Malaria prevention in agriculture key to improved productivity - Segbefia

Mr Elinam Segbefia, the Programme Officer for the Private Sector Malaria Prevention Project (PSMP), has said keeping farmers, their families and surrounding communities safe from malaria was key to sustaining growth in the agricultural sector.

He said stagnation of water on farm lands and damming rivers were some practices that promoted breeding of mosquitoes with a devastating effect on farmers at critical times such as planting, weeding or harvesting times.

Mr Segbefia, at a Workshop organised by the Project, under the Johns Hopkins Centre for Communication Programmes, said they were engaging with stakeholders on solutions to the effects of malaria on farmer productivity and the agribusiness sector as a whole.

The workshop, funded from the UKAID-DFID, was attended by officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Department of Cooperatives, General Agricultural Workers Union, Ghana Health Service, the agribusiness companies, and the media among others in Takoradi to discuss innovative approaches to reducing the burden on malaria on farmers and agribusiness.

He said research had revealed that malaria afflicted smallholder farmers and could lead to the loss of 22 working days through illness. In Ghana, the cost of malaria to agribusiness in 2016 alone was 2,757,434 Ghana cedis with 80 per cent of the monies going into treatment.

“Thirty eight per cent of clinic outpatient cases in Ghana are due to malaria. Malaria can be fatal, in many cases, fatalities are related to one or more complications such as extreme weakness, convulsion, and breathing difficulty among others,” he said.

“Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) help to prevent malaria; treated nets last for three years and provide a physical barrier between the individual and the mosquitoes.”

“Treated nets do not only repel mosquitoes, but also protect you from harmful and nuisance insects, giving you a good night’s sleep.”

He stated that indoor residual spray, wearing protective clothing in the evening, using mosquito repellent spray and lotions and mosquito coils, among others, are some of the malaria prevention methods.

Felix Nyanor-Fosu, the Chief of Party of PSMP, noted that malaria affected agric productivity of farmers and there was the need for collaboration between the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and farmers to know what could be done to prevent malaria.