By Michael Kofi Kenetey
The Centre for Agriculture and Bio-Sciences International (CABI), in collaboration with the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research Ghana, has commenced a three-day multi-stakeholder forum on pesticide risks and food safety in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital.
The forum is to bring together stakeholders in the agricultural value chain for a comprehensive dialogue to ensure that the application of pesticides and other chemicals is applied responsively to enhance safer crop production.Â
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), almost 40 percent of global annual crop losses are the result of pest destruction. This is very significant in crop production, and farmers have no option but to apply pesticides to protect their investment from pests attacks.
However, there is the need for a stakeholders’ dialogue to help curtail the misuse of pesticides and other agrochemicals to produce safer crops. It is a result that CABI has organised the three-day forum to dialogue and seek solutions to the misuse of pesticides.
It brought together stakeholders from the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate, PPRSD; Food and Drugs Authority, FDA; Environmental Protection Agency, EPA; Food Research Institute, National Food Safety Committee; the Ghana Standard Authority, GSA; and district and regional Agriculture directorates, among others.
Speaking at the forum, the Country Coordinator for CABI, West Africa, Birgitta Oppong Mensah, noted that the forum is to bring all stakeholders together to ensure that the application of pesticides and other chemicals is applied responsively to enhance safer crop production.
She outlined three major reasons for organising the forum.
The Eastern Regional Coordinating Director, John Donkor, mentioned that there have been increasing concerns about the incessant misuse of agrochemicals and their negative impact on public health and environment.
He noted that the adverse use of agrochemicals in crop production while protecting the crops also has adverse effects on consumers, hence the need for stakeholders to come together to address the issue.
The Director of Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate, Eric Bentil Quaye, hinted that about 35 percent of potential crop yield is lost to pre-harvest pests, adding that the reduction of yield losses caused by pests, pathogens, and weeds are major challenge to agricultural production.
To this end, there is the need for farmers to use pesticides to safeguard crop production.