Ultimate Farmers Alliance Team Leader, Mr Agya Kwame Annoh, says the legalization of hemp in the country will offer an opportunity for farmers and the youth who are interested in cultivating the plant to make a lot of money.
He explained that hemp farmers will make a lot of money due to its industrial and medicinal purposes.
Mr Annoh was speaking at an advocacy forum held at Sawla on Saturday, October 17, on the maiden edition on industrial hemp legalisation and cultivation. Mr Annoh stated that “We seem to get lost in this issue of getting high, and all we can talk about as Ghanaians is smoking.
As a Team Leader, we are not promoting smoking, we are promoting the industry, we are promoting cleaning up the environment, we are promoting a new revenue stream for Government in terms of taxing from cultivation and export and we are talking about promoting medicines that are far better than opioids, medicines that cannot kill you because no one has died from taking hemp”, he indicated.
He stated that hemp is used for over 50,000 industrial uses, including being used as a cheaper alternative to cotton, paper car dashboards, and building houses and for medicinal purposes.
All these economic benefits of hemp has therefore made it necessary for us to call on government to consider legalizing and the cultivation of hemp by Ghanaian farmers.
Mr. Annoh explained that the hemp is different from “wee” as he argues that with “wee” one can go high while hemp doesn’t trigger any reaction no matter the quantity consumed.
The hemp is a wonderful plant with numerous advantages which can potentially increase revenue for the country together with other medicinal purposes and hence the need for stakeholders and Government to consider passing the bill into law to allow Ghanaian farmers to venture into it.
Mr Annoh explained that when the bill is passed, it doesn’t just give farmers the greenlight to start cultivating the plant but one has to acquire a license to enable him or her venture into the business.
He added the cost of the license may be so high that an individual cannot afford paying but as a group it will be easier to acquire the license to venture into the cultivating the plant.
“For now it will be of crime if you’re caught farming hemp because the bill has not passed into a law yet”, Mr Annoh warned.
ASP Degraft Armah Agyei, District Police Commander for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, also warned the public not venture into the farming of the plant as the law in the country has not approved the law to give Ghanaians the opportunity to farm hemp.
“It is a crime if hemp is found in any part of yours or in your farm, you will be arrested and procesecuted, because the law doesn’t permit its cultivation yet”. ASP Degraft added.
ASP Degraft advised Ghanaians to stay off from its cultivation until the law is passed.
Participants at the advocacy forum were given the opportunity to ask questions which were answered by the Team Leader from Ultimate Farmers Alliance.
Ultimate Farmers Alliance is a social company on a mission through sustainable Agricultural Diversification Programs to break barriers and provide opportunity for every individual to own a share in the agricultural value chain with ease irrespective of their location, technical know-how, time or land constraints.
Source: yagbonradioonline
