FARMERS: They Reject Seeds Developed by Ministry of Agriculture

Charles Nyaaba, PFAG

By Morkporkpor Anku

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has recommended the development of modern seeds with traditional taste, attributes and resilience.

The Association says the current seeds being developed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture were hybrid seeds which farmers reject.

Mr Charles Nyaaba, the Programmes Officer of PFAG, speaking at a stakeholder’s workshop, said those modern seeds, when developed, should be made affordable through subsidies.

The Association commissioned a research to ensure that farmers have access to quality inputs leading to high productivity in Ghana.

He said the research showed that a lot of study and seed variety development had been carried out, however, there was emphasis on hybrid varieties at the expense of traditional varieties.

He said farmers interviewed during the study said they preferred traditional seed varieties for a number of reasons.

The Programme Officer said the National Seed Policy indicated that the private sector would need incentives and credit facility to design and procure seed plants suited to their own commercial needs, however, their study showed that most of the policy proposals were still not being implemented.   

  

Mr Nyaaba said many farmers still relied on traditional methods of seed storage despite the fact that those methods were unreliable to crop production.

He said the study indicated that farmers accessed seeds from diverse sources including their own harvest, borrowing from colleague farmers and families and buying.

He said about 53.4 per cent of 528 farmers interviewed obtained seeds from their own harvest, while another 18.8 per cent obtained seeds and planting materials from other farmers.

“Some farmers also complain about the existence of fake certified seeds in the open market,” he said.

Other problems cited were barriers to accessing good quality seeds, unavailability of preferred seeds and poor quality seeds.

He said as a policy recommendation more local seed growers should be trained, especially mid-size farmers, with capacity to sustain production.

“Also policy makers should be cautious in handling GMOs to avoid rejection by farmers and the Ghanaian consumers,” he said.

Mr Nyaaba said government should also build an effective and efficient seed value-chain by making sure the state provided the foundation in terms of infrastructure and breeder seeds.

He said government should scale-up promotional packages using experience of Asian Green Revolution package systems.

On fertilizer, Mr Nyaaba said despite claims that government had subsidised fertilizer, only 31.7 per cent of farmers had benefitted.

He said the inability of farmers to get adequate supply of inputs was generally due to low governmental support, calling on government to set up fertilizer distribution shops to serve cluster of communities, thereby reducing the distance covered to buy both market and subsidised ones.

Madam Sarah Aryee, a farmer, told the GNA that: “l prefer my own traditional seed which will give me more yields compared to the hybrid seeds.”

Editorial

NO MADAM!

Madam Otiko Djaba, Minister designate for Women and Children‘s Affairs has disappointed us.

She flatly refused to apologise for describing former President John Dramani Mahama as devilish and insisted that the former President deserved the insults.

This is very sad indeed, because we firmly believe that political disagreements should not find expression in such blatant insults.

What in hell could have made former President Mahama devilish?

The use of such language in national politics can only betray a very high level of intolerance.

Please, this is politics and not war.

SLY MENSAH DENIES

Sylvester Mensah

Mr. Sly Mensah, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has denied involvement in the printing of posters announcing his intention to contest for the Presidential candidature of his party.

In a statement issued in Accra yesterday, Mr. Mensah wrote “I wish to place on record that I have neither circulated nor caused to be circulated any such poster announcing my intentions.

“I am persuaded that our attention as NDC for the moment should be focused on understanding why we lost the 2016 general elections, rebuilding our party, strengthening the grassroots and restoring hope and confidence in our membership”.

Mr. Mensah is not the first leading member of the NDC for who posters have been printed announcing his intention to contest for the position of presidential candidate.

Similar posters bearing the photograph of former Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur were splashed in Kumasi about two weeks ago.

Traditional council calls for rehabilitation of Bonso Tyre factory

By Mildred Siabi-Mensah

The leadership of the Wassa Fiase Traditional Council has reminded government on the need to refurbish the defunct Bonso Tyre factory to create employment for the teeming unemployed youth across the country.

