The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called farmers, wholesalers, retailers and dealers in agro-chemicals, especially those around border communities to help stem smuggling of unapproved products into the country.
Mr. Elvis Oppong Yeboah, an Assistant Programmes Officer at the Bono Regional Directorate of the EPA, made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), on the sidelines of a stakeholder’s engagement meeting in Sunyani.
He expressed concern that some unapproved agro-chemicals and pesticides had “find themselves in the Ghanaian market”, worrying that smugglers used some unapproved routes at border communities and smuggled the products into the country.
The EPA organised the engagement meeting, attended by dealers, wholesalers and retailers and aimed at sensitizing the participants on the mandate of the authority and the dangers involved in selling unapproved chemicals in the market.
Mr. Yeboah said the smuggling of agro-chemicals, and pesticides was very common at border communities along the Ghana-Cote’ D’Ivoire border lines in the Dormaa Municipality and Dormaa West District which had several unapproved routes.
He said the personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) along the borders were doing their best, and therefore required the assistance of the traders in the agro-chemicals to fish out and bring the activities of the smugglers under control.
Mr. Yeboah also cautioned farmers against the misapplication of the chemicals on their crops, saying that had serious health hazards on consumers and the environment too.
Mr. Daniel Oppong, Programme Staff at the EPA, also advised the traders in the chemicals to assist farmers on the use of the agro-chemicals.
He said it was also dangerous for the farmers to use the bottles and boxes that contained the chemicals for other purposes and urged them to refrain from giving the boxes to tomato and other vegetable farmers to package their raw produce.
Mr. Oppong spoke against the behaviour where some farmers use the bottles to fetch water and stored salt, saying that was harmful to their health and exposed them and the public to food poisoning.
GNA