The Private Sector Malaria Prevention (PSMP) has asked the government to come out with measures that will prevent farmers from malaria attack.
The PSMP said government and other stakeholders can assist farmers with all the farm inputs but the health of farmers is being neglected and good agricultural policies and programs will not make any meaningful impact.
The Business Technical Adviser of PSMP, Mr. Tetteh Ogum stated this in Tamale when he spoke on the topic: “Malaria on Agriculture” at a day’s stakeholder’s engagement on resources to help businesses in Ghana protect employees from malaria.
He wants the government to pay attention to the health of farmers. The government agriculture’s program of planting for food and jobs and the one village one dam, Mr Ogum said, was good but reminded the government that dams are ideal breeding grounds of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
In some parts of the world, Mr. Ogum said governments introduced fishes to eat the larvae so that the mosquitoes will not terrorize farmers.
He therefore urged government to introduce some measures in Ghana that will protect farmers from malaria in the beneficiary districts of its agriculture programs.
The PSMP, Mr. Ogum explained, drew the attention of the Bui Power Authority when the dam was constructed and the Authority provided malaria prevention measures to protect the Bui dam community.
A study conducted in 2016 Mr Ogum said, revealed that 2,757,434 Ghana cedis was lost in the agriculture sector due to malaria.
Out of the amount, 86% was used for treatment which means malaria is a major threat in agriculture production.
Malaria cases among farmers he added are leading to absenteeism culminating in uncultivated farm lands. He pleaded with the government to intensify its effort at ensuring that communities where the dams being constructed are safe from malaria.
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