Responding to questions on the matter, a Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Sagre Bambangi, disclosed that the Ministry only roped in the Public Procurement Authority after the GHc 9 million arrangements for the insecticides had been made.

[contextly_sidebar id=”stfDiP3UIPEW5Ow4LBTBvhoqtErKc21q”]”The Ministry having secured the above facility, consequently requested for a retrospective approval from the Public Procurement Authority, for an emergency supply of insecticides to control the fall armyworms.”

“The Public Procurement Authority granted the request of the use of Single Source Procurement Method, to engage various supplies to undertake the procurement of insecticide in accordance with section 40(1) (c) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663),” Dr. Bambangi said.

The section in question, however says nothing about retrospective approval as it notes that: “a procurement entity may engage in single source procurement under section 41 with the approval of the board… where owing to a catastrophic event, there is an urgent need for the goods, works or technical services, making it impractical to use any other methods of procurement because of the time involved in using those methods.”

The Ashaiman Member of Parliament, Ernest Norgbey, highlighted this fact, as he questioned the legality of the retrospective approval.

But the Deputy Minister responded by saying that “if it were wrong, the Public Procurement Authority would not have done same.”

The Ministry of Agriculture collaborated with UN Food an Agriculture Organisation and Centre for Agriculture Biosciences International, for the recommended insecticides registered in Ghana, and also registered for the control of fall armyworms in Brazil, USA and other African countries.

After the recommendations, the Minister invited companies which had registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and appealed to them to supply on credit.

In all, 12 companies were assembled by the government, but not in a competitive bidding process, to supply the insecticides to fight the armyworms, due to the urgent nature of the situation.

The NPP administration  has repeatedly criticized the previous administration for engaging in all forms of sole-sourcing contracts which did not ensure value for money, and in most cases breached Public Procurement regulations.

They have thus pledged to ensure that such reckless sole-sourcing contracts are not the order of the day.

–

By: Duke Mensah Opoku & Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Dr. Elias Amakye, the Ashanti Regional Focal Person of PFAG, who developed the biological solution, said “it is very penetrating and goes into the hide-out of the worms in the crops and kills them in less than five minutes.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wYfYldbdVrGSsln4OebTq2Bhycg6e8DJ”]The biological solution involves mixing chili pepper, garlic and any kind of oil, which should be applied to the hide-out of the fall armyworm on the crop to destroy it.

Dr. Amakye announced this solution at a conference in Tamale organized by PFAG with support from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), to provide the government with evidence of successes and challenges of the implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), and the Fertilizer Subsidy Programmes.

The PFJ has helped a number of farmers to increase the number of acres of crops they cultivate, but the fall armyworm infestation of some of the maize fields has become a source of worry to farmers, whose fields have been affected.

Dr. Amakye said he applied the solution to parts of his 15-acre maize farm, which was attacked by the fall armyworms at Konongo in the Ashanti Region, and it killed the worms in less than five minutes.

He expressed the hope that government would recognize his solution and encourage farmers to use it to control the fall armyworm infestation of maize crops across the country.

He also appealed to the government to help farmers to fumigate farmlands affected by the fall armyworms this year, saying that was the only way to completely destroy the breeding grounds of the worms to prevent them from resurfacing next farming season.

Mr. Abdul-Rahman Mohammed, President of PFAG, was happy that efforts were being made to find lasting solutions to the fall armyworm challenge, which had caused a lot of damage to crops this year.

–

Source: GNA

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According to the farmers, there are still traces of armyworms on various farms in the district.

The frustrated farmers who spoke to Citi News said although the farms have been sprayed, the worms continue to destroy their produce.

The farmers also said they had to buy chemicals from the open market to spray their farms because they did not benefit from the ones being distributed by the National Taskforce for the control and management of armyworms.

“I sprayed them and the worms left but they have returned again,” one farmer noted.

The District Agriculture Officer for Nanumba North, Sulemana Saaka told Citi News, the district was supplied only 200 liters of the chemicals.

He described the quantity as inadequate and called on the government to intervene to bring an end to the invasion.

They received 80 litres of chemicals and gave one each to farmers for use on 1.5 acres, but that was not enough.

“The farmers always come to complain that they need the chemicals so we were telling them that we need to go to Tamale…  so I received 120 litres –  120 per carton,” Mr. Saaka said.

