CropLife Africa Middle East (CLAME) Meeting with Croplife Ghana Member Companies

CropLife Africa Middle East (CLAME) represented by Stella Simiyu WAFUKHO,Director, Regulatory Affairs and Stakeholder relations and Sylvain Nafiba OUEDRAOGO (PhD), Regional Director, West and Central Africa, met at Airport West Hotel,Accra Ghana to discuss and update member companies on a number of industry issues after a series of engagement with regulators in Ghana.

Mrs. Stella Simiyu WAFUKHO,Director, Regulatory Affair of CropLife Africa Middle

Mr. Sylvain Nafiba OUEDRAOGO (PhD), Regional Director, West and Central Africa of CropLife Africa Middle East

Group picture

Help educate farmers on dangers of fake agrochemicals

The West and Central Regional Africa Director of CropLife Africa and Middle East (CLAME) Bama Yao, has called for the support of the media to educate farmers on the dangers of using illegal and fake pesticides.

He said the use of unapproved pesticides do not only pose health dangers to humanity but also environmental challenges that have dire consequences for the entire world.

According to him, there was the need of the media to support organisations such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clamp down on the activities of dealers of fake agrochemicals.

Training

Mr Bama made the call during the training organised by Croplife Ghana and CLAME in partnership with EPA for personnel of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Attorney General’s Department and the media on pesticides law and regulation.

He said the training to build the capacity of the participants on the laws and regulations guiding the sales and use of agrochemicals and the need for the farmers and dealers to abide by them.

He said the rules were to ensure that the chemicals did not find their ways into the wrong hands and also to protect the environment such that unapproved chemicals also do not find their ways onto the market.

EPA

The Deputy Director of EPA, Lovelace Sarpong, who was resource person for the training, said even though there were rules guiding the sale and use of agrochemicals in the country, some of the dealers failed to adhere to the rules.

Regularly, he said the agency organised these refresher courses for the prosecutors to update on the law and the need for them to know about its existence and what he seeks to achieve.

He said there was the need for the prosecutors to be knowledgeable in the law to be in a position for its enforcement.

Regulations

He said there are regulations guiding the importation and registration of agrochemicals into the country and even their storage.

He urged farmers to always request for the registration of the chemicals from their dealers before buying to ensure that the chemicals have been approved by the EPA.

He said the use of unapproved chemicals portend dangers for the environment and human safety as well and advised farmers not to patronise non-approved agrochemicals.

Croplife Ghana is a non for profit organisation representing the leading manufacturers of pesticides, seeds and biotechnology products in Africa and the Middle East

EPA warns against using minors in selling pesticides

Fumesua (Ash), Oct.19, GNA – The Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) has warned against the use of minors in the sale and distribution of pesticides and other harmful agro-chemicals in the country. 

Mr. Samuel Oteng, Ashanti Regional Director of the EPA, says the law regulating the importation, manufacturing, distribution and sale of pesticides, bar children under 18 years of age, from serving as shop keepers or selling and buying of these products. 

He has therefore charged importers and dealers in these products to be conversant with the laws and regulations guiding their business operations and desist from using children as shop keepers. 

Mr. Oteng was speaking at a capacity building workshop on Ghana’s pesticide laws and regulations, for selected staff of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Attorney General’s (AG) Department and journalists in the Ashanti region at Fumesua in the Ejisu Municipality. 

It was organised by the Executive Committee of Croplife Ghana (CLG) in collaboration with Croplife Africa Middle East (CLAME), the EPA and the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). 

It aimed at equipping the journalists with appropriate information to enable them to create the needed awareness on the pesticide laws and regulations among the public, while helping the prosecutors to acquaint themselves properly with enforcement strategies and prosecution processes of the law. 

The CLAME is non-profit organisation representing the leading global manufacturers of pesticides seeds, and biotechnology products in Africa and the Middle East. 

Mr. Oteng pointed out that, effective public awareness on the laws and regulations (Act 490) 1996, which sought to guide against illegal pesticides in the country were long overdue. 

 He said the manufacturing, distribution, wholesaling and retailing, exporting or importing of pesticides, needed to be registered or receive environmental permit before one could engage in such a business. 

He said product counterfeiting, especially of pesticides and other agro-chemical products was a serious concern which needed the attention of all. 

Mr. Oteng pointed out that the effect of counterfeiting was that it could eliminate the incentive for plant science companies to continue to invest considerable time and money in the development of new technologies that could help assure domestic and global food security and alleviation of hunger and poverty. 

According to him, the EPA had been educating farmers on ways to identify the right and approved pesticides from fake ones to improve their crop yields and safety. 

The EPA was also monitoring the packaging, loading and the transportation from one place to another destination of pesticides in the country. 

Mr. Oteng called on manufacturers to explicitly display their registration details on the products to make them easily identifiable to farmers and other users. 

