Supply only traditional, improved variety seeds not GMOs  - Peasant farmers to government

Wepia Addo Awal Adugwala, National President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), has urged government to supply only traditional and improved variety seeds, not Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) ones, under the Planting for Food and Jobs 2.0 (PFJ 2.0).

He stated that the Association wanted only the traditional seeds developed by Ghanaian Scientists to be able to have control over the food system in Ghana.

The National President of PFAG was speaking at a stakeholder engagement workshop on Planting for Food and Jobs 2.0 in Accra.

The workshop aimed to ensure that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) addressed the feedback from the registration processes, aggregator processes, among others, to benefit all farmers.

Mr. Adugwala mentioned that there had been a delay in the distribution of inputs, causing farmers to buy from the open market, which was costly, affecting the production of food for the country.

"The rainy season has started, and MOFA is still registering farmers; it is part of the components, they need the database of the farmers, their farm sizes, collate them into a central system for identity.

"But when are we going to finish before the inputs are given to the farmers? It is a source of worry to us as farmers. We were thinking that looking at the time, the Government could pilot this in some districts to get the inputs to the farmers on time," he added.

The National President of PFAG said inflation was around 25 percent, with food inflation around 40 percent, adding that if these inputs were not given to the farmers on time to be able to grow food, food inflation was likely to hit 50 percent next year.

He mentioned that the Government was considering the introduction of insurance into the policy, stating, "if you look at the value chain, if any of the actors default, it means that someone will have to lose in the process, so the insurance will have to come in."

Mr. Adugwala emphasized that irrigation was crucial, stating that if farmers were supposed to produce onions, tomatoes, and others, and there were not enough irrigation schemes to support, it would make it difficult for companies to provide insurance to farmers.

"So, we are hoping that while we are looking at the model, the Government should also look at the critical areas of mechanization, providing irrigation facilities in the era of climate change, which has impacted a lot on our activities."

"If we are talking about the successful execution of the PFJ 2.0, then the one village, one dam, and other irrigation projects are very key to its success," he added.

Mr. Charles Ayueboro Adana, a Representative from MOFA, said the Ministry began the PFJ initiative in 2017, which was an input subsidy-based program, adding that it had been revised to a smart input credit as a result of the high cost of the subsidy to the Government.

He added that during the implementation, they realized that it focused mainly on smallholder farmers to the neglect of large-scale commercial farmers.

The Representative from MOFA said the Ministry's dream and mission were to graduate smallholder farmers into possibly large-scale and enable inclusivity.

He said the revision called for the need to design a Smart Credit System in collaboration with all their sector stakeholders, including processors, farmers, civil society organizations, development partners, financial institutions, research, and academia, among others.

Mr. Adana said the Ministry had deployed an online application that brought together all actors in the agriculture sector for easy coordination of the program and transparency.

He acknowledged that some challenges had been encountered, adding that it was normal for a program that was implemented in the first year.