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By: Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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“The story, which is sourced to the NDC MP for Bongo, Hon. Edward Bawa, is not only misleading but also full of propaganda and a calculated attempt to indignify the image and reputation of the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Hon. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto,” the ministry has said in a statement.

[contextly_sidebar id=”3wAfFedEiz0qmVweXKSYuLZEEbw0kTv6″]The Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Bawa claimed that the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, spent on wrong pesticides to combat the armyworms ravaging farms and suggested that the failure to procure the right chemicals could explain the spread of the armyworms.

But MoFA has even said the amount earmarked by Government to fight the invasion of the armyworms is less than the amount claimed by Mr. Bawa.

The Finance Ministry released an amount of GHc 16 million of the fight, out of which GH 15,815 million was released to MoFA.

The Ministry also assures that a holistic assessment of the army worm situation will indicate progress in the fight.

A National Taskforce for the control and management of the invasion of armyworms was constituted to distribute free pesticides to farmers in the hardest hit areas.

“MOFA will like to state emphatically that reports from across the length and breadth of the country indicate massive progress in the fight against the armyworms. It must be pointed out that the progress being in the fight against these ‘alien’ pests cannot be limited to one, two or three districts but must rather be seen from a general perspective. MOFA is very hopeful that at the end of the day the country will witness bumper harvests in all the major crops including maize, sorghum, soyabean and rice.”

Find below the full statement

Re: Minister blows GH 20M on wrong chemicals

The attention of the Office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has been drawn to a news item under the above caption and wish to react accordingly.

The story, which is sourced to the NDC MP for Bongo, Hon. Edward Bawa, is not only misleading but also full of propaganda and a calculated attempt to indignify the image and reputation of the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Hon. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto.

First of all, we would like to state emphatically that MOFA has not spent GH 20M on wrong chemicals as the story sought to portray.

For the information of the good people of Ghana, the amount earmarked by Government to fight the invasion of the armyworms is less than the one being quoted by the MP.

The Finance Ministry released an amount of GH 16M out of which GH 15,815m was released to the ministry.

Part of this amount was to be used for the procurement of approved chemicals, sensitization and awareness creation, as well as procurement of logistics for the gang spraying team put in place by the National Taskforce and the Committee set up to oversee the fight against the pests.

It will interest everyone to know that these chemicals were approved after exhaustive consultations with sister countries, the CSIR, EPA and the PPRSD under the Ministry before orders were made for their purchase.

MOFA will like to state emphatically that reports from across the length and breadth of the country indicate massive progress in the fight against the armyworms.

It must be pointed out that the progress being in the fight against these ‘alien’ pests cannot be limited to one, two or three districts but must rather be seen from a general perspective.

MOFA is very hopeful that at the end of the day the country will witness bumper harvests in all the major crops including maize, sorghum, soyabean and rice.

Plans are also far advanced to support farmers whose farms were devastated by the armyworms.

In order to prevent future occurrence, MOFA has signed an agreement with the University of Ghana to train personnel of the Plant Protection and Regulatory Division of MOFA.

This partnership with the academia, we hope, will help bolster the emergency response ability of the ministry in fighting all forms of diseases that affect crops and animals in the country.

Meanwhile, MOFA will like to assure farmers that the National Surveillance and Monitoring Taskforce made up of personnel from NADMO, CSIR, FAO and PPRSD will continue to be on the ground to response to distress calls of farmers as we deal with pockets of reports of infection.

Signed

Issah Alhassan

Press Secretary to the Minister.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He believes not enough is being done to compensate the farmers who have incurred losses as a result of the army worms.

[contextly_sidebar id=”42uXWGnIiXuX3KucTK1ni7ijjiW1uiQp”]”The morale of these farmers is down and the way to bring it up is to motivate them and encourage them. This is an unforeseen situation and they must be bailed out of this challenge,” Mr. Opoku’s pointed out in a Citi News interview.

Mr. Opoku’s comments follow government’s decision to commit GHc16 million to deal with the army worms. Half of this amount is being used for the needed chemicals and the other half is being used for extension purposes.

Despite all these, there should also be an allocation to help farmers recoup their losses, he stated.

