A project to locate and collect obsolete pesticides, veterinary products which pose a potential risk to the environment as well as human and animal health has been launched in Accra.
The project dubbed: "Cleanfarms Ghana Project" is a collaboration between CropLife Ghana, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (EPA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The objective of the project is to reduce the risk associated with obsolete stocks of pesticides that will over time deteriorate and cause harm to the environment.
Obsolete products include pesticides products that have expired, pesticides that have been banned or severely restricted because of high toxicity.
In a speech read on his behalf at the launch, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, said Agriculture inputs were key components of modern agriculture, contributing to increase in crop yields achieved in recent decades.
He, however, said the total disregard for effective and efficient disposal could create adverse effects on the environment and also the economy.
He said the issue about the proper disposal of obsolete pesticides as well as their containers was a major task which the Government of Ghana (GoG) alone could not manage without the help of the private industry.
"It is, therefore, heart-warming for CropLife International through its national association, CropLife Ghana, to initiate such an exercise and GoG through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture would provide all the necessary assistance for the initiative”, he pointed out.
He said the agri-input business, largely due to the liberalisation policy of the government has increased the accessibility of inputs to the rural farmers, but had brought in its wake serious problems for the industry and therefore the need for all stakeholders to join hands to find a solution to the problem.
“ In this regard I will add my voice to that of the CropLife Ghana to call on all importers of agricultural inputs, especially, the pesticides, liquid fertilisers and veterinary pesticide products to set up mechanisms to retract all the used-empty containers from the field”.
Mr Ahwoi advised the general public to comply with the project directions and provide all the necessary information leading to the eventual cleaning and the disposal of such hazardous materials in the country.
Mr Ahwoi said it was a serious issue that needed to be tackled by appropriate authorities since it contributed massively to the stocking of obsolete products and was of the belief that the enforcement of the Pesticide Act would prevent future stocking of obsolete materials.
The Director, Chemicals Control and Management Centre of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr John Pwamang, said unusable pesticide posed greater risks to people, animals and the environment than products in good conditions.
Mr Pwamang said the project involved the safeguarding of obsolete stockpiles that were identified as needing urgent action.
Throwing more light on the project, the Local Project Co-ordinator, Mrs Juliet Biney, said information obtained from the national inventory of stocks and their locations would be stored in the Obsolete Pesticide Management System (OPMS) for the necessary environmental risk assessment.
She said one would be required to register any obsolete, unwanted pesticides and veterinary products with any of the campaign offices across the country before June 22, 2010
Mrs Biney explained that the collection and safeguarding phase would commence in August 2010 to March 2011 and advised the public to register any obsolete pesticide to make the campaign a success.
In the year 2000, the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) proposed an initiative to address the accumulation of obsolete pesticide stockpiles across the African continent, at the same time negotiations for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants were coming to a close.
African countries then requested for assistance to manage obsolete POPs pesticides, recognising that they pose serious threats to the health of both rural and urban population.
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