Farmers Say GMOs Will Recolonize Ghana’s Economy

Written by Makula Dunbar

May 19, 2014

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has said accepting the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) will amount to re-colonization of the economy and make farmers dependent on foreign corporations for seeds at unaffordable prices.

PFAG said “The implication of accepting GMOs in Ghana and trade with the European Union (EU) is simply opening our markets to them (EU) but Ghana will not be able to export to EU market because GMOs are banned in Europe.”

This was contained in a petition presented to government through the Northern Regional Coordinating Council and the Northern Regional Department of Agriculture in Tamale on Friday by PFAG, ActionAid Ghana and the Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD) to register the displeasure of northern Ghana farmers against the adoption of GMOs and the current form of the Plant Breeders Bill (PBB) being considered by Parliament.

The presentation of the petition was preceded by a procession through some streets of Tamale by about 600 smallholder farmers carrying placards with inscriptions suggesting that accepting GMOs was not the best option for the country as well as Parliament modify the PBB to safeguard the interest of farmers.

Mr Mohammed Adam Nashiru, President of PFAG, who read the petition, said the action by PFAG, ActionAid Ghana and CIKOD to present a petition to the government was in a response to the call by the Speaker of Parliament for more consultations on the PBB and the GMOs.

Mr Nashiru said several animal studies indicated health risks such as infertility, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, changes in major organs and immune problems being associated with GMOs, the reason it should not be adopted by the country.

He said the passage of the PBB in its current form, which demanded royalties from farmers as well as discouraged government’s regulation of the seeds industry, would allow multinational seed and chemical companies to take over the country’s seed market from Ghanaian seed producers and indigenous farmers.