Below are some current developments on Agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
FAO Launches New Satellite-based Data on Forest Resources
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in a new data released on the state of the world forest said global forest areas continue to decline, with the biggest losses of tropical forests occurring in South America and Africa. In a release to mark the International Day of forests (IDF) FAO said improving information on forest resources is a key factor in halting illegal deforestation and forest degradation. Last year the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests aimed at raising awareness of the importance of forests…FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva, who launched the new forest data said "if we want to be serious about halting deforestation, in line with FAO's Zero Illegal Deforestation challenge, this must be premised on the availability of sound information and data".
Global Study Busts Myths about Forests and Livelihoods
A collaborative global study between the Centre for International Reasearch (CIFOR) and Poverty and Environment Network have unearthed the myths between forests, livelihoods and incomes…incomes from forests and other natural environments makes a significant contribution to the livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries, according to the study, although not always in the ways case study research had suggested. Until now, development actions related to forests and livelihoods have been based on incomplete or fragmented data. In many cases, forestry has been combined with agriculture in national income statistics, or not counted at all.
Care International Meets Farmers on Climate Change
Care International has organised quarterly reflection and sharing meeting on Climate Change Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP), to sensitise farmers on the need for climate change adaptation. The two-day meeting held in Tamale was to review ALP sponsored activities, mainly on the various adaptation livelihood measures taken by the communities. Mr Romanus Gyang, Project Manager of Care International, told the Ghana News Agency that the ALP is a five-year guide programme working with eight communities to create awareness about climate change, its effects and help the people find measures to adapt to the situation.
Report: Africa’s Agriculture Growth Needs Decisive Leadership
A report released on Tuesday on African Agriculture and food systems says the strong growth experienced by many African countries must be supported by immediate and decisive leadership. The report, “Optimism for African Agriculture and Food Systems,” says African leaders must create conducive environments for smallholder farmers to capture the potential of youth in the labour force. The report is the result of high-level dialogue between Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation, Kofi Annan with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, said; “If African leaders create the right financial and market incentives, enable access to innovation, and engage the private sector, Africans will be able to feed not just themselves, but export food to other parts of the world.
Ghana’s Cashew Season to be Launched at Wenchi|
The Ghana Cashew Industry Association will launch the country’s cashew season in Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region on Thursday, March 27, 2014. The event, the first of its kind in the country to be organised with support from the African Cashew Initiative (ACi) and the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), will create a conducive platform to set a national agenda for the next season. A release signed by the Executive Secretary of the association, Ms Yayra Afua Amedzro, said the maiden event would be on the theme; “Harnessing the economic and climatic benefits of cashew; the strategic non-traditional export commodity.”
EU-Africa Summit to Discuss Sustainable Growth
The issue of people and prosperity, which is key to both Africa and Europe, will take centre stage when Heads of State Government and institutions of the European Union (EU) and Africa, meet in Brussels, Belgium, from April 2 to 3 this year. The leaders, who will be joined by a range of high-ranking international observers, will discuss how to foster human capital through education and training, including women and youth, by way of providing them with skills and knowledge to better qualify for the labour market. Their discussions will also focus on the fact that both Africa and Europe need sustainable and inclusive growth to ensure their socio-economic development and consolidate their recovery from economic and financial crises.
Commercialization of Agric Extension Services Threat to Farmers in Northern Ghana
Mr. Yakubu Mohammed Saani, the Deputy Country Director for ActionAid Ghana, has stated that government's decision to push for the commercialization of Agricultural Extension Services will have a devastating effect on farmers in the Upper West, Upper East and the Northern regions. In his view, about 60 percent of farmers in the three regions are poor and will not be able to afford the services of the Extension Agents if it is commercialized. Mr. Saani who spoke at a one day policy dialogue with key stakeholders in development and the media in Wa said the decision would favour investors and donors rather than the poor farmers.
