CropLife Africa Middle East implements Spray Service Provider project

By Anku Morkporkpor, GNA

Accra, July 30, GNA - The SNV Netherlands Development Organisation has awarded a grant to CropLife Africa Middle East under the HortiFresh Project to implement a Spray Service Provider (SSP) project in Ghana.

The project is on ‘’Improving access to good quality pesticides and judicious application of these products’’ in the vegetable sector.

A communique issued at the end of a day’s workshop in Accra said among the activities of the project was the decision of availability and access to quality pesticides in order to widen the choice for the over 4,000 vegetable farmers targeted by the project.

The workshop was for the registration of pesticides for the vegetable sector under the SVN-HortiFresh project in Ghana.

The CropLife Africa Middle East, in collaboration with Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and Plant Protection, Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) organised a roundtable discussion with key actors on the issue.

The participants in the discussion comprised of the officers of Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Plant Protection Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Agriculture, representatives of SVN-HortiFresh, member companies of CropLife Ghana and other distributors of pesticides.

It said the objectives of the discussion were to assess the availability of modern quality pesticides for smallholder vegetable producers, sensitise involved parties on the challenges posed by the limited number of pesticides available for the sector, and define a process to attract modern quality pesticides through registration and supply of such pesticides by the industry.

The discussion led to a better understanding of the present unsatisfactory situation and the underlying reasons. A list of identified actions were considered for the needed changes towards a more enabling regulatory environment and supplying strategy including the appropriate packaging range.

The communique said participants, especially the regulatory authorities represented by EPA and PPRSD, and the industry represented by the member companies of CropLife Ghana and other licensed pesticide importers/suppliers committed to seriously to consider the proposed actions for the improvement of the situation.

It is expected that such actions would contribute to increasing the list and improving the supply of quality pesticides, thus, allowing an easy access and widening the choice for approved pesticides for the vegetable sector in Ghana. 

The communique said that stewardship activities would be encouraged, the presence and use of counterfeit and other illegal pesticides would be greatly reduced.

It said the implementation of these actions would contribute to improving the production and quality of vegetable produces in Ghana, access to export markets thus improving the incomes and the livelihoods of the vegetable producers.

GNA

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