Accept GM seeds to maximize profit - Dr Atikpo

Dr Margaret Ottah Atikpo, the Secretary of the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology, has called on Ghanaian farmers to accept Genetically Modified (GM) seeds to maximize profit.

She said there is the need for all to appreciate the concept to help turn around the struggle for a good standard of living and sustainable livelihood.

Dr Atikpo made the call when she addressed farmers drawn from Volta, Greater Accra and Northern Regions at a forum at Hohoe.

She said farmers stand a great chance of experiencing a drastic economic upturn in their farming business only if they embrace the use of GM crops.

Dr Atikpo said the GM seed hybrids have several advantages such as high yield thereby boosting the economic gains of farmers; high resistance to pests and thrive in places that ordinary crops could not even germinate.

Mr Daniel Otunge, the Programmes Officer of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, dispelled claims that genetically modified organism (GMO) foods have health implications such as cancer, impotency and protrusions of some parts of the human body when consumed.

He said several researches in Ghana and across the globe negate such claims and that there is the need to raise the understanding of the farmers to buy into the concept.

Touching on claims that GM seeds are not replant-able, Mr Otunge said just as all other hybrid seeds, the GM seeds also experience decline in yield after two years of replanting.

Some farmers at the forum who spoke to the Ghana News Agency expressed mix-feelings about the GM crops.

Some felt that adopting the GM seeds would reduce their cost of inputs and increase production and build their economic gains whilst others felt that the concept was part of moves to create a market for the GMO agenda.