Revive livestock industry - Jantuah

Vice-chairman of the Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC) Kwame Jantuah has urged government to pay critical attention to the livestock industry since it could become a major income earner for the economy.

Speaking to Class Business on how agri-business could help change Ghana’s economy, Mr Jantuah lamented the collapse of the livestock industry saying it had been left to nomads.

He said if done properly, the sector could earn income for Ghanaians who want to venture into it.

“Have we really had a livestock industry in this country? Because most times what happens is, we bring in livestock from Burkina Faso. However, I believe that in the livestock industry we could have actually looked at other types of livestock and bring them into the industry. So, the cows we have, we could have brought in some South African cows which are much bigger and have a lot of meat on them and then that will trigger factories where you can process some of these meat, but it looks as if the livestock industry has been left to nomads. But it is an area that if handled properly can earn quite a lot of income even internally for those people who want to go into it,” Mr Jantuah stated.

“For now, we don’t even have a poultry industry because we have opened ourselves up for imports from abroad and now that we even signed the EPA with the European Union, how are we going to be able to raise the poultry industry today?”