Mapping Big Oil, Mega Mining & Small-scale Agriculture
Minerals and fossil fuels drive the global economy, but increasingly at a cost to the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in developing countries. We all depend on the minerals and fossil fuels that drive, for now, the global economy. But those products are produced at a cost, and increasingly that cost is the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in developing countries. These farmers suffer the community displacement and destruction of water resources that are often linked with large mining and oil projects. And the money that these projects produce rarely comes back in any meaningful way to these communities, thus intensifying their poverty.
180 Farmers Awarded by British America Tobacco Nigeria
British America Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) has rewarded over 180 tobacco farmers with various prizes such as farm implements, motorcycles and overhead storage tanks as part of activities to mark the company’s 2014 Farmers’ Productivity Award. Speaking at the ceremony which held in Iseyin, Oyo State, the Area Operations Director of BATN, Mr. Francisco Toso, disclosed that the essence of the award was to recognise farmers’ efforts every planting season, because “we understand that recognising performance was essential to improving performance.”Toso noted the volume growth in tobacco production and sales from N224 million to N680 million in the last few years and traced it to the technical & financial support including…
Farmers in Garu Tempane Undergo Training
Farmer groups in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region have undergone training to build their capacities in the Farmer Managed and Natural Regeneration (FMNR) Project. The FMNR involves selecting and pruning stems regenerating from stumps of naturally grown trees on the field, to give fewer ones more space to grow. This stimulates faster growth of the trees. The training was part of efforts to intensify the interest of the 120 farmer groups across the 13 FMNR communities within the FMNR project. Organised by the World Vision Area Development Programme (ADP) at Garu-Tempane, the training gave the farmers the opportunity to visit some pilto sites in some communities including…
Irrigation Facility Development to Cost GH¢20m
Government has earmarked some GH¢20 million for the development of irrigation facilities in seven locations in four regions to boost the production of export crops to enable Ghana to maximize earnings from the non-traditional export sector. It is expected that the support would lead to the significant development and expansion of the non-traditional export sector to enhance Ghana’s target of harnessing some five billion dollars from exports by the end of 2017. Ghana currently accrues about 2.3 billion dollars from non-traditional exports. This was disclosed by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Harunah Idddrisu when answering a question posed by the MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh…
Sierra Leone Nursing Agriculture
Sierra Leoneans love to eat rice. For them, rice is the food to live on. “It doesn’t matter what other food they eat, they must eat rice at least once a day before they can say they have eaten at all,” explains Umaru Fofana, editor of Politico, a Sierra Leonean newspaper. But now Joseph Sam Sesay, the minister in charge of agriculture, forestry and food security, wants his compatriots to loosen their relationship with rice. Over-reliance on it, Mr. Sesay believes, could affect the country’s food security goal. “I encourage our people to change their habit and alternate rice with other crops grown in the country.” By “other crops,” the minister is referring to yams, cassava and sweet potatoes.
Food Security/Crisis
Achieving Food, Nutrition Security
The promotion of the production and consumption of orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) in Ghana is regarded as one of the key strategies to reduce vitamin A deficiency in children and achieve food security. The current efforts by both government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to spearhead this initiative are encouraging, however, there is more grounds to cover. The technical backstopping that NGOs may need from government extension services may be difficult to access in the current resource constrained operating environment. As a result, NGOs who want to invest in OFSP will need to initially invest in some in-house technical capacity to augment government efforts.
Reports/Articles
Constraints Facing Cocoa-Based Agricultural Knowledge and Information System in Ghana: Perception of Cocoa Farmers in the Eastern Region of Ghana
FNY Codjoe, SA Brempong, DO Boateng
The study ranked and analyzed the constraints facing the Cocoa-based Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS) in Ghana from the perspectives of cocoa farmers in the Eastern Region. Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance (W) was used to test the rank of factors that influence the efficient functioning of the cocoa-based AKIS. The study revealed that there was a 100% agreement among the various rankings that 22.7% of the coefficient of concordance is correct. Implying that, there is agreement among cocoa farmers concerning the factors/constraints that limit the efficient functioning of the cocoa-based AKIS. Inadequate interaction with researchers and extension agents had a mean rank of 4.57, representing the highest ranking order with a few cocoa licensed buying companies (LBC’s) providing cocoa-based information ranking the least among the fifteen constraints...