According to the Council Members, reviving the tyre factory could help fight the menace of galamsey, which was gradually destroying water bodies and vegetation whilst ensuring development.

The leadership of the Council unanimously made the appeal during an emergency meeting at Wassa Benso, the original capital of the traditional area.

Odeneho Akrofa Krukoko, II the Wassa Hene who later addressed the council said the policy of one district; one factory was very commendable and urged government to keep to that manifesto promise to ensure that local economies became vibrant once again.

He called on the people in the area to rally behind and cooperate with the new government to ensure the needed development of the area.

He added that the Wassa Fiase Traditional council still remained a force to reckon with despite the recent chieftaincy issues adding, “I remain the chief of the traditional area and my doors are opened to investors and other private businessmen for the necessary business partnership”.

The Wassa chief hinted about the reactivation of the scholarship scheme instituted to help needy but brilliant students in the area.

Odeneho Krukoko II called on the traditional area to remain united and resolute in their quest to ensure massive economic improvement and the holistic development of the area.

I deserve to be named the DCE

By Isaac Newton Tetteh

The three times defeated New Patriotic Party Parliamentary hopeful in the Kpone Katamanso Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Mr Solomon T. Appiah, says he deserve to be named the new District Chief Executive.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the aftermath of the elections and his expectations from President Nana Akufo Addo, he said the President will hopefully deliver on the promises he made to the people of Ghana for which majority of Ghanaians fell in love with his message and endorsed him overwhelmingly.

When asked whether he had any interest in being named the District Chief Executive for the Kpone Katamanso District Assembly, Mr. Solomon Appiah said indeed he deserved to be named the DCE.

He added that, he had the potentials, credibility, and all it took to be the District Chief Executive.

Mr Tettey Appiah said per his track record in the Constituency, he stood tall among any person(s) who competed with him for the DCEs position.

He cited his performance in the 2016 polls and how he fought to drastically reduce the votes of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Constituency.

He was therefore optimistic that when named the DCE, Kpone Katamanso could not be cut out of the national cake and that the District would receive what was duly and legally meant for it.

Mr Appiah also promised he would make the District, the Region and the President proud by turning the fortunes of the Assembly into one of the modest district assembly in the country.

Mr Solomon Tettey Appiah, before contesting the 2016 elections has been one term First Vice Chairman, one term Second Vice Chairman and two times Parliamentary Candidate in the Kpone Katamanso Constituency for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and has also worked with the Cambridge Education Foundation in the United Kingdom (UK) and currently the Foundation’s In- Country Director in Ghana.

Let’s amend GETFund law - Rev. Fayose

Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Education Minister

By A.B. Kafui Kanyi

Reverend Dr Cyril Fayose, the President of the Evangelical Presbyterian University College (EPUC), has reiterated the call for the amendment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) law to support infrastructure development in private tertiary institutions.

He appealed to the Government to extend research fund and grants to lecturers at private tertiary institutions and increase students’ loan to enhance quality tertiary education.

Dr Fayose, who made the call at the Eighth Graduation and 10th Matriculation of EPUC in Ho, commended government for giving buses to private tertiary institutions through GETFund but said more needed to be done.

He said all students in Ghana were paying tax and must not be discriminated against because of their choice of academic institution.

Dr Fayose said a second look also ought to be given to affiliation roles given to academic institutions adding that situations where mentor-institutions established campuses close to mentee-institutions were unfair.

He said campuses of mentee-institutions must be campuses for the mentor-institutions and called for redefinition of the roles.

Dr Fayose welcomed the 204 fresh students and congratulated the 336 gradaunds for having “fulfilled all righteous tests.”

He said the university had approval from the National Accreditation Board to introduce two new programmes - B.Sc. ICT, and B.Sc. Animal Science and Fisheries and that it was also working on starting MBA programmes with campuses at Accra, Hohoe and Bimbila.

Reverend Dr Setri Nyomi, the EPUC Council Chairman, asked the graduands to be agents of change and worthy ambassadors of the university.

