Sunyani, Aug. 03, GNA – Stakeholders in the food value-chain have advocated urgent formulation of a national policy to preserve indigenous seeds, instead of promoting hybrid ones and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
They recommended such a policy should target all food crops, including neglected local and indigenous crop varieties, known to be more adaptable to local conditions, which had high nutritional value.
“This will continue to protect and preserve indigenous seeds rather than promote hybrid seeds and other genetically modified organisms and products”, they stated in a communique issued on the sidelines of an ActionAid Ghana (AAG)-funded seminar.
The seminar, held in Sunyani, was dubbed: “Achieving food sovereignty: The role of indigenous seed development in Ghana”.
ActionAid Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, in collaboration with the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD), a Civil Society Organisation, and the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) organised the seminar.
It brought together smallholder women farmers from Bono, Ahafo, Bono East, Upper East, Upper West, and the Northern regions, as well as CSOs from the Agroecology Movement, researchers from the UENR, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliberate on the issue
Others were from the Department of Agriculture, the Forestry Commission, the Bono Regional Coordinating Council, right-holder organizations such as Activista, and the Young Urban Women Movement.
The seminar was to increase public understanding of the significance of indigenous seed development and the value of locally grown seeds in strengthening Ghana’s food system’s resilience to shocks from the global economy and climate change.
The Ministry of Agriculture should take steps to organise training programmes for smallholder farmers, especially women farmers, to identify, multiply, preserve, and salvage local seeds and other plant varieties or cultivars that are going extinct to promote sustainable agricultural practices and achieve food/ seed sovereignty, the communique said.
It also underlined the need for an effective sustainable agricultural system by improving the phase two implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs II) to incentivize local indigenous seed production through increased investment in agroecology.
CSOs and other likeminded organizations must intensify their advocacy for the rejection of the 14 GMOs products that were recently approved by the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) and any other approvals to safeguard indigenous seeds, it said.
The communique indicated that smallholder women farmers played a crucial role in maintaining and improving indigenous seeds in the country, hence, government policies and programmes should be geared towards providing the requisite technical and financial support to play a key role in the identification, protection, and preservation of indigenous seeds.
The number of people facing hunger and food insecurity had risen since 2015, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, conflict, climate change, and growing inequalities.
It said agricultural households constituted up to two-thirds of people living in extreme poverty worldwide, and under current trends, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, implying no progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2).
The AAG had over the past three decades, worked closely with other Civil Society Organisations, especially the CIKOD, to promote agroecology practices and the development of climate adaptation strategies that protect the environment and build the resilience of the ecosystem.
“The preservation of indigenous seeds is in line with ActionAid Ghana’s focus area of promoting agroecology and food sovereignty under the Strategic Priority (SP) to ensure a green economy and resilient livelihoods”, it stated.
Concerned efforts need to be encouraged to sensitize citizens to use and patronize local seeds and food to safeguard our heritage and culture and achieve food sovereignty.
“There has been rapid extinction of critical indigenous seeds such as late millet, sorghum, rice, corn, beans, Bambara beans, and okro in the country because of farmers’ reliance on commercial seeds, which leads to a cycle of dependency that can be economically challenging and ecologically demanding”, the communique noted.
“Evidence has shown that indigenous seeds promote sustainable agricultural practices because they require fewer or no chemical inputs like pesticides and fertilizers,” it said.
“Indigenous seeds are better adaptable to local climate conditions, making them more resilient to climate change effects such as droughts or erratic rainfall patterns”.
“Some of our indigenous seeds and food varieties are becoming endangered across the country due to the changing preference for food taste with the influx of hybrid seeds and food and the lack of government policies and programs that guide and provide the framework to safeguard, multiply, and protect key indigenous seeds from extinction”.
The promotion of GMOs and other patented technologies created legal and economic barriers for smallholder farmers, limiting their rights to save and exchange seeds, the communique said.
“The ramifications of the approval for the recent commercialization of 14 GMO products, comprising eight maize and six soya beans, by the National Biosafety Authority cannot be ignored and will further exacerbate the extinction of key indigenous seeds.”
Smallholder farmers, especially women farmers, had a crucial role in maintaining and improving indigenous seeds for a sustainable production system.
Over the years, CSOs in the agroecology space, including ActionAid and CIKOD had piloted strategies for promoting seed sovereignty in the country, working with smallholder women farmers.
These strategies include the construction of seedbanks using local materials, the use of indigenous materials to store the seeds, and training on the preservation and storage of indigenous seeds.
That notwithstanding, the communique advocated the promotion of indigenous seeds to achieve food sovereignty in Ghana.
GNA