Abstract            Volume:5  Issue-1  Year-2017         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Even through donkeys have been extensively used by people in many areas in the world, their use has been synonymous with backwardness, under development and low status. In a qualitative and quantitative study of 120 households located within the Bolgatanga. Municipality, this study sought to provide an overview of the consequences of development for donkey use and management. The survey was done to assess donkey transport, sources of livelihoods, food security and traditional knowledge, and the myths about donkey usage in Bolgatanga. Municipality. Formal questionnaire and informal interviews were used to gather information from purposively sampled donkey owners. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were used to analyze the data. The donkey was a source of employment particularly for the rural dwellers and female-headed households in the transportation of goods. It also made a direct positive contribution of food security of many female-headed as well as low income households. Increasing net income from the donkey however resulted in a reduction in the expenditure made on food by most male-headed households while increasing the percentage of income saved. The study also tried to show how the use of donkey shad enabled these people to withstand some of the threats to their lives and livelihoods. The paper provides several examples of how these different uses ensured the survival of women and men in hostile environments and enables them to integrate into the social and economic processes from which they are often excluded. Government and NGOs, as a strategy to all eviate poverty may consider providing a donkey and cart to poor farming households and female-headed households in places with similar characteristics like Bolgatanga and its environs.

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