Dr. Vandana Shiva visiting Ghana - FSG

Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) has announced that, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology would visit Ghana on Sunday, June 8, 2014.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said Dr. Shiva would give public lectures on issues of industrial agriculture and specifically on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and the green revolution in India.

It said the trip, under the auspices of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), will take Dr. Shiva to Zimbabwe, Ghana and Tanzania.

It said Dr. Shiva will arrive in Ghana on Sunday, June 8, 2014 and leave for Tanzania on Tuesday, June 10.

“’AFSA believes the Industry is aggressively lobbying and flying around presumably converted GM proponents to convince African government's and society to accept industrial agriculture including the adoption of GMOs

African civil society are organizing and resisting this push, but they need an understanding of the issues and strengthened to fight more and more. This concept note is to bring Dr. Vandana Shiva to three African countries, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Uganda, to give public lectures on issues of industrial agriculture, specifically on her experience on issues of GMOs and green revolution in India,” it said.

The highlights of the visit include a Press Conference on Monday, June 9, at 10:30 hours in Accra, which will be followed with a public forum at 1400 hours. The two-day visit also includes radio and television interviews and meetings with representatives of civil society organizations and farmers’ groups.

In 1993, it said, Dr. Shiva received the Right Livelihood Award for placing women and ecology at the heart of modern development discourse, adding that, "Shiva’s record has been that of the totally committed, productive and effective activist-advocate-intellectual’’.

As an activist, it explained that she has coordinated, supported and learned from grassroots networks on a wide range of issues across India, adding that, "as an advocate, especially in international fora, she has proved to be one of the most articulate spokespersons of counter-development in favour of people-centered, participatory processes’’.

As an intellectual, she has produced a stream of important books and articles, which have done much both to form and address the agenda of development debate and action," it said.

Dr. Shiva’s foundation, which is an informal network of researchers, and also of Navdanya-- women and small farmer’s movement-- has set up 120 community seed Banks and helped more than 750,000 farmers make a transition to Agro-ecology.