Agrochemical dealers, importers sensitised to substandard products
CropLife Ghana in collaboration with the Chemical Control Management Centre (CCMC) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Plant Quarantine Officers of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has organised a one-day anti-counterfeiting sensitisation workshop for agro-chemical dealers and importers.
The workshop, in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, emphasised the identification of illegal agrochemicals and other vices that affect the quality of agrochemicals that farmers use.
Participants were also sensitised to the punitive measures in dealing with these fake agrochemicals.
Safe use promotion
Part of the activities of CropLife AME through CropLife Ghana Association is the provision of stewardship (safe-use training) to farmers, input dealers and the general public, including security bodies and the regulatory agencies.
The plant science industry is committed to promoting practices that encourage the responsible, safe and efficient use of its products and also to sensitise stakeholders to current issues being tackled by the agrochemical industry to curb or minimise issues on counterfeiting.
Activities on the day included presentations on counterfeit and illegal products, sensitisation to overview of legal framework for management of pesticides, enforcement strategies to improve on pesticide product quality, strategies adopted to promote only quality approved fertilisers in Ghana, funding pesticide management activities-role of industry and a brief about CropLife Ghana and Importers Association.
Quality agrochemicals
The President of CropLife Ghana, Mr William Kotey, explained that the workshop aimed at engaging key stakeholders in the agricultural sector to offer the farmer best products for their trade to promote agriculture, adding that for farmers to be profitable and have confidence to invest in agriculture, the industry must ensure the provision of quality products, including agrochemicals.
Croplife Ghana, he assured, would continue to organise such workshops to sensitise stakeholders to the need to sell approved, registered and unadulterated products for farmers to get quality farm input such as fertilisers, pesticides and fungicides for best farming practices.
Speaking in an interview with the media, a Deputy Director of EPA, Mr Joseph Edmund, said his outfit receives several reports about farm inputs which did not give the desired results and based on such feedback “we deem it appropriate to partner Croplife Ghana to organise such sensitisation workshops to bring sanity, as agriculture is the backbone of the economy.”
He observed that identifying fake agrochemicals was difficult, since a lot of importations were being done. Dealing with such menace was, therefore, a shared responsibility for all stakeholders in the sector.
Workshop
The workshop brought together importers, distributors, retailers, extension and technical officers who were sensitised to what it takes to get the farmer good quality farm inputs.
A representative of Agro Input Importers Association in the Ashanti Region, Mr Francis Acheampong, urged all agro dealers to be up and doing by applying all the rules to ensure farmers got the best input for farming.