He urged them to be creative entrepreneurs and use the knowledge acquired to make the world comfortable for people around them.

Rev. Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante, the Immediate Past Chairperson of Akuapem Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, urged the government to invest in Science and Mathematics education in tertiary institutions.

He said the country had only a few professors in Mathematics and Science and called for the institution of a scholarship scheme to attract students.

Rev. Prof. Mante commended EPUC for successes chalked over the years and urged it not to lower the standards and be above reproach.

Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, the Vice Chancellor of University of Cape Coast (UCC), in a statement made on his behalf, said UCC was happy and proud to be mentoring EPUC and pledged UCC’s continued support to EPUC.

US Behind the Change of Government in Gambia

Yahya Jammeh

By Abayomi Azikiwe

AFRICOM and “Vanguard Africa” usher in a renewed phase of neo-colonial dominance

Ousted Gambian President Yahya Jammeh was flown out of his country on Friday January 20 after the military intervention of troops from neighboring Senegal and air support from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Reports surfaced that Jammeh will be taken to Equatorial Guinea far away from his home in Gambia. The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had pressured Jammeh to relinquish power in the aftermath of an election in December when he was said to have been defeated by a coalition of opposition parties headed by rival candidate Adama Barrow.

Jammeh had initially accepted the results of the elections until the following week when he went on national television to challenge the authenticity of the poll claiming there were gross irregularities. The president had requested a revote and the parliament inside the country granted him a 90-day extension of office.

However, ECOWAS and their western imperialist supporters were determined to act immediately in order to remove Jammeh not only from his post but from the country. In a matter of days Senegalese troops were poised to invade with the full military support of other regional states including Nigeria and Ghana.

The events in Gambia were hailed by members of the corporate media and the government-controlled press of the western countries who framed the conflict inside the small West African state as a case of political intransigence and the suppression of democratic control. Barrow, who has been labelled as a successful “real estate developer” was installed at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Nonetheless, days after the removal of Jammeh, Barrow has still not entered Gambia saying he will only return when the situation is “stable.”

The Role of AFRICOM in West Africa

The entire military, political and public relations operations utilized to remove Jammeh from the country and to inaugurate President Adama Barrow were engineered by the United States military and State Department along with leading news agencies in alliance with the British Foreign Office. Senegal, which renewed a comprehensive defense cooperation agreement with the U.S. in July 2016, has close ties with the U.S. AFRICOM was founded in February 2008 under the administration of former President George W. Bush, Jr.

During the successive Democratic Party government of former President Barack Obama, AFRICOM has been strengthened and enhanced. Joint maneuvers with African military forces, the training of troops and officers, the supply of weapons, intelligence and defense technology, has become standard practice across the continent with specific reference in the case of Gambia in the ECOWAS region.

In the Horn of Africa, Camp Lemonier has been expanded in Djibouti while drone stations and training operations conducted by the Pentagon, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are proliferating in the eastern region of the continent. Obama pledged over two years ago that Washington would deploy at least 3,500 U.S. Special Forces and trainers in over 35 African states as part of what was described as “counter-terrorism” exercises designed to improve the security capacity of African states.

Operation Flintlock in West Africa is an annual training exercise which set the stage for the current intervention in Gambia. The early 2016 operation was led by the Pentagon and included agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) utilizing Senegal as its base for the joint military field training in cooperation with 30 other states.

In an article published by Deutsche Welle, it says: “The operations in this year’s (2016) Flintlock exercises took a global dimension but also put much emphasis on the African regions where terrorist activities are rife. The FBI trainers grouped police officers and gendarmerie custom officers from Mauritania and Senegal in a team and gave them tactical and operational trainings.” (Feb. 29)

The U.S. Army Africa (USARAF) website reported that:

“The Flintlock exercise started in 2005 across the Sahel region of Africa. Participating nations are members in the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) and are planned by African partner nation Special Operations Forces and Special Operations Command-Africa to develop the capacity and collaboration among African security forces to protect civilian populations.”

Another report published by the New York Times emphasized the participation of military forces from The Netherlands, which houses the International Criminal Court (ICC), along with other NATO members. This institution, the ICC, has been pre-occupied with indicting, arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning African governmental and rebel leaders. At present former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo is facing trial after he was overthrown at the aegis of French paratroopers in 2011.

African Union (AU) member-states have expressed their trepidation related the apparent racist and pro-imperialist character of the ICC. Nonetheless, the mass exodus from the institution has yet to be forthcoming.

Three states have withdrawn from the ICC being Burundi, South Africa and interestingly enough, Gambia, which is the focus of the current ECOWAS intervention.  Jammeh had rejected the interference into Gambian national affairs by ECOWAS, a regional structure which remains within the orbit of former colonial powers and the U.S.

Eric Schmitt, the author of the NYT article, stressed in relationship to Operation Flintlock that:

“The exercise pairs Western trainers with African partners in different outposts scattered around Senegal and Mauritania. In Senegal, for instance, Estonian alpine experts are training Senegalese Special Forces; Italian commandos are working with troops from Chad; and Austrian Special Forces are also with Senegalese soldiers. Dutch marines, who have been training with Senegalese naval forces since 2007, were a natural fit for the new riverine mission. The recent beach landing was the first phase in training that over the next two weeks will build up to a two-day simulated mission with a night landing — as the commandos would do in a real operation to preserve the element of surprise and allow more time to surveil the target.” (Feb. 15, 2016)

Allegations of corruption by the ousted Jammeh administration are now making the case for the deportation of the former leader to the Netherlands. Reuters press agency quoted a Gambian citizen

“Trader Aji Jagne, 32, who had screamed ‘we are free’ until her voice was hoarse on Sunday (Jan. 22) but by the end of the day, less than 24 hours after Jammeh flew out of the country and into exile, her toothy grin had disappeared. ‘Why should he escape…? If he ever sets foot in Gambia again, we shall take him to the ICC,’ she said, referring to the International Criminal Court, from which Jammeh had planned to withdraw before his December 1 electoral defeat.” (Jan. 23)

Regime Change Agents and the Removal of Jammeh

A key aspect of overthrow of the Gambian government was a well-funded public relations campaign led by so-called non-profit organizations in cooperation with corporate media outlets and government-controlled press agencies. One such institution is Vanguard Africa which is based in the U.S.

The Atlanta-based Cable News Network (CNN) reported on January 23 that:

“Jeffrey Smith is the executive director of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit organization that provides support to pro-reform political candidates and backed Barrow’s campaign. Smith told CNN: ‘The priority right now is getting the country back on track. Gambians just want to get on with building the country back up again.’”

Smith has worked with similar operations including Robert F. Kennedy Center, Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy, Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa (IDASA), and UNESCO. Others associated with the Vanguard Africa group includes Joe Trippi as Senior Advisor, who as explained by the organization’s website: “In 2008 helped Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change receive the most votes, and helped garner international media attention to Robert Mugabe’s democratic subversion and violence which led to a ‘unity’ government and Tsvangarai becoming Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.”

The Zimbabwe government has been a target of the imperialist states led by Britain and the U.S. since 1998 when the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) declared that it would redistribute land taken during the colonial onslaught of the late 19th century. Since 2000, when the Third Chimurenga was launched, the economy of the mineral and agricultural rich state has been strangled through a draconian sanctions regime coupled with a massive anti-President Robert Mugabe propaganda campaign seeking the leader’s overthrow and expulsion from the country.

Similar Patterns Throughout Africa

The developments in Gambia are by no means an isolated incident prompted by the purported excesses of the Jammeh government. Just days prior to the Senegalese intervention, thousands of Europeans and other guests were residing unmolested inside the country which relies on the tourist industry for 40 percent of its national revenue. In fact it was the British Foreign Office which declared a travel advisory coupled with alarmist reports from corporate media and imperialist press agencies which led to the mass evacuation of the small state.

