The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has urged farmers to reject the planting of Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMOs) seeds imported into the Ghanaian market on their farmlands.
According to the Association, Genetically Modified Organisms were alien to indigenous culture and injurious to
health, hence not the solution to problems bedeviling Ghana's Agriculture.
President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Mr Wepia Addo Awal Adugwala gave the advice to farmers
in the Forest Zone Agroecology Movement at a Stakeholder Dialogue and Community Engagement on Agroecology
and Food Sovereignty at Ohiamaadwen in the Shama District of the Western Region.
Dubbed, “Reject the GMO Pod Border-Resistant (PBR) Cowpea”, the stakeholder engagement reminded farmers
that it was an imperfect science without the full knowledge of its impact which would utterly contaminate organic
and natural varieties through cross pollination and make them sterile.
The stakeholder engagement aimed at awareness creation and knowledge sharing on GMOs, updates of activities
from members of the Ghana Agroecology Movement as well as strengthening the Movement.
According to Mr Awal Adugwala, the court had ordered the National Bio-Safety Authority to undertake a
nationwide education and labeling of GMO products for farmers to identify GMO seeds and non-GMO ones for
them to make a choice, adding that PFAG had taken the lead to educate its farmers to buy only improved varieties
and traditional seeds.
The PFAG President said GMOs were not the panacea to problems bedeviling the Agricultural sector and asked the
government to address challenges such as irrigation, mechanization, power tillers, good roads and access to
farmlands.
Mr Awal Adugwala urged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to desist from adding GMOs to the
Planting for Food and Jobs phase two project.
The Shama District Director of Agriculture, Mr Abass Muhammed lauded the PFAG for the crusade against
Genetically Modified Organisms, adding that only few people knew about GMOs in Ghana and that Farmer-Based
Organizations would champion livestock and crop development in a traditional and sustainable way.
The Daily Searchlight continues to be mystified by how the leaders of this nation continue to allow any and all fads
and trends to take root in Ghana. As its name suggests, GMOs are artificial improvements on agriculture created in
the laboratory. It is a play on what nature created and ordered, and nobody really would ever know the real effects of
such fiddling with nature, until decaes later, by which time any harm would have been done and would be
irredeemable.
One would have hoped that our leaders at national level would have gone to extreme lengths to keep out such
potential harmful innovations out of our system until the fullest studies have been done.
In Ghana, we seem to love doing the things we should not do, and not doing the things we should do. We have
ignored our indigenous farmers, but are busy embracing crops and innovations created in laboratories, with the
ultimate effect that we would become more dependent on the West and imports.
It is generally known that local plant varieties have their own indigenous seeds, that can be kept over from the
harvest. GMO seeds have to be imported every year, which would mean that eventually, if care is not taken, that
Ghana’s food security would be compromised. It does not take an Einstein to see where this is going. If our leaders
had a care about our future, economy, health and security, they would have stood with the Peasant Farmers
Association of Ghana.
It is too tiresome!
(Editorial of the Daily Searchlight of 13 th September, 2024).
