Inadequate commercial farming: Cause of high food importation
The Intellectual Property Development Executive of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), Mr Emmanuel Sackey, has disclosed that inadequate commercial farming in Africa is the cause of the high importation of food into the continent.
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He said while Africa had 50 per cent of the world’s arable land, it continued to import $60 billion worth of food.
“This means that there is traditional knowledge but it is not being harnessed for the economic benefit of Ghana in particular and Africa at large,” he said.
Mr Sackey was speaking at the third Intellectual Property forum in Accra.
It was organised by the Intellectual Property Network Ghana.
He said to develop the economies of the continent, it would be necessary to promote innovation and intellectual property rights.
Awareness
He called for awareness creation in the area of intellectual property, as it was pertinent to the country’s cultural, social and economic development.
He urged participants in the event to advocate the protection of intellectual property by innovators in Ghana and encouraged students to make use of social media to sensitise groups of people to the concept and importance of intellectual property.
Mr Sackey said ARIPO intended to establish two master’s degree programmes in Intellectual Property studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The programmes, he said, would facilitate the development of intellectual property systems in Africa.