A roundtable consultative meeting for commercial farmers to increase their knowledge and enhance future investors on the rules and regulations in the agricultural sector has been organized in Accra.

The forum supported by the United State Agency for International Development (USAID) Ghana and the Africa Lead, an agribusiness program, brings together participants in the Agricultural industry to dialogue and ensure enabling environment for investment and transparent in the sector.

The objective of the meeting is to create a forum for sharing information on current developments in the commercial farming front, and foster public private sector partnerships.

Mrs Felicia Ansah-Amprofi, Deputy Director of Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD), at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture said the Pesticide and Fertilizer Regulatory Division of PPRSD is mandated to safeguard quality of fertilizers and also to provide technical services on their proper use.

Mrs Ansah-Amprofi said the Division derived its mandate from the Plants and Fertilizer Act, 2010 (Act 803) and that the basic objective of the Fertilizer Policy was to facilitate the improvement of the technical and organizational capabilities of the Fertilizer industry in the country.

She said the purpose of the fertilizer control was to safeguard the interests of the farmers against fertilizer nutrient deficiencies, adulteration, misleading claims and short weight and Protect the Ghana environment and its population against the potential dangers associated with fertilizer use.

Mr Ansah-Amprofi said the fertilizer Regulation required that fertilizers must be registered before they could be imported, exported, manufactured, distributed, advertised, sold or used in the country.

She said the purpose of registration was to control the quality and to determine that the risks associated with use of the product in accordance with its label directions, can be effectively managed within the Ghanaian context.

Mr Joseph Edmund, Deputy Director of Environmental Protection Agency said the EPA Act, 1994 (Act 490) is the legal framework for control and management of pesticides in Ghana (Pesticide control and management).

He said the objective of regulating pesticides is to protect society from the adverse effects of pesticides without denying access to the benefits of their use.

Mr Joseph Edmund said pesticides control and management requires that pesticides must be registered before they can be imported, manufactured, distributed, advertised, sold or used in Ghana

He said the purpose of registration was to determine that the risks associated with use of the product in accordance with its label directions, can be effectively managed within the Ghanaian context.

Mr Kris Klokkenga, Managing Director of Africa Atlantic Franchise Farms (AAFF), a commercial farming operations said the company is a Ghanaian-registered company, established in 2009, which grows corn and tests other crops in the Afram Plains Region of Ghana on the shoreline of Lake Volta.

He said their outfits has been able to identify, test, and mitigate the major risks associated with building and executing scaled farming enterprise in the country and also build key strategic alliances that empower Ghanaian farm and protect the environment.

Mr Klokkenga said AAFF had engaged in all aspects of developing and operating of commercial-scale farm in Ghana, West Africa including company registration, farm management, legal, human resources and financial accounting systems, tax requirements, equipment importation and compliance, and working with local vendors.