BizCLIR

Imagine an epidemic so virulent that it endangers 60% of a country’s population, and so debilitating that it strips its victims of all but a fraction of their normal strength. Suddenly a cure is discovered. The cure has been found to be successful against this disease all over the world, and consists of a therapeutic course of treatment that is medically effective, readily accessible, and boasts a cost-benefit relationship, making it as compelling economically as it is medically. Unfortunately, the institutions with authority for regulating the proven therapy insist that, prior to release, an entirely new series of efficacy trials are required to demonstrate that it will indeed be as effective in their country as it has proven itself to be elsewhere, including countries with which it shares a common border. The anticipated time line for these trials is six to eight years’ duration, and no relief for the victims can be expected until the trials have reached their completion and efficacy has been confirmed. In many countries, this sort of unwarranted bureaucratic obstacle to a critically needed solution would be cause for the populace to storm the research institutions with torches and pitchforks.

 

But not, it seems, in Ghana. The illness at issue – one that severely undermines Ghana’s goal to achieve middle-income status over the next generation – is poor agricultural productivity. The victims are the near 60% of the population who derive a significant portion of their livelihoods from what they can produce on their small holdings. Even the winners on this table are not beyond reproach. In the case of rice, for example, the annual rate of productivity growth between 2001 and 2006 is 2.0%. Moreover, the average yield per hectare of 2.0 metric tons (MT) is less than half the world average yield of 4.1 MT/ha.[1]

 

Comparisons with production zones in neighboring Sub-Saharan countries are no less unfavorable. In the Comoe-Leraba region of Burkina Faso, some 200 miles west northwest of Tamale, average yields per hectare for rice, cassava, and maize are 6.5 MT, 45 MT, and 6.5 MT, respectively. These represent increases over average Ghanian productivities by 325%, 370% and 430% respectively.

 

The proven therapeutic course of treatment includes a combination of high-yielding seeds and agricultural inputs – fertilizers and crop protection products – which have been found to be effective in restoring normal levels of productivity to agro-ecologies quite similar, and occasionally adjacent, to Ghana. The regulatory institutions involved in the pre-release testing process are numerous.

 

This chapter discusses the role that licenses play in helping and hindering performance in the agribusiness arena. It focuses in particular on the processes for obtaining clearances for new seeds and crop protection products, how these can serve as an obstacle to innovation, and how this paradox can be resolved in favor of the agricultural and agribusiness communities in Ghana.

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