Mahama promises to cultivate 20,000 acres of grassland for Fulani herdsmen

The Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has promised to bring an end to the constant conflict between indigenes of Asante Agogo in the Ashanti Region and Fulani herdsmen in the area.

According to the politician, he will replicate the Argentine system of cattle grazing in Ghana by seeing to the cultivation of over 20,000 acres of grassland to serve as grazing grounds for cattle.

Ashanti Regional Correspondent of Happy 98.9 FM/e.TV Ghana, Jimmy Cliff giving an update of ex-President Mahama’s tour in the region said, “The former President promised to give between 10,000 to 20,000 acres of land to the Fulani herdsmen to cultivate grass and serve as grazing grounds for their cattle. When this is done, it’ll prevent the destruction of crops and conflict between the people of Agogo and the Fulani herdsmen”.

Jimmy noted that the grass farm will be an all-year one where an irrigation system will be implemented to sustain the farm.

In recent years, Asante Akim Agogo in the Ashanti Region has gained much coverage in the media over natural resource conflicts between pastoralists and indigenous farming communities.

These conflicts are shaped by three different interests: farmers, herders and chiefs. The chiefs are interested in gaining revenues from land and natural resources by releasing them to migrants, including herders.

This creates pressures on local resources and affects farmers‘ management of fallow land and also results in herders encroaching into farming areas and farmers moving into herding areas.

The pressure on resources and encroachment of cattle onto farmlands, where they destroy crops, results in increasing tensions between herders and farmers which breaks out into violent confrontations.