In Libya during 2011, it was the U.S. State Department and the western media that spread falsehoods about an imminent massacre of opposition forces in the oil-rich North African nation. 

The Obama administration accompanied by Britain and France set the stage for the blanket-bombing of Libya, the overthrow of the Jamahiriya system, the brutal execution of leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi and the subsequent destruction of the Libyan state. Today Libya is a source of regional instability and economic destabilization spreading throughout North and West Africa.

Ivory Coast leaders President Laurent and Simone Gbagbo are at present in the prisons of the Netherlands, in the case of the former leader, while the previous First Lady, has been railroaded through a biased court under the administration of the installed incumbent President Alassane Ouattara, and sentenced to twenty years in detention.

The same fate is awaiting any other African leaders who dare to defy the dictates of western imperialism and its allies in the region.These events will continue until the post-colonial African states break their political and economic dependency on imperialism.

African unity must be based upon the sanctity of territorial sovereignty and genuine independence. Regional African military operations cannot be guided and coordinated by the Pentagon and NATO without forfeiting the inherent right to self-determination. They should be based upon the imperatives of African unity and the reconstruction of the continent on socialist development processes.

The original source of this article is Global Research

Jeremy Corbyn Accused

Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn

By Glenn Greenwald

The leader of the U.K.’s Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, called for a “de-escalation” of tensions between NATO and Russia, adding in a BBC interview on Thursday: “I want to see a de-militarization of the border between them.” Along with the U.S., the U.K. has been rapidly building up its military presence in the Baltic region, including in states that border Russia, and is now about to send another 800 troops to Estonia, 500 of which will be permanently based.

In response, Russia has moved its own troops within its country near those borders, causing serious military tensions to rise among multiple nuclear-armed powers. Throughout 2016, the Russian and U.S. militaries have engaged in increasingly provocative and aggressive maneuvers against one another.

This week, the U.S. began deploying 4,000 troops to Poland, “the biggest deployment of U.S. troops in Europe since the end of the Cold War.”

It was in this context that Corbyn said it is “unfortunate that troops have gone up to the border on both sides,” adding that “he wanted to see better relations between Russia, NATO and the EU.” The Labour leader explained that while Russia has engaged in serious human rights abuses both domestically and in Syria, there must be “better relationships between both sides … there cannot be a return to a Cold War mentality.”

The response to Corbyn’s call for better relations and de-escalation of tensions with Moscow was swift and predictable. The armed forces minister for Britain’s right-wing government, Mike Penning, accused Corbyn of being a collaborator with the Kremlin:

These comments suggest that the Labour leader would rather collaborate with Russian aggression than mutually support Britain’s NATO allies. As with Trident, everything Labour says and does shows that they cannot be trusted with Britain’s national security.

This is the same propagandistic formulation that has been used for decades in the West to equate opposition to militarism with some form of disloyalty or treason: If you oppose military confrontation with a foreign adversary or advocate better relations with it, then you are accused of harboring secret sympathy and even support for those foreign leaders, and are often suspected of being an active “collaborator” with (or “stooge” for) them.

This lowly smear tactic was, of course, deployed over and over during the Cold War with regard to those who argued for improved relations or a reduction of conflict with Moscow, but it has been repeatedly used since then as well every time it comes time to confront a new Foreign Villain (those opposed to the invasion of Iraq were pro-Saddam, those who opposed intervention in Libya were Gaddafi apologists, those who objected to war on terror programs are terrorist sympathizers, etc. etc.).

But this template has recently become super-charged, more widely invoked than ever, as a result of the starring role Russia now plays in U.S. domestic politics, where many Democrats blame Russia for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Putin now occupies the role of Prime Villain in Western discourse, and this Cold War rhetorical template — anyone opposing confrontation is a Kremlin operative or stooge — has thus been resurrected with extraordinary speed and ease.

The compelling justifications for Corbyn’s concerns about NATO/Russia tensions are self-evident. The U.S. and Russia have massive arsenals of nuclear weapons.

