Livestock accessibility, which is an essential commodity to food security in Ghana has not been spared the raging effect of the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the pandemic’s effect on the general food value chain, some workers in the livestock industry still operated within the three-week partial lockdown period.
Though there’s no substantial evidence indicating COVID-19 could be transmitted from meat to humans, it has become less of an option in these times.
Particularly, for Muslim faithful’s in Ghana who are gearing up to celebrate the Eid-ul-Adha festivities from tomorrow July 31, 2020 which is an important day on the Islamic calendar, patronage in livestock has been significantly affected.
Upon GhanaWeb’s visit to some livestock operators in Nima on Thursday, July 30, some owners of livestock recounted to the news team how low patronage has been, even prior to the coronavirus-induced lockdown earlier in March 2020.
A livestock owner of 9 years in Nima, Yakubu Iddris on his part explained; “So far, business has been very slow as a result of the coronavirus pandemic adding, a daily low patronage has been recorded as compared to previous times. The disease is quite serious so it has denied many people from coming here to buy any form of livestock”
With regards to patronage towards the Eid festivities, Iddris said he is optimistic customers will at least visit his shed to purchase some livestock as the festivity is an important one for all Muslims faithfuls.
A customer on the other hand, Yusif Mukaila told GhanaWeb, government must start implementing proposals for developing the livestock industry in order to quickly prevent disease outbreaks whilst ensuring greater sustained productivity.
He added, this will enable animal protein availability at affordable prices and boost the livestock industry in general.
“I came here to purchase some sheep and cow, though I wanted to add a camel to my purchase, it was quite expensive as a result of the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on businesses so I chose to buy only the sheep and cow for now because that’s the only livestock I can afford for the Eid-ul-Adha festivities”
