The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) has recommended that instead of promoting the commercialization of genetically modified products, the government focus on urgent problems within Ghana’s agricultural industry.

This appeal follows the Ghana National Biosafety Authority’s (NBA) recent approval of 14 new GMO products, including six soybean and eight maize varieties.

In an interview with Citi News, GAWU General Secretary Edward Kareweh slammed government for not focusing more on crucial initiatives that would improve the agriculture sector.

“Why don’t we encourage organic agriculture which has more quality and better nutritional value than GMO? And again, apart from that, if you take Ghana, what are our agricultural challenges? From production to distribution, what are our agricultural challenges? Today, as a country, our agricultural challenge is it about lack of GMO seeds in this country which is why we are not getting enough food.?

“Is it the reason why there is low output in this country when they are not looking at the inputs that we need as farmers, when they are not looking at water availability, our irrigation system has not improved, when they are not looking at the effect of galamsey on agriculture? You know, these are the massive challenges that have bedevilled the agricultural sector in this country for years.”

Further highlighting logistical issues, according to Edward Kareweh, include poor road infrastructure that causes food waste from delays in transportation. Instead of depending only on the promotion of genetically modified organisms, he stressed the need for a comprehensive strategy to address these issues.

“The road network whereby most of our trucks when they go to the farm gates and bring the foodstuff, they get stranded and then the foods get rotten. We are not looking at that. And then thinking that by merely promoting GMOs, we will have food security in this country, is GMO going to be grown in space?”