“We are missing out on an important aspect… how do we deal with the losses of the affected farmers? They have invested resources. Some went to the banks to borrow and invest these monies in their farming activities.”

Mr. Opoku, also the Asunafo South MP, stressed that “we have to commit part of these resources to compensate for the losses of the affected farmers to serve as a motivation so that next year, these same people will be encouraged to go into farming activities.”

Allocation for education too high

Aside from this, the MP was of the view that, “even the allocation for education is too huge. The GHc 8 million is too huge.”

Mr. Opoku argued that “we have the Agric extension officers on the field every day. Even because of the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, we are hiring more of these extension officers… Besides that, we also have the information services system. They have officers in almost every district across the country.  Can’t we use them to educate the farmers and minimize the cost of education so we can make some allocation for the compensation of farmers.”

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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While not mentioning specific institutions and names, the chairman of the commission, Justice Senyo Dzamefe was emphatic about their independence.

“This morning we received a letter from the [Ghana Football Association] addressed to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Honorable  Mahama Ayariga  and copied to us,” he said on Monday at the first sitting at the Accra Sports Stadium.

The letter, Justice Dzamefe said, was dated August 7 and signed by Fifa Deputy Secretary General Markus Kattner.

The world football governing body’s letter sent last Thursday addressed its unease at the insistence on the government of Ghana to look into the Black Stars performance at the World Cup – but the Commission would not admit that their comments were aimed at Fifa.

“I want to state categorically that we are not intimidated by anybody,” Justice Dzamefe insisted.

Postponement

Meanwhile the commission has postponed its sittings  to Wednesday August 13.

The two other members of the commission are lawyer and veteran sports broadcaster Moses  Foh-Amoaning  and  Kofi   Anokye Owusu Darko, rescheduled to allow the institutions subpoenaed ample time to prepare before taking  their turns before the commission.

Four state-institutions were to be present at Monday’s sittings but only three showed up. The Bank of Ghana failed to show up for reasons that remain unclear but the Finance, Foreign Affairs and Sports ministries sent representatives.

Citi News’ Pearl Akanya Ofori reports that the atmosphere at the venue was expectant, but ultimately disappointing as no hearings came off.

Background

In the wake of Ghana’s poor show at the recent World Cup, the Sports Ministry set up a three-member committee to investigate matters of player indiscipline and some poor decisions by the management team, as well as general poor performance in the tournament.

However, President John Mahama later upgraded the setup from a committee to a Commission of Inquiry.

Article 279 of Ghana’s constitution says such a commission “shall have the powers, rights and privileges of the High Court or a Justice of the High Court at a trial.”

In the eyes of Fifa, this simply means the GFA could be on trial from a High Court, which may go contrary to their rules of engagement with member associations.

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By: Pearl Akanya Ofori/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @pearlakanya

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Ulli and Corinne Ernst have converted some of their land in Utting, Bavaria to toast Joachim Low and his squad following their triumph in Brazil this summer.

The maze – which depicts a player performing an overhead kick in front of the Brazilian flag and includes the flags for the top three teams in the tournament of Germany, Argentina and the Netherlands – is 18,000 square metres in size.

The Ernsts and their team of helpers began sowing the field in April, using hemp, corn, rapeseed, sunflowers and common mallow.

Visitors will be able to revel in getting lost in the labyrinth until late September.

Germany stormed to victory this summer, beating Argentina 1-0 after extra time in the final to win their first World Cup in 24 years and become the first European team to lift the trophy on South American soil.

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Source: Mirror

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Rodriguez exquisitely chested the ball over his head, swiveled instantly and unleashed a venomous, dipping volley which crashed in off the underside of the crossbar in front of over 70,000.

That strike has now been voted as the Goal of the Tournament by over four million FIFA.com users, beating Robin van Persie’s genial header for the Netherlands against Spain into second place.

Rodriguez became the third successive South American winner of the award, after Argentina’s Maxi Rodriguez triumphed for his thunderbolt against Mexico at Germany 2006 and Diego Forlan was rewarded for his sublime effort for Uruguay in the third-place play-off at South Africa 2010.

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Source: FIFA

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I did not question the word of the coach of our national football team when he made his selection for Brazil 2014.

I concentrated on the announcement that electricity supply would be regular during the course of the World Cup competition.