Food and Nutritional Security in Africa: A Comparative Analysis
YD Andeyhun - 2014
In this study the food and nutritional security of the African continent was analyzed based on the three main pillars of food security, namely availability, accessibility and utilisation. FAO‟s Food Balance Sheet method of per capita caloric food supply along with food production, trade and food aid was used for the food availability analysis. Accordingly, the majority of Eastern and Central Africa countries still remain below FAO‟s recommended caloric food supply level. While Ghana and Egypt showed impressive progress, Madagascar and Zambia recorded a deteriorating performance of caloric food supply. Per capita cereal production showed deteriorating performance in Sudan, DRC, Madagascar, South Africa and Nigeria. However, the rate of area harvest (except in South Africa) and yield (except in DRC) increased over the case study countries.
Promoting Farmer Participation in Client-oriented Breeding: Lessons from Participatory Breeding for Farmer-preferred Cassava Varieties in Ghana
JA Manu-Aduening, B Peprah, G Bolfrey-Arku, A Aubyn - 2014
Participatory breeding has been proven as an effective means of increasing adoption of superior crop cultivars by farmers in regions where low in-put agriculture is practiced. Farmers in four Ghanaian communities were engaged in a participatory breeding to develop superior cassava varieties. Their needs, which were elicited in an initial situation analysis, helped in identifying cassava diversity for field evaluation. They had equal opportunities as scientists to evaluate and select suitable accessions for each cycle of field screening. Farmers were consistent in their selections and based their selections on perceptual distinctive traits such as canopy shape, stem colour and root skin colour. Simultaneous evaluation by farmers and scientists reduced the duration of the breeding cycle and contributed in retaining over 80% of accessions which under conventional breeding would have been rejected and lost.
Skills Development in the Agricultural Sector: A Multiple Case Study Approach
Jandré Jansen van Rensburg - 2014
Skills development is a crucial element in improving the effectiveness with which organisations operate in the current global arena. The level of skills of employees in any organisation should be of significant managerial concern. The principal aims of this study is firstly to investigate the success achieved in skills development initiatives in the agricultural sector in South Africa and secondly to develop a theoretical framework of important individual and organisational variables for skills development in agriculture. Management on farms need to develop the skills of their employees in order to ensure effective adaptation to changes in the sector. A strong need for development also exists among South Africans working in the agricultural environment, as the sector is rapidly modernising and the people employed in this sector often possess low skill and literacy levels.
Potentials of the Agro Industry towards Achieving Food Security in Nigeria and Other Sub-Saharan African Countries
OA Olaoye - Journal of Food Security, 2014
The potentials of Agro Industry towards nation's development cannot be over-emphasized in any country, especially developing countries like Nigeria. Nigeria is among the highest producers of many crops, which could be processed into value added products (VAPs) to enhance foreign earnings. Many advantages abound when effective policies are enacted and implemented in the agriculture sector towards realising potentials. However, policy formulations and implementation have remained a major problem in the development of their Agro food Industry in the sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria. The required processing techniques to convert crops and tubers into VAPs are usually hampered because of non-availability of necessary processing facilities, and when available the power required to run them is lacking or grossly insufficient.
Food Prices and Poverty Reduction in the Long Run
D Headey - 2014|
Standard microeconomic methods consistently suggest that, in the short run, higher food prices increase poverty in developing countries. In contrast, macroeconomic models that allow for an agricultural supply response and consequent wage adjustments suggest that the poor ultimately benefit from higher food prices. In this paper we use international data to systematically test the relationship between changes in domestic food prices and changes in poverty. We find robust evidence that in the long run (one to five years) higher food prices reduce poverty and inequality. The magnitudes of these effects vary across specifications and are not precisely estimated, but they are large enough to suggest that the recent increase in global food prices has significantly accelerated the rate of global poverty reduction. The policy implications of these findings are therefore nuanced: short-run social protection is justified in the face of high food price volatility, but passing on higher prices to producers in the long run is an important means of reducing poverty in the poorest countries.