Bryan Acheampong
Some stakeholders in the cocoa value chain have expressed worry about the illegal entry of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) and fertilizers into the country.
According to them, the unapproved chemicals and fertilizers that have inundated the Ghanaian market pose serious risks to the country’s cocoa farms.
They observed that the introduction of these unapproved items has resulted in the misuse of chemical pesticides, which has a negative impact on the environment, human health, and social capital.
This is a result of the over-reliance on cheap pesticides used for managing pest and disease incidences.
The stakeholders stated in a communiqué that some unauthorized pesticides used by local farmers include active ingredients that are categorized as very dangerous by the World Health Organisation (WHO) owing to the risks they pose to human health and the environment.
Furthermore, the active ingredients are no longer permitted for use in the European Union (EU) due to their impacts on health and the environment, but are nonetheless widely utilized by many cocoa producers, destroying biodiversity and degrading soils, they added.
The communiqué also attributed the proliferation of unapproved chemicals to weak enforcement of regulations, the influence of pesticide manufacturers, and the high cost of approved pesticides.
“The use of unapproved (especially highly hazardous) pesticides in cocoa production is a risk to the human right to health, the human right to safe and healthy working conditions as well as the human right to a healthy environment”.
“This can only be addressed with a collective effort of both state and non-state actors in cocoa-producing and consuming countries” it read.
They also suggested that the pesticide approval process in Ghana should be tightened to phase out all unapproved (and highly hazardous) pesticides (HHPs) and clamp down on the influx of unapproved pesticides in the market.
“Government agencies and local authorities (MMDAs) should therefore ensure that certified retailers sell only approved pesticides to cocoa farmers and all actors on the value chain go through routine medical check-ups to reduce the health-related risk associated with contact with pesticides” they added.
The stakeholders further entreated the government to strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), research, academia, and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to regularly monitor pesticide residue levels for actions to be taken.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke