Here are the latest developments happening in Africa!!
Agricultural Issues
Africa: Keeping the Grass Greener for African Plant Breeders
Accra, Ghana - For the few plant breeders in Africa like Vivian Oduro, working for an international research institution is an obvious choice, with prestige and benefits any agricultural scientist would find hard to decline… Accelerating Africa's food production has brought more farmland into play, but often without a matching increase in crop yields, a problem scientists blame on climate change, low adaptation of high-yield crop varieties, poor soils and more importantly, lack of plant and seed breeders with an intimate knowledge of what Africa needs, says Prof. Eric Danquah, the director of WACCI.
Anti-GMO campaigners kick against Ghana’s Plant Breeders Bill
Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG), a group opposed to Genetically Modified Food, says Ghana is in serious danger from the Plant Breeders Bill, currently before Parliament. "The bill is a giveaway of our agricultural heritage and our agricultural future to western multinational corporations. In return, Ghana gets nothing but… "The bill will reduce employment and the number of jobs. The bill will require farmers to buy new seeds every year and buy the toxic chemicals that are required for use with these corporate seeds. This will drive many farmers into debt.
BOPP wins best 2013 AgriBusiness Enterprise
The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has awarded Benso Oil Palm Plantation Limited (BOPP) as the best Agribusiness Enterprise in the 2013 edition of the AGI second industrial awards. In the Ghana Club 100 awards this year, BOPP was awarded the 38th position, an improvement on the 72nd position it held last year… Mr. Pillai further said the company was committed to sustainable practices in general and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) principles and that BOPP was on course to become the first RSPO-certified oil palm plantation in the country.
Ghana loses 11 spots in 2013 WEF competitiveness index
Ghana ranked 67th among 107 countries worldwide in the 2013 edition of the Global Food Security Index published July 2013 by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and US company DuPon. With a score of 45.4, Ghana came third on the rankings among 28 countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region. South Africa and Botswana were the two nations ahead of Ghana. The Global Food Security Index considered core issues of affordability, availability, and quality across all the 107 countries.
Oxfam Aftermath: Women Central to the Future of Cocoa, says Mars
A sustainable cocoa supply chain is reliant on women, who provide a large portion of the labor and often invest earnings on items that benefit their community, says Mars Chocolate in a response to harsh criticism. Since women perform 45% of the work on cocoa farms, it is inefficient from an economic standpoint not to view them as farmers and to fail to facilitate their participation in training and their access to input….
Water expert predicts water crisis for Ghana
Ghana’s water availability figure of about 40,000 barrels for each person a year in 1960, going by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) figures, has dwindled to about 10,178 barrels annually in 2013. This means there has been a whopping reduction of about 60 per cent of water that is available to every Ghanaian in the spate of 53 years… “This is a frightening situation considering the fact that currently the country is classified as water-stressed,” the former Director of Water said.
Food Crisis/Security
Climate Change and Food Security: The Role of Biotechnology
Agricultural biotechnology can enhance food security across Sub-Saharan Africa, but only if it receives sufficient resources and support for its development.. The most rapid increase in chronic hunger experienced in recent years occurred between 2003–05 and 2007. In Ghana, about 28% of the population live below the national poverty line [8] with high prevalence of child malnutrition, 30% stunted, 21% underweight and 5.4% wasted [9]. FAO’s provisional estimates show that in 2007, 75 million more people were added to the total number of undernourished relative to 2003–05.
Reports/Articles
Price Transmission between Imported and Local Rice Markets in a Liberalised Economy: Are Ghana’s Rice Wars Just Much I Do about Nothing
J Amikuzuno, G Issahaku, EB Daadi - Journal of Economics and Sustainable …, 2013
The effect of the reduction in import tariffs and liberalisation of marketing channels on price transmission between agricultural commodity markets in developing countries, like Ghana has been a source of a notional trade conflict since the mid 1990s. The conflict is based on the view that import trade liberalisation destroyed the domestic markets of import substitutes. One of Ghana’s import substitutes whose marketability, price and production are believed to be adversely affected by import liberalisation is rice… The results reveal the existence of long-run equilibrium relationships and partial transmission of price shocks from local to imported rice prices, but the latter do not dominate prices of the local rice.
Occurrence of Eimeria Species Parasites on Small-Scale Commercial Chicken Farms in Africa and Indication of Economic Profitability
KM Fornace, EL Clark, SE Macdonald, B Namangala… - PLOS ONE, 2013
Small-scale commercial poultry production is emerging as an important form of livestock production in Africa, providing sources of income and animal protein to many poor households, yet the occurrence and impact of coccidiosis on this relatively new production system remains unknown. The primary objective of this study was to examine Eimeria parasite occurrence on small-scale commercial poultry farms in Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia. Additionally, farm economic viability was measured by calculating the farm gross margin and enterprise budget. Using these economic measures as global assessments of farm productivity, encompassing the diversity present in regional husbandry systems with a measure of fundamental local relevance, we investigated the detection of specific Eimeria species as indicators of farm profitability.
Analysis of the Adequacy of Legislative Framework In Ghana To Support Fisheries Co-Management and Suggestions for a Way Forward
M Tsamenyi - … Governance Program for the Western Region of Ghana, 2013
Ghana’s marine and coastal fisheries have been a consistent mainstay of the coastal economy, providing essential nutrition, income and livelihoods to many thousands of households. Yet evidence shows conclusively that governance systems are now failing to provide for future sustainability of Ghana’s fisheries resources. The consequences of this for coastal communities and indeed national food security are potentially dire.
Post-harvest Food Losses in a Maize-based farming system of semi-arid savannah area of Tanzania
AB Abass, G Ndunguru, P Mamiro, B Alenkhe, N Mlingi… - Journal of Stored Products …, 2013
An assessment of post-harvest handling practices and food losses in a maize-based farming system in semi-arid areas of Central and Northern Tanzania was carried out in 2012. Seventeen crops were mostly cultivated by the farmers in the surveyed areas; maize (32%), sunflower (16%) and pigeon peas (12%) were the most cultivated while maize was the most stored. There are at least 7 months between two harvest seasons of each crop; while farmers sold the crops soon after harvest to cater for household expenditure (54%) and school fees (38%), the market prices increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) within six months of storage…However, survey results suggest that the farmers' poor knowledge and skills on post-harvest management are largely responsible for the food losses.
Temporal Price Trends for Selected Non-Tradable Staples in Northern Ghana: The Case of Major Cereal FoodsJ Fearon - Journal of Biology, Agriculture and Healthcare, 2013
Rising food prices undermine the real income of poor and vulnerable consumers, thus threatening their food security status. This study examines the pattern of price change for maize, millet and rice in the Northern Region of Ghana between 2000 and 2012. Average monthly price series for the selected food items in the region constituted the primary data used for the analysis. The study revealed that price of the items generally increased at a faster rate in the past two years than the preceding decade. On the average, price of millet increased by 257% and 544% in 2011 and 2012 respectively compared to 81% for the preceding decade. Similarly, price of local rice grew at about 425% and 381% in 2011 and 2012 respectively compared to an overall increase of 108% from 2000 to 2010. Although positive, the rate of growth in price for maize was relatively slower. While the average rate of growth from 2000 to 2010 was…