Vegetable farmers in the Kassena-Nankana West District of Upper East Region have expressed regret that the activities of stray animals are making farming not attractive anymore.
Many youth in the district rely solely on an all year round farming for livelihood. Unfortunately, the invasion of stray animals on their farms during the dry season is making their investments go waste and putting the survival of their livelihood at risk.
Speaking to A1 News, some farmers in the area who are engage in dry season farming said the activities of stray animals are pushing many youth of the district to the urban cities in seek for non-existent jobs.
“When we talk of stray animals, they are the animals that roam about and nobody is taking care of them, so they roam to a level that the owner [of the animals] will not know. So, the animals take a chance of destroying our farms. So stray animals is a big challenge in my area”, Janet Anaba, a farmer laments.
Another farmer, Ayedena Roland said “when it is dry season time everybody including the youth and the elderly are engage in farming for a livelihood, but as they are into it, in the night everybody knows it is the duty of owners of the animals to take care of the animals. But after leaving the farming side back home, the following day we witness the destruction of the stray animals on the farms”
This came to light during a day advocacy workshop held in Navrongo by Ananoore Dry Season Farmers Association of the Kassena-Nankana West District with support from Business Sector Challenge Advocacy (BUSAC) Fund.
A consultant to the association Isaac Adaebsa expressed fear that the activity of stray animals if not curtail poses a danger to the country’s quest in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 by 2030.
“This project seeks to provide support to the achievement of the goal. If 65 % population of the country engages directly or indirectly on agriculture, it means the country depend much on agriculture for a living. So anything that has the tendency to affect the growth of that sector needs to be handled with all seriousness. So, stray animals is the major thing that is preventing many people from engaging in dry season farming in the Northern parts of this country, otherwise, that goal, Ghana cannot achieve it”, he said.
As a remedy Mr. Adaebsa said measures are underway with support from the district assembly to enact bye-laws that gears towards ensuring that stray animals are confined at vantage points to prevent them from causing further destruction of farms especially in the dry season.
Source: A1radioonline.com | 101.1Mhz | Joshua Asaah
