Ghanaian researchers seek solutions to farmer-herder conflicts

Farmers and herders currently resort to killing in order to protect their families and livelihoods. The farmers need the land for crop farming; the herders need it for cattle herding – and both groups depend on the land for their livelihood sources.

See Ghana’s GTV news report from the launch of the research project “Access and Authority Nexus in Farmer- Herder Conflicts in Kumasi”.

New research from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) aims at finding solutions to the ongoing conflicts between the farmers and herders.

“The conflicts do not only occur in Ghana but also in Nigeria and other countries in the West African sub-region. They claim thousands of lives and cause millions of dollars in property damage each year,” says Paul Osei-Tutu, PhD, one of the researchers behind the new project.

KNUST is leading the project, but is collaborating with two other Ghanaian universities and one Danish. For the next five years, the researchers will look into how farmers and herders justify their claims to land, why their land claims clash and how the conflicts affect livelihoods on both side of the conflict. Ultimately, the project aims at providing policy advice on how such conflicts may be resolved in the future.

“We hope to find answers as to how the farmer-herder conflicts can be managed, so we can stop the killings and safeguard people’s lives and property. The ultimate goal is that farmers and herders can live in peaceful coexistence in the future,” says Paul Osei-Tutu, who is a lecturer at the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources at KNUST.

The project launch was on Tuesday, 19 November 2019 at Akyawkrom-Kumasi, Ghana.

__

Access and Authority Nexus in Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Kumasi is a collaboration between Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; University of Copenhagen, Denmark; University of Energy and Natural Resources, Ghana; University of Development Studies, Ghana.

Read more about it on Danida Fellowship Centre’s Research Database .