In the past few weeks you’ve been part of actions to stop big business destroying the livelihoods of farmers across Africa. 

And there’s one group of small farmers who need your urgent support.

Right now, small-scale farmers in Ghana are fighting to keep their seeds safe from big business and the New Alliance. On the 21 October, parliament in Ghana resumes with one big priority on their to-do list: The Plant Breeders Bill 2013. And if they pass that law unchanged,farmers could lose control of their livelihoods. 

At the moment, small-scale farmers and food producers in Ghana can save seeds to plant again the following year or exchange seeds with each other. But the Plant Breeders Bill would restrict this. Instead, small-scale farmers in Ghana will have to buy their seeds from big companies who lay claim to them every year, pushing many of them into debt and poverty. Worst of all, they may even be criminalised if they do save or exchange seeds. 

And shockingly, the UK is backing this law through aid programmes like the New Alliance.

Small farmers, unions, faith groups, and local communities in Ghana have been fighting hard against this law. Their efforts managed to delay it in spring this year but the fight’s not over yet. The next week will be critical. 

Now is the time to make sure UK aid money isn’t being used to force through unfair legislation in Ghana or anywhere else. 

Email your MP now to call for the UK to pull out of the New Alliance, the G7 group that’s trying to make this law happen in Ghana. 

Take action in solidarity with small-scale farmers in Ghana. 

Thank you.

Heidi Chow,
Food campaigner, WDM