By Saio Marrah
The National Organising Secretary of the Fullah Union, Tabital Pulaaku International Sierra Leone Chapter, Mohamed Seray Jalloh, has disclosed the union’s plan to establish district ranches for cattle to prevent the destruction of agricultural produce in communities.
He told Politico in an interview that most of the cattle ranches are in very close proximity to small-scale farms. He added that as roaming animals, cattle are difficult to control or prevent from destroying the farms.
He said destruction of the farm means starving the farmers for a whole year, thereby fomenting tension between farmers and cattle rearers in the country.
“This has resulted in loss of human lives, killing of animals and burning of houses,” he said.
He added: “All of these we need to find a solution. For example, places like the United States and the Netherlands are places where they rear animals, but you hardly hear of such destructions.”
According to him, what they discovered from those countries is that they demarcate a specific place that would be fenced and grow specific grass for grazing.
At the same time, he said they would be able to process the animal by ensuring they get meat, cow milk, and lots of other produce from it.
He said as a union, once there is stability, they would engage their executive secretaries across all the districts in the country to identify the amount of cattle rearers in their districts, and locations.
“So we will go there and agree that each district gets all the animals in one ranch, give them medication, feed them, and get the products out in a modern way,” he said.
Jalloh also noted that they will first call a workshop with the stakeholders so they can see reason and accept the idea after which they can then map out a way forward.
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