By Prince Paul Amuzu:
Cattle farmers in Somanya in the YiloKrobo Municipal of the Eastern Region are attributing the challenges confronting livestock farmers in terms of persistent fall in prices of their livestock to the importation of livestock from other countries.
Speaking in an interview with Krobea Asante on the “Akuafo Se Sen” segment of the Morning Ride, Mr. AdamuAmadu, a livestock farmer in the Somanya municipal expressed his frustration at the prevailing situation leading to the loss of interest in the livestock farming business.
According to him, the importation of livestock from Ghana’s neighboring countries such as Benin,Togo, Nigeria and Burkina Faso into the country has adversely affected the price at which they used to sell their livestock.
‘For the past three (3)years we used to sell our cattle at a unit price of one thousand Ghana cedis (GHC 1,000) but for now one is going for six hundred (GHC 600) due to the high numbers of cattle in the system,’ Mr. Amadu told Rite news.
He therefore called on the government to put in place a ban on the importation of livestock from other countries into the country.
Mr. Amadu who has been in the livestock farming business for the past fifteen (15) years also expressed concern about the cost of engaging the services of extension officers, a service which hitherto came at no cost.
‘Initially, extension and veterinary officers attended to our needs free of charge including the supply of medication when they visited us on our farms. Now however, a farmer has to pay for the service,’ the livestock farmer complained bitterly.
“My father told me when I was young that every year the government gave drugs to the veterinary officers to come to our farm to vaccinate our animals free and I also grew to meet same but for now we GHC 10 per cattle and Gh c 3 for a goator sheep in order to access medication which all come as additional cost to us,’ he fumed.
He therefore pleaded with the government to do something about the importation of livestock, especially cattle, into the country and also the restoration of the free vaccination that they used to enjoy to curtail the cost of production.
Source: Ritefmonline.org
