Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG), an agriculture-focused pressure group, has appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to drop his Minister-designate for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, due to his entrenched position on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

According to the group, Dr Akoto is on record to have endorsed GMOs at a time advanced countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Holland have adopted a stance against it due to the negative effects it has on agriculture and on the human body.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Thursday January 12, the convener of the FSG, Godwin Kweku Andoh Baffour, said: “You must ask yourself why countries like Germany, Italy, France, Russia have all banned genetically modified foods. Holland, which is one of the most advanced countries with a viable agricultural sector, has banned it because GM is not good for the soil and the human body, and so if Nana Addo’s minister-designate for the agricultural sector, Dr Owusu Akoto Afriyie, is saying that there is nothing wrong with GMOs, then he must be removed.

“For us at Food Sovereignty Ghana, we are here for the interest of Ghanaians and so we cannot look on for our country to be led down such a path. Burkina Faso, which has used GM in planting cotton for the past five years, has seen that it is not beneficial to farmers.

“If Burkina Faso has noted that this five-year GMO cotton did not work for them, why will the government of Ghana tell us that the field trial in the North is going well and so they have plans to bring genetically modified cotton to Ghana.”

Source: AccraFM.com