Berekum: Farmer risks losing over GH¢1m investment over taboo baring goats

A young entrepreneur based in Berekum Senase is on the brink of losing over GH¢1 million in investment on a goat farm as traditional leaders of the community have issued him a two-week ultimatum to relocate the farm, saying it is taboo to keep goats.

Founder and CEO of Semanhyia Learning and Development Farms, Fredrick Benneh Frimpong, in a New Year broadcast, narrated how the order was issued across the community and followed through by the slaughtering of goats by machete-wielding young men.

He said he was later told the order was targeting people who had their goats on the extensive system, with them roaming freely in the community, and not farmers like him. However, his mother was later summoned to the palace and told to relocate the farm while he was away in South Africa.

“About four months ago, I actually heard that the queen mother had issued an order for the people in the community to take all goats from the community, and rumours were spreading. Three days after the order, a group of young guys came into the community with machetes and killed all the goats. I was told the news but later heard that because there was a funeral coming up, the order was for goats roaming randomly, and that is why the guys were killing the goats in the town.”

“That being said, nobody stepped a foot on my farm, so that made the rumor that it was for random goats true. So we continued with our business after the incident, but three months after I was traveling around South Africa, I got a call from my mother saying she had been summoned by the palace, and she was given two weeks for us to vacate all our livestock from the premises because it was a taboo and that the gods do not want goats here.”

Traditional customs: Berekum Traditional Council clashes with investor over goat farming

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Mr. Benneh Frimpong bemoaned the huge financial commitments he has made toward sustaining the farm and pleaded with the traditional authorities to give him enough to enable him to build somewhere to relocate the goats.

“Just to give you an idea of how much we have spent, in 2023, we actually invested GH¢1 million into this farm. We planted the Semanhyia grass, drilled three boreholes to provide water, introduced breeds that cost over $1,500, built a warehouse, and all the machines that we have here cannot be taken with us.

“We have been pleading with the chiefs to give us at least three months to be able to establish another farm so that we can move our goats, but the answer has unfortunately been no, and so we have no choice but to sell our goats.”

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