AMSTERDAM: Ghana’s phyosanitary systems means vegetable exports worth $15 million a year are continuing once again after the lifting of a Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission ban imposed in 2015. The lifting of the suspension, imposed due to concerns about the management of four quarantine pests including false codling moth, whitefly, thrips and fruit fly, means Ghana is exporting chili peppers, bottle gourds, luffa gourds, bitter gourds and eggplants to Europe once more. As part of a €1.8 million project part-funded by CABI and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the private sector CABI is helping to protect the livelihood of Ghana’s vegetable growers by improving its technical and organizational capacity in the entire horticulture supply chain. Working with partners including the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana, and the Ghana Association of Vegetable Exporters (GAVEX), CABI helped streamline the inspection and export certification as part of its improved phytosanitary systems. At nearly 40% of GDP, agriculture is the largest sector of Ghana’s economy and part of this is the vegetable trade with the potential to create as many as 20,000 skilled jobs and increase exports to the EU,” Walter said. “Working in partnership, CABI has helped to bring improvements to the country’s phytosanitary systems – which, in itself, is an important step forward in our overall mission to help end poverty and bring about zero hunger as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.” Some of CABI’s contributions to the improvements included producing and distributing posters on pests management to help train vegetable exporters and their out-growers on how to manage the four quarantine pests, distribution of insect traps for pest monitoring and provision of laboratory equipment to PPRSD. Ebenezer Aboagye Head of Crop Pest and Disease Management Division at the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana, said, “The project has improved the shortcomings in the phytosanitary export certification system in Ghana. The current phytosanitary safeguards are sufficient to ensure that Asian vegetables from Ghana destined for EU will be free from harmful organisms.” Through knowledge sharing and science, CABI helps address issues of global concern such as improving global food security and safeguarding the environment. We do this by helping farmers grow more and lose less of what they produce, combating threats to agriculture and the environment from pests and diseases, protecting biodiversity from invasive species, and improving access to agricultural and environmental scientific knowledge.
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