Agribusiness players have called for a paradigm shift in the country’s system of crop production, particularly vegetables and fruits to make farmers and exporters more competitive on the global market.
“The best way to make our agricultural produce meet international standards is to go organic. The government must support the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to streamline organic farming. This will help Ghana to meet food export required standards and specifications as well as free domestic consumers from all sort of health risks as a result of high chemical residue,” Kofi Vinyo, 2016 National Best Farmer told the B&FT in an interview.
He said Ghana needs to move away from ‘low-cost farming’ and promote organic method, adding that this would be the best antidote for the export ban on Ghanaian vegetables and fruits on the international market. He dispelled the notion that organic farming is not cost effective, “If you want the best for ourselves, then we have to invest to derive the desired quality farm produce. It would be even more expensive if we continue our agriculture in current indiscriminate use of agrochemicals.”
Vegetables and fruits from Ghana have been banned from the Chinese market for failing to meet international production standards. The ban was necessitated by the failure of Ghanaian producers to adhere to strict phytosanitary requirements. The fruits and vegetables had unacceptable level traces of some detrimental chemicals.
Ghana was also among 27 African countries which had their fruits banned by the United States and the European Union due to the presence of fruit flies and other harmful plant pests in exported products. The ban is expected to be reviewed in September this year subject to an examination by an EU team to ascertain whether the country is now adhering to standards of productions.
The CEO of Techiman Processing Complex (TEPCO), an agro-processing company at Techiman, Wil Aparloo Ofori, in an interview bemoaned the abuse of agrochemicals by some farmers that have triggered these bans. The awful practice, he explained, has serious rippled effects on food production and domestic agro processing industry as well, adding “farmers should be encouraged to use organic fertilizers and cultivate their vegetables by using the greenhouse technology.”
“This situation if not managed properly can cause adverse effects on the agro-processing industry. Both local farmers and processors would be affected since the poor quality produce can neither be exported as fresh nor processed into exportable products. Glut may occur and a lot of farmers would not recover their production cost.
“The government must train agricultural extension agents to be equipped with the right knowledge and expertise in training farmers in best agronomic practices. A very robust programme of oversight from extension agents should be implemented to make sure that the farming community is adhering to the best practices,” he stressed.
Mr. Ofori urged MoFA to collaborate with regulatory institutions like the Ghana Standards Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drugs Authority to institute pragmatic roadmap to check the importation, sale and use of unapproved agrochemicals. He further advocated training of agro-processors in international standards such as ISO 22000, HACCP and cGMPs to be competitive in the global market.