But some of them tried to keep their morale high

When the power supply went off in my part of town 10 minutes into the second half of the Ghana-US match, I did not complain, I did not curse.

I simply tried to find a way of answering the sneering headlines around the world that our government was having to buy extra electricity for the duration of the World Cup.

When we lost to the US, I kept my head down and followed our president’s injunction to be positive.

I even started turning off the power to my deep freezer, as the electricity company had been urging all of us to do during the matches, as an energy-saving measure.

Ghana at the World Cup

• Failed to win single game
• Lost 2-1 to USA
• Drew 2-2 with Germany
• Lost 2-1 to Portugal
• Last in Group G

When a group of fans on their way to Brazil ended up spending days at the airport here in the capital, Accra, whilst the football was being played, I was not depressed.

The then-deputy minister of sports had told the country the government had money to sponsor some fans to go to Brazil, though it would select them from members of the governing party, the National Democratic Congress.

Kevin-Prince Boateng was expelled from the team for indiscipline

I did not have the heart to begrudge these young party supporters, or foot soldiers as they are called here in the local parlance, the opportunity of a lifetime to watch the Black Stars play at a World Cup.

When we played Germany, I was positive.

This was the team that had done the demolition job on Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal; and against Ghana, they struggled and were lucky to escape with a draw.

‘Attractive jersey’

When the value of our currency kept falling these past how many weeks, I turned my deep freezer off all night. It was the least I could do.

I travelled outside Accra and the state of the roads was horrendous and just as I was about to start cursing, I heard on the car radio the amazing story about the government having sent more than $3m (£1.8m) on a chartered plane to Brazil to pay appearance fee to the players.

Before I could regain my breath this was followed by the story of two senior players being expelled from the camp and of fights between players and officials.

Ghana made the headlines everywhere and became the butt of every unfunny joke in the world and I still turned off my deep freezer for two hours during the night.

Sulley Muntari was also sent home early

We lost the match against Portugal but I concentrated on the design of the Black Stars’ kit.

To my positive, unbiased eyes, Ghana had the most attractive jersey at the tournament.

We came back home earlier than we had planned but I said to myself at least people will sleep in their own beds and not have to slum it in some dormitory in faraway Brazil.

Then the news breaks that about 200 Ghanaian fans are seeking asylum in Brazil and they claim to be running away from intra-Muslim violence here in Ghana.

How can I say this in the most positive way?

By all means stay in Brazil if you want; maybe the lights stay on all the time there, maybe water flows in the pipes, maybe all their roads are smooth, maybe their currency is strong and prices do not change every day.

But religious violence in Ghana? You should find a different story for your asylum application.

What is the positive angle when these asylum-seekers are selected from supporters of the governing party?

I have been around the world and I can say there is no country I would rather be than Ghana.

–

Source: BBC

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As the conflict in the Middle East rages following a failed ceasefire, Ozil is set to give the £237,000 bonus he received for helping Germany win the final, and the £118,000 he received for Germany’s semi-final win, to the occupied territory. He is however yet to confirm the actual beneficiaries of his largesse.

Ozil is of Turkish descent and a practising Muslim who recites the Quran before games. He controversially opted not to fast during the tournament, which fell in the holy month of Ramadan in which Muslims fast from dawn until sunset.

According to the Middle East Monitor, Ozil caused controversy when he declined to shake a Fifa official’s hand because of his support for Israel.

Arsenal’s club-record signing (£42.5 million) has quickly settled to life in England, winning the FA Cup with the Gunners before playing an integral role in Germany’s march to victory in Brazil.

A nine-day outbreak of conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas has seen over 1,000 rockets fired into Israel and over 1,300 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials have said that 207 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s Operation Protective Edge while one Israeli has died in southern Israel after being hit by a mortar.

The Gaza Strip is a narrow territory occupied by Israel currently under a land, sea and air blockade. According to the United Nations and aid agencies, humanitarian conditions have continued to deteriorate rapidly because of the blockade.

In addition to Ozil’s act of generosity, other Muslim representatives at the World Cup have also sent their prize money to the occupied coastal enclave.

After reaching the second round of the tournament, Algeria donated their £5.25m prize money to the people of Gaza.

Algeria striker Islam Slimani announced that the entire squad would donate the money to the territory because “they need it more than us”, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

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Source: International Business Times

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