Farmers in Ghana Urge Government to Speed Up GM Crop Commercialization

Farmers in northern Ghana are calling on their government to speed up the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops in the country.

During a media briefing in Tamale, representatives of farmer groups under the coalition of Concerned Farmers of the Northern Region expressed their concern about the continuous decline of cotton and cowpea production in that part of the country. They attribute such decline to repeated pest attacks and are confident that GM crops will help them deal with such problems. The coalition includes the Northern Farmers Association, Juni Farmers Association, Northern Livestock Farmers Association, and the Northern Outgrowers and Business Association.

The coalition has released a press statement delivered by conveners Ibrahim Alhassan of the Juni Farmers Association and Nasiru Adams of the Northern Farmers Association. In their statement, the farmers said that "biotechnology as a scientific tool is not a killer, but one that is used to modify seeds genetically for our good. It provides efficient solutions, to the problems we the farmers of Ghana face in our daily operations in crop and other production activities."

"To the government of Ghana, we say act now and facilitate the commercialization of GM variety seeds especially cowpea and rice. Let the farmers have the GM variety alongside the conventional seeds, we are simply demanding for our right of choice."

Read the full press statement in GhanaWeb. A related story is available in Cornell Alliance for Science.