A few key findings from the analysis included:

• New crop groundnuts have acceptable levels of contamination, but the previous year’s crop, as expected, has unacceptable levels
• Very high levels were found in rejected kernels – however, these rejected kernels don’t leave the food chain and are instead often sold to dawadawa makers and other processors
• Roasted groundnuts, which may often be made from new crops, showed acceptable levels of contamination
• Informal products diluted with other materials also seem to have acceptable levels, but informal products that contain only groundnuts have unacceptable levels of contamination
• Formally manufactured products still have high levels of contamination

Regarding quality institutions, it was found that nearly all traders and vendors have criteria by which they assess the quality of groundnuts they buy, including discoloration, mold, and kernel size, but the rejected kernels, which are potentially more contaminated, still don't leave the human food chain and are simply used for other products.  Although consumer education and regulation were suggested as potential strategies for reducing the quantities of aflatoxins consumed, it may be that preventative measures, such as improving cultivation practices, storage facilities, and grading and sorting procedures, may be more effective in reducing aflatoxin contamination in the groundnut chain.  For more details, the presentation from today's seminar can be found here, and the final report will be shared on this blog shortly.

They are currently accepting applications for 2012 Fellowships in Ghana. The targeted research topics vary by country and can be found HERE on their website along with the application and additional program information. In addition to their traditional program, they are also recruiting for Fellows under a special initiative, The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases to Combat Climate Change.

The application deadline for the 2012 Borlaug Fellowship Program for Ghana is February 7, 2012. Please visit their website for more information.

The “African Local Summit” secretariat calls government agencies, civil society, private entities, educational institutions, entrepreneurs, media, traditional and community leaders, artisans and artists, youth groups, social and popular movements from all across Ghana, Africa and the World at large to join the process that will lead to achieving sustainable and equitable development, attaining the Millennium Development Goals in Ghana and Africa at large and also ensuring maximum participation of Africans in The Global Summit 2012.

Call for proposals on Paper Presentations on Innovative Solutions for achieving the MDGs are now being invited on the following tracks - environment, information communication technology, natural resources, good governance, poverty reduction, health, education and culture, private sector development, agriculture, science and technology, youth development, women empowerment, economic and social development, population, peace and security.

For more information on submitting papers or participating in this event, please go to their website: www.africanlocalsummit.org

On December 14th and 15^th, the review team visited the field, met with SRID staff and other stakeholders, reviewed documents, and analyzed various technical, organizational, and financial issues associated with the pilot.  The team’s overall objective was to assess both the institutional and financial feasibility of scaling up the pilot survey and develop recommendations for how to proceed.  The review team is compiling information from the 2 day review and will present its findings to a larger group of stakeholders for discussion in February.

Participants for this stakeholders’ workshop included policy-makers, FBO representatives, private sector and researchers to provide evidