PEASANTS ARE SUFFERING!

Victoria Adongo, Programmes Director PFAG, Nana Ameyaw Menu, Vice President PFAG and Asiedu Biney, Regional Focal Person of PFAG for Brong Ahafo

By Duke Tagoe

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has drawn attention to the deplorable conditions in which peasants and many indigenous people live across the world.

According to them, land grab by giant agribusiness for bio-fuel production and the forced ejection of farmers for estate housing and mining is noted as the leading cause of the poverty and the further marginalization of many small holder farmers in Ghana and in other parts of the world.

Victoria Adongo, Director of Programmes of the PFAG made these assertions at a press conference in Accra to mark the international day of solidarity with peasant farmers which fell on April 17.

20 years ago some 19 peasant men and women were murdered in El Dorados dos Carajas in Northern Brazil for defending their land against corporate interest, by government security forces.

Since then, on 17^th April every year, peasants and rural folks all over the world hold numerous activities to observe this day as one of the darkest days in the struggle of small and landless farmers over right to seed, land and water.

Attacks by Fulani herdsmen

The PFAG has also expressed outrage at the atrocious crimes committed by cattle herders popularly called “Fulani herdsmen”, in many farming communities across the country.

According to them, January and  March of 2016, witnessed a surge in the destruction of farmlands and the brutality of small farmers in Agogo, Kwahu Afram Plains and in the Northern Region. Whilst several farmers were killed in the attempt to prevent the destruction of their farms, women farmers were maimed and raped in the process.  

The farmers have blamed policy makers for the escalation of the problem  due to their inability “to put in place appropriate policy that would lead to proper ranching and designated grazing lands for cattle,” they said.

Farmers Swindled

The PFAG has also raised issues at the failure of the government to retrieve sums of monies lost to fraudulent financial institutions certified by the Bank of Ghana earlier this year. According to the PFAG, hundreds of farmers have lost millions of Ghana Cedi to unscrupulous micro-finance institutions, leading to the death of some of the farmers. They committed suicide.

Yaw Opoku takes the media and farmers through the PBB

GMOs do not increase yield and control pest

Mr Yaw Opoku, Director of Agriculture Sovereignty Ghana, revealed that proponents for the adoption of GM seeds into farming in Ghana confuse biotechnology with Genetic Modification.

According to him, whilst biotechnology constitutes a collection of methods that are used for product development involving biological organisms that are of economic benefit, GM biotechnologies and Bt varieties of crops on the other hand involve gene transfer across the normal borders imposed by sexual reproduction with dire consequences for farmers

Mr Opoku adds that the widely publicized failure of Bt cotton in Bourkina Faso and the damage to farmers’ livelihoods has exposed the lie behind GM seeds that they increase yield and draw farmers out of poverty and misery.

He called on peasant farmers to reject the trial and commercialization of Bt Cowpea and rice in Ghana to avert a repeat of what has happened in Bourkina Faso.

Plant Breeders Bill will increase cost of seed

Mr Opoku explained that following the genetic engineering of Cotton, Cowpea and Rice, the companies that produced these seeds have introduced an avalanche of legislation to supervise and to control the use of the seeds towards the maximization of profit.

He also revealed that giant agribusiness have begun the set up of commercial offices in Ghana to begin the trade of modified seeds to Ghanaian farmers and their counterparts in the sub-region.

According him the Plant Breeders Bill will make it illegal for farmers to continue the age old practice of saving and sharing seeds adding that the bill authorizes a plant breeder to destroy and prosecute all farmers on whose farms traces of Bt varieties of crops are found.

Yaw Opoku emphasized that the plant breeders bill in parliament will not benefit Ghana and her farmers, but will lead to a reckless and exorbitant increases in the price of seed and farm inputs and will carve away the real value of wages and salaries of farmers, increase the cost of agricultural production in all areas and contribute significantly to driving farmers out of farming.

Editorial

WE WANT TO CELEBRATE BUT…

According to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Seth Tekper, Ghana’s agriculture will continue to grow at 6 percent for the foreseeable future.

The announcement has not generated much enthusiasm because the news while positive is not very meaningful to the ordinary Ghanaian in terms of how his or her life will change.

Ordinarily an extra growth in any area means more products available than before. Assuming that scarcity is the only problem we should expect a reduction in food prices over time.

Such assumptions would however be naïve if we do not add other variables as population growth, transportation costs and the state of storage facilities.

Because all these factors matter, it would have been easier to digest the information if the Minister had included them in his delivery because statistics by themselves can easily be used to confuse the unsuspecting.

We get the indications that work and resources are going into making things better, but it is difficult for the ordinary Ghanaian to draw conclusions only from his view of his surroundings.

Ghana produces a number of staples and often the individual crops do not grow at the same rate at the same time. It is possible for instance to have a particular crop do extremely well while others struggle. However, when growth rate, which in truth is the average of an entire basket of different things are given, there is a tendency to assume that it applies to every product in the sector.

This can lead to confusion, distrust and skepticism.

We believe we will all gain from relevant details about such growth or fall statistics.