The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has pledged to eradicate quack suppliers of agriculture inputs. According to the Deputy Minister, Yaw Frimpong Addo, eliminating illegal suppliers along the value chain has been a herculean challenge.

Speaking at the Gathering of the Royals, an event organised by Agrihouse Foundation, Mr. Frimpong Addo said “we know that just as we have quack doctors, we have quack suppliers of very bad inputs. It’s a bit difficult controlling them looking at our liberal nature of our economy but we will do our best to fish out all those ones and eliminate them.

He appealed to the media to help educate the public on the importance on double-checking what they purchase.

“We need to embark on serious education of which we need the collaboration of the media houses. We all have to come together and drum it home to the people that when they are buying any input, they ought to try and cross check before buying. This information must go down well to the people because it is happening,” he added.

The Gathering of the Royals was organised to foster networking among women farmers. Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Akosa highlighted the impact of the event on the agriculture value chain.

“The first year we were able to establish a strong relationship with the agric directorate and the queen mothers. This was after we realised some extensions managers were not visiting some areas. Also, through this initiatives we have worked with traditional leaders, queen mothers within communities to introduce key interventions; a notable one being the One Household, One Garden initiative where we received support from AGRA,” she stated.

This year’s Gathering of the Royals was based on the theme “Championing Agri-Growth through Queen Mothers – The Agribooster Module”.