Perennial feud between cattle herdsmen and farmers threatens food security

Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, the Chairman for the Bono East Regional Security Council (BERESEC), has called for an end to the long-standing feud between cattle herdsmen and farmers in the Bono-East Region. He urged stakeholders, including chiefs, to help find a lasting solution to the problem so that the indiscriminate grazing and destruction of farms by cattle would be halted to pave way for peace in the area. Mr Adu-Gyan was speaking at the end of year meeting of the Bono-East Regional House of Chiefs at Techiman. He stressed that immediate decisions needed to be taken to ban people from accepting cattle on their land to destroy people's farms which is currently threating food production in the region. He said farmers and the public would applaud the decision of the house to secure the livelihoods of farmers and protect the environment. The Minister hinted that tension had existed between farmers and cattle herdsmen in the region for many years resulting to casualties from armed attacks on both sides, a situati on that has caused major setbacks in the development of agriculture in the area. Mr Adu-Gyan noted that the menace continued to pose security threats in the region since lives and properties were lost through the perennial feud and does not augur well for the peace in the area. The Regional Minister express worry over the increasing chieftaincy disputes, saying it was not only a threat to the relative peace, but also has the potentials to impede development in the affected areas and called for permeant solutions to end the situation for the sustainability of peace in the region. He commended the Regional House of Chiefs for the effort made to ensure peaceful resolutions of chieftaincy disputes in the region. Nana Pimmampim Yaw Kab/adrese, the President for the Bono-East Regional House Chiefs, called for a befitting regional edifice for the house, as the temporal one allocated posed lots of challenges to the day-to-day administration of the house. Nana Kabrese who is also the paramount chief of the Yeji t raditional council affirmed the commitment of members of the house, to contribute their effort in resolving the cattle grazing menace by the Fulani herdsmen to restore peace between the farmers and cattle owners in the Region. He noted that about thirty-seven chieftaincy dispute cases were pending before the house and that necessary adjudicators had been put in place to address them for peace to return to the affected traditional areas Source: Ghana News Agency

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