was promoting two maize varieties: Abontem and Omankwan.

He said these varieties were developed taking into consideration the new weather pattern due to the climate change and their nutritional values.

According to Dr Obeng-Antwi, the new varieties are early maturing and do not need lots of rains to bear fruits.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

 

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