THIRTY small-scale pineapple farmers in the country increased their exports to the European and North American markets from 26 tonnes in 2006 to 166 tonnes last year under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).
That was after they had obtained organic certification to export to that country.
A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Yaw Effah Baafi, made this known when he addressed an international conference on organic agriculture as a business in Accra.
The four-day conference was organised by the Washington State University and the US Department of Agriculture to present the latest information on obtaining certification, finding buyers and the kinds of organic products that are in great demand in the $46-billion organic foods trade.
Opening the conference, Mr Baafi urged Ghanaian farmers to take advantage of AGOA to export organic foods and products to the US to earn foreign exchange for the country.
He explained that developing countries such as Ghana were facing numerous challenges, including soil degradation, food security and climate change, which did not augur well for agriculture.
He said it was, therefore, opportune for farmers in the country to practise organic farming as a means of increasing soil fertility without the use of agro-chemicals.
He observed that most farmers in the country applied agro-chemicals wrongly, with devastating effects on the environment and water bodies as fish stocks and other eco-systems got destroyed by the toxins.
He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture regarded organic agriculture as an intervention that was to assuage the years of destruction of the environment, as well as ensure food security within the shortest possible time.
Mr Baafi observed that yields from organic farms were much better than those from the conventional type of agriculture where soil had become degraded due to over-reliance on chemical fertilisers.
Mr David Granatstein of the Washington State University said demand for certified organic foods and products had been growing steadily over the past decade.
He said as a result, efforts were under way in Africa to develop opportunities for trade in organic products.
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