Mr. Bama Yao, Regional Director, West and Central Africa of CLAME, said the CLAME and its national associations were the voice and advocates of the plant science industry, contributing to sustainable, innovative and science-based crop protection solutions to keep crops healthy and sustainable food supply. 

The aim, he said is to help unleash the great potential of plant science to improve sustainable agriculture, raise awareness and build understanding of the benefits of plant science. 

Source : https://gna.org.gh/2022/10/epa-warns-against-using-minors-in-selling-pesticides

Croplife Ghana moves to crack the whip on counterfeit pesticide dealers

Croplife Ghana has observed the evolution of counterfeit pesticide usage among oblivious farmers in the country. Some Ghanaian farmers are innocuous spraying counterfeit pesticides on crops, contaminating soil and also endangering the consuming public. This situation has compelled Croplife Ghana and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to find a lasting antidote to curb the menace of the system.

 At a day’s forum organized by CropLife Ghana, participants describe the practice as a serious killer and called on all agencies to crack the whip on any influential dealers who endanger the life of Ghanaians and the environment.

The program manager of Croplife Ghana, Rashad Kadiri is disappointed at this practice by some influential agro-dealers. He is therefore advising farmers not to buy pesticides from any unregistered and unregulated agro-dealer coming to their doorsteps under the pretext of selling agro-inputs to them.

 The stakeholders see the constant spraying of these counterfeit pesticides on crops as a dangerous killer and want an abrupt end to it.

According to Rashad, these influential dealers will produce counterfeit pesticides and give them a name that matches the original pesticides on the market, which made farmers believe that they are buying the appropriate and certified agro-inputs. This he said is a double loss for the very innocent farmers that purchase a counterfeit pesticide. “It affects crop yields and the income of the farmer. It will be prudent for farmers to reject the sales of agro-inputs that are not in shops and are fully certified,” he said. During the training, suggestions were made to make it compulsory to certify all agro-input dealers in the country to put an end to the influx of counterfeit pesticides gaining roots in farming communities, despite warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency.

 EPA’s warming seems to have fallen on deaf ears as the perpetrators are mounting different approaches in selling fake products.

Source : https://www.dailyagricnews.com/croplife-ghana-moves-to-crack-the-whip-on-counterfeit-pesticide-dealers

CropLife to liaise with GSA to rid market of fake agrochemicals

Kadiri Rashad, Programme Manager-CropLife

As part of measures to get rid of fake and illegal agrochemicals on the market, CropLife Ghana has taken steps to coordinate with Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to identify hotspot areas where some of these products are heavily distributed across the country.

The identification of these hotspot areas where the illegal agrochemicals trade takes place will then be followed by taking action with trained security forces to seize these illegal products and take them to a special facility to be dealt with.

According to the Programme Manager at CropLife Ghana, Kadiri Rashad, although there has been a series of training courses for some security personnel, the group worked together with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to train especially the police, immigration and Attorney-General’s Department – which is responsible for prosecution.

“We will identify hotspots where these illegal trades are being carried out. We are going to liaise with Ghana Standards Authority to help use some information they have gathered; then we can conduct swoops in those markets with the trained security personnel to do seizures and create public awareness,” he said.

Speaking with the B&FT on illegalities of the products, Mr. Rashad indicated that the EPA Act does not allow the trade of agrochemicals which do not have labels in English; therefore, it prohibits the sale of any pesticide in other languages aside from English.

He said this is done to prevent misapplication of the chemicals, which poses a great threat to farm produce and workers.

Mr. Rashad revealed that a lot of the fake products are produced by some locals – stating that the empty containers of these imported pesticides are refilled with some chemicals and brought to the market for sale.

Thus, he said, CropLife has begun collecting these containers for recycling as part of plans to sanitise the market.

“We have a programme called the Empty Pesticide Container Management Programme (EPCMP), wherein we collect the empties from farmers to the CropLife facility where we do disposal of empties and expired stocks,” he noted.

As part of measures to curb this menace, CropLife Ghana in collaboration with CropLife Africa Middle East organised a one-day training on anti-counterfeiting of agrochemical inputs and law enforcement strategies.

The programme seeks to adopt an all-inclusive stakeholder approach in the fight against counterfeiting crop protection products; hence the overwhelming need to bring all key industry players to a common ground in developing a sustainable strategy to combat the illegal trade of pesticides in Ghana.

At the training’s end, various stakeholders concluded that farmers should be empowered to report cases involving fake agrochemicals to available hotlines and offices cited at various agricultural offices.

Databases of counterfeited products should be made available to the security officers and Attorney General. The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate, PPRSD, should be part of inspecting teams at the various ports of entry.

Source : https://thebftonline.com/2022/07/22/croplife-to-liaise-with-gsa-to-rid-market-of-fake-agrochemicals/