A fodder bank project funded with a loan facility from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help curb the Fulani menace in the Afram Plains District of the Eastern Region has been abandoned and is wasting away.
The Afram Plains District Agricultural Development Project was initiated in February 2007 with a $28.9 million loan facility provided by the African Development Bank and an additional $3.6 million counterpart funding from the Government of Ghana to transform the face of agriculture in the district.
The multi-million-dollar project, which includes fodder banks with modern facilities where cattle owners are expected to keep their herds during the planting season so they do not stray into farms to destroy food crops in the district, is rotting away in the bush by the day.
One of such facilities, the first in the country, is sited at Wawase, and covers a total area of 272 hectares with four paddocks, is fully fenced and has a dam to hold water and foliage for the animals.
Checks conducted by Weekend Finder indicate that although the Wawase fodder bank project was completed in 2013 and handed over to the District Assembly, it has since not been put to any meaningful use because the assembly has not been able to constitute a management team to manage the facility.
Mr Kofi Amoako-Tweneboa, the Project Co-ordinator, told Weekend Finder that the Wawase project was handed over to the District Assembly in 2013, but noted that the assembly has since not been able to put together a management team to manage the facility.
“As far as I am concerned, technically, what we were supposed to do has been done and we have handed over to the assembly”, he said.
He however claimed that the facility is currently being used “unofficially because nobody is there to supervise it”.
According to him, the assembly is now responsible for its management, a thing that has since not been done.
Two similar facilities in the district have also been abandoned by the contractor.
Mr Amoako-Tweneboa said he has since referred the issue to lawyers at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for the necessary action.
The District Chief Executive of the area, Ibrahim Issaka, told Weekend Finder the facility is not being used because there were numerous problems with the project.
“There is a lot of problem with the construction of the fodder banks; the whole land was not cleared and now the whole Wawase land has been taken over by trees, preventing the grass to grow”, he said.
He added that “perhaps those who did the visibility study did not get something right at the beginning.”
The district, which has a total landmark of about 5040 sq km and forms one-third of the Eastern Region, has its economy driven by agriculture, due to the vast tracts of arable land, coupled with good weather conditions.
Over the years, activities of Fulani herdsmen have gravely affected food production in the district.
The fodder bank project was therefore initiated with the hope of solving the Fulani issue.
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