Vice Chancellor of UDS calls for certification of Ghana’s fruits and vegetables

Professor Gabriel Ayum Teye, Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), has appealed to research scientists to adopt ways of certifying Ghana’s fruits and vegetables so that they could be sold at stores and supermarkets to ensure consumer safety.

He said Ghanaian farmers produce a lot of fruits and vegetables and that such products were sold out on pavements and by head porting because they were not certified to guarantee safety at the stores and supermarkets.

Professor Teye made the call at the Dungu campus of UDS during a day’s workshop on “Climate and Ecosystem Changes in Semi-Arid Africa”, organized by the UDS under the CECAR-Africa project.

The CECAR-Africa project is a five year (2011-2016) collaborative and interdisciplinary research project between Ghana-based universities and institutions: University for Development Studies (UDS), University of Ghana (UG), United Nations University Institute of Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) and Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet)) and Japan-based institutions.

Others are the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), The University of Tokyo and Kyoto University) under the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) and being funded by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The workshop on the theme: “Social implementation and up scaling of Ghana model in semi-Arid Africa” aimed at generating discussions as the projects ends as well as concluding issues related to up scaling the “Ghana Model” for building resilience to climate and ecosystem changes in Africa.

Professor Teye said it was important for the Foods and Drugs Authority to liaise with the country’s research scientists to find ways of certifying fruits and vegetables so that they could be sold at hygienic places such as stores and supermarkets.

He said such a measure would help importation of foreign fruits into the country, saying, “We need to find ways that can help us achieve food security without compromising the ability of future generations”.

He said the CECAR-Africa project had improved conditions since its inception especially in Northern Ghana about five years ago with a key feature of collaborative research between Ghanaian and Japanese Scientists on the pertinent issue of climate and ecosystem adaption changes.

Professor Teye appealed for phase II of the project to monitor the outcomes of the first phase as well as testing the ‘Ghana Model’ and make the gains of the sustainable and capacity development for the production of certified foods for Ghana’s supermarkets as part of the resilience strategy.

Professor Kazuhiko Takeuchi Executive Director, Integrated Research Systems for Sustainability Science at the University of Tokyo, who is also the project leader said adaptation strategies to overcome the adverse impacts of climate change, particularly in the vulnerable regions of the world, must be developed locally.

He said it was important to communicate regularly to the people living in the communities where the project takes place and called for further moves to strengthen the relationship with UDS and the project.

Mr Kaoru Yoshimura, the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana said climate change issues were very worrisome, which stakeholders must work together to address.