One hundred members of the Ghana National Traditional Healers Association (GNTHA) are being trained by the Herbal Medicine Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to improve upon the production and packaging of their products.

The training is also to enable them to beat the competition from imported herbal products and to break through the international market. The Council for Technical and Vocational Education Training (COTVET), through their Skills Development Fund, is organizing the programme.

Speaking to the media at the Koforidua workshop, Dr Kofi Annan, Head of the Department of Herbal Medicine at KNUST, observed that if the managers of the economy should give more attention to herbal medicine, Ghana could earn more foreign exchange for national development and create many jobs for young people.

He explained that with the global current thinking about the long-term effects of use of drugs prepared with artificial products, many people in the developed world are turning to the use of herbs.

It is, therefore, important, Dr Annan said, for Ghanaian herbalists to be well trained so that Ghana could also benefit from the emerging huge international trade in herbal medicine. He advised herbalists to start creating their own herbal farms so that they could be assured of regular supplies of their raw materials.

He cautioned that with the advent of illegal mining, illegal logging and the wide use of agro-chemicals, many sources of raw materials for herbal production is being destroyed hence the importance of herbariums.

Dr Annan called for regulation on the use of agro-chemicals in residential areas to help reduce the poisoning of herbal plants found around residential areas.

Mr Kingsley Yaw Nkansah, Eastern Regional Chairman of the Association said the leadership of the Association would be going round after the training to ensure that , members apply the knowledge they had acquired to help raise the standard of the practice of in the country.