Ghana needs more cattle farmers, drastic decline in production

Only 10% of cattle slaughtered at the livestock slaughtering and processing factory in Kumasi, Ghana comes from local farmers.

This is a worrying trend which needs to be addressed, because in some few years to come Ghana cannot meet the needs of meat lovers in the country.

With the continues report of how herdsmen are always invading farms of locals, one will think there are enough cattle for the consumption of the country, but the situation turns out to be different.

Built in the year 1998, the Kumasi abattoir was to serve the livestock slaughtering and processing needs of the region, but currently, the abattoir needs to rely on the importation of more cattle to deal with the needs of the region.

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The Kumasi abattoir is producing below its capacity of 60 cattle per hour.

Out of the 200 cattle slaughtered daily only 10% comes from local farmers and the rest are from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Service Manager at the abattoir, Bright Amenorfe said it’s very expensive to buy cattle from the neighbouring countries due to the depreciation of the Ghanaian Cedi.

“It’s very expensive, it depends on the cedi exchange rate, we don’t have the numbers at all in Ghana, what we have is not enough, what we get from Ghana is just about 10% of what we slaughter in here.”

Also commenting on the ways to deal with the situation, Line Manager at the abattoir, Baba Abu said government should commit funds in developing cattle farms of the local farmers for Ghana to be able to meet the growing need for meat.

“Government should set in, there are some farmers who need money to intensify their works when monies are been given to them from time to time the agric officers will be checking them and it will bring more profit to the country.”

www.primenewsghana.com/ Ghana News