As Lawrence Krauss detailed in the New Yorker in October, the two countries have come horrendously close to full-on, earth-destroying nuclear war on several occasions in the past, and the systems they still maintain are conducive to apocalyptic error through miscommunication and misperception, let alone direct military confrontation. As Krauss noted:

In general, during the Obama presidency, we have only deepened our dangerous embrace of nuclear weapons. At the moment, around a thousand nuclear weapons are still on a hair-trigger alert; as they were during the Cold War, they are ready to be launched in minutes in response to a warning of imminent attack.

It is not hyperbole to say that perhaps nothing is more reckless, more dangerous, than ratcheting up tensions between these two countries. That’s what makes it so repellent and toxic to demonize those such as Corbyn as “collaborators” or traitors merely because they oppose this escalation and belligerence. But this is the script that — once again — is quickly becoming mainstream orthodoxy in both Washington and London.

Let us, for a moment, imagine if this framework were applied consistently rather than manipulatively. Democrats have been alarmed — rightfully so — by the preliminary belligerence of Trump and his top aides toward nuclear-armed China: accepting a call from Taiwan’s president, openly questioningthe decades-old “One China” policy, suggesting the U.S. would militarily intervene to prevent Chinese control over nearby uninhabited islands (the latter was also suggested by the current head of the U.S. Pacific fleet).

But applying the prevailing Russia logic to these concerns, should one not accuse these Democrats objecting to confrontation with China of being “collaborators” with and apologists for the dictatorial regime in Beijing, which imprisons dissidents and tortures ethnic and religious minorities? Should we publicly ponder whether the liberal writers demanding that Trump cease his aggressive posture are being clandestinely paid by the Chinese Politburo or merely acting as “useful idiots” for it? Should those objecting to Trump’s belligerent policies be accused of siding with a dictatorial regime over their own president and country?

Of course none of those things should happen, because it is not only rational but morally compulsory to be deeply wary of those who seek to escalate tensions between countries with large nuclear arsenals. At the very least, one should be free to debate these policies without being smeared as a traitor. That applies to China, and it applies to Russia. And those who voice such concerns should not, as Corbyn just was, have their loyalties and integrity be impugned by our new Cold Warriors.

* * * * *

For the crucial context on NATO/Russia tension that is very rarely heard in the Western press, I highly recommend these two items:

(1) This Foreign Affairs article by University of Chicago political scientist John J. Mearsheimer on the West’s relentless, aggressive march eastward up to Russian borders and its consequences.

(2) The passage of this interview with Noam Chomsky by German journalist Tilo Jung — beginning at 40:30 — that explains the crucial historical context of NATO’s march eastward toward Russia, how that is perceived in Moscow, and, most important of all, why the dangers this behavior creates are incomparable:

Germany Criticizes Israel Over Settlements

Martin Schaefer, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, said Israel’s recent announcement to build 2,500 more settlements in the occupied West Bank was even inconsistent with Israel’s own pace of ignoring international calls for a halt in settlement activities.

Schaefer said the announcement went "beyond what we have seen on it in the last few months both in terms of its scale and its political significance," adding that Berlin has started to doubt the genuineness of Israeli claims for reaching peace with the Palestinians.

Germany is known for maintaining strong relations with Israel, a policy Berlin says is needed to compensate Nazi Germany’s way of treating the Jews. Israel has also benefited from Germany’s military and financial support over the years, with regime leaders calling the Western European country as one of their main allies.

Israel announced plans for building more settlements right after US President Donald Trump took office on January 20, a sign that the regime in Tel Aviv was anticipating Trump to show a more welcoming stance toward the settlements than his predecessor Barack Obama. The Obama administration, in its last days in office, abstained from a vote in the United Nations Security Council condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements. The historic move drew huge ire in the occupied territories, with Israelis vowing to do whatever possible to revise the course during the reign of Trump.

In an address to the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the regime would face no restrictions on the expansion of settlements.

"We can build where we want and as much as we want," an official quoted Netanyahu as saying.