According to the Peasant Farmers Association Ghana (PFAG) and the Centre for Climate Change and Aliment Aegis (CCCFS), the addition of GMOs in the country would not boldness aliment aegis issues
They acicular out that abounding farmers in the arctic and average belts already aftermath a cogent abundance of food, but face challenges such as abridgement of accessible markets, bare accumulator systems, and poor alley infrastructure
The two groups were reacting to the barrage of the pod borer-resistant cowpea, the aboriginal genetically adapted crop developed in the country and accustomed for commercial agronomics in the Arctic Region aftermost Thursday. In a account appear by the Director of Research at CCCFS, SulemanaIssifu, and afflicted to the Ghanaian Times, the Centre expressed affair about the claims that the cowpea possesses the ability to abide pod borers due to the attendance of a gene that produces the CRY1A toxin
"It is important to highlight that aloft reviewing the appliance abstracts from the Savannah Agronomical Research Institute, we empiric that the levels of adulteration present are almighty aerial compared to added transgenic crops
"Although we accede the absence of affirmation apropos the toxicity of these toxins to humans, this charcoal a affair for us, as the absolute abstracts on the affair is inconclusive," it stated
It additionally acclaimed a abridgement of abstracts regarding the appulse of the crop on benign clay microorganisms and added capital pollinators
It added that if the crop afflicted these organisms, it could potentially adapt the abundance of the soils area it is planted, authoritative it difficult for consecutive crops to thrive
"These and abounding added accomplish it acute that we abide the unholy advance of Ghana's agroecosystem by GMOs. GMOs remain a apparatus of accumulated ascendancy of aliment production-a action we cannot take," it stress
In an account with the Ghanaian Times, an advising lath affiliate of the PFAG, Dr Charles Nyaaba, apprenticed the government to abide investing in bounded seeds and acknowledging institutions like the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to advance bounded varieties that can bear acute conditions, rather than relying on donor support
Dr Nyaaba, who is a former Executive Director of the PFAG, reminded stakeholders in agronomics that GMOs were apocryphal solutions and do not abode the challenges of aliment aegis in Ghana
He brash CSOs, farmers, and added stakeholders to assignment calm to advance bounded seeds for burying and consumption
Dr Nyaaba added said the government's flagship programme, Burying for Aliment and Jobs, was a abundant action but faced abounding challenges that did not favour farmers
He alleged on the government to acquiesce the clandestine area to advance in the programme's inputs administration and implementation
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAHFOLLEY