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Published on Tuesday July 15 2025
Published at 1:58Pm
CropLife Ghana in collaboration with CropLife Africa Middle East, has partnered with the Wenchi Directorate for Food and Agriculture to
Create awareness of stakeholders in the cashew value chain on the safe and responsible use of pesticides to promote Pollinator health and biodiversity in the Bono East region of Ghana.
The stakeholder workshop, which brought together the EPA, cashew farmers, beekeepers, the local government, Spray Service Providers, and the media, highlighted the crucial importance of pollinators in agriculture, especially cashew farming, due to the pollination services they provide.
At the workshop, the stakeholders not only underscored the role pollinators play in ensuring peace and security but also contributed to conserving biodiversity. Misuse and misapplication of pesticides in cashew production are significantly threatening bees and other pollinators.
The cashew production has improved tremendously in recent years with demand for raw nuts by many countries around the globe increasing at a sprint pace. This has created ready markets and improvements in farm-gate prices. The agricultural use of pesticides has enabled cashew farmers to increase their crop yields significantly in cashew-producing regions.
Meanwhile, chemical crop protection is also identified as an integral part of modern agriculture and is indispensable to production. As both elements are of key importance for cashew production, it is essential that crop protection and crop pollination are compatible with each other and the use of pesticides does not negatively affect the pollinator population.
Recently, there have been growing concerns about the declining bee population in cashew farm orchards which is affecting productivity and yield in the cashew production areas in the Bono Region and this situation has seen the Department of Local Government and Rural Development distribute over two hundred (200) beehives to cashew farmers in the region to promote biodiversity.
Available evidence suggests that the use of pesticides and the health of bees can
be compatible when the products are applied in a responsible manner and under consideration of the best practices principles to
Protect pollinators.
For this reason, CropLife Ghana and its partners have partnered with the Wenchi Directorate for Food and Agriculture to promote pollinator health and biodiversity in the Bono East region.
Story by: Inusah Dondaliya
