Context of 'January 14, 2000: Ghana Opposed to Terminator Technology'

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah makes Ghana a republic with himself as president. Under Ghana’s new constitution, the president has wide legislative and executive powers. [BBC, 11/4/1997; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004]

The military government of Ghana meets with the Paris Club of Western governments and forges a debt rescheduling agreement, which defers Ghana’s debt obligations between June 1966 and December 1968 to the period 1971-1979. [West Africa Review, 1999]

In a letter to the Rural Advancement Foundation International, a Canadian-based organization that advocates on behalf of farmers, Panama’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries says his government “will adopt measures to prohibit the specific [terminator] patents as well as the technology in general.” [RAFI Communiqué, 3/2000, pp. 4 ]

Cletus Avoka, Ghanaian Minister of Environment, Science, and Technology, says his government will not permit the use of terminator technology. [Xinhua News Agency (Beijing), 1/15/2000; AgBiotech Reporter, 2/2000]