Assessing Donkey Production and Management in Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo District in the Northern Region of Ghana

A study was carried out to ascertain the production and management of donkeys in some communities in the Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo district. Ten communities were purposively sampled and the donkey owners were sampled using snowball sampling. A total of 100 donkey owners were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires on biographical information of farmers, flock structure and management systems, feeding and watering, reproduction and breeding and diseases, mortality and management. Linear body measurements such as Heart girth circumference (HG), Height at withers (HW), Body length (BL), Neck length (NL) and Head length (HL) were taken on 144 donkeys. Donkey keeping is an important activity to farmers in the district. They provide cheap means of transport to farmers who cannot afford mechanical power. Their use for supplying water to household was ranked (1.31) as the most important role whereas carting of goods to market and farm implements to and from farms was the second most important role. The least role was for income generation. Donkeys roam and graze freely during the dry season but are tethered during the rainy season to graze. The animals mate randomly at pastures. Sores on the skin, worm infestation and foot diseases were some of the diseases conditions identified. Challenges such as feed scarcity, theft and urbanization were also reported. Mean HG, HW, BL and NL of donkeys in the district were 116.0cm, 91.7cm, 99.1cm and 33.7cm respectively. There was no difference between communities with regards to most of the management and production practices as well as challenges investigated indicating that these activities are practiced similarly among the farmers in the district.

Keywords: carting, owners, tethered, feed, transport.