‘Ghana needs more vets to develop livestock industry’

The Deputy Director of the Ghana Veterinary Services (GVS), Dr Anthony Akunzule, has called for the training of more veterinary doctors to help develop the country’s livestock industry, stressing that the lack of adequate veterinary doctors is negatively affecting the industry.

He said the livestock sector was an important component of the country’s economy and played a major role in providing livelihood support for the rural population.

Dr Akunzule, in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Tamale after a two-day livestock stakeholders’ workshop, therefore, urged students to develop interest in enrolling in veterinary programmes.

“We need more people to be trained as veterinary doctors in Ghana to help our livestock farmers,” he said.

He said veterinary doctors played critical roles in the development of the livestock industry, hence the need to train more to assist livestock farmers.

He noted that until recently when the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) created departments for veterinary medicine, the few veterinary doctors in the country were trained in foreign universities.

 Forum

Touching on the workshop, Dr Akunzule said it was to give stakeholders in the livestock sector the opportunity to make contributions towards the preparation of the Ghana Livestock Sector Development Policy and Strategy II (GLSDPS II).

More than 50 participants selected from the various districts in the region took part in the consultative workshop.

 Policy

Dr Akunzule explained that the purpose of the policy was to “develop a competitive and more efficient livestock industry that will increase domestic production, reduce the importation of meat and livestock products and help improve the livelihoods of all livestock value chain actors”.

He added that the policy would also help transform the national economy, generate employment, reduce poverty and increase nutritional security.

Dr Akunzule explained that the policy would strengthen the overall animal health cover through early warning systems and the prevention, control and eradication of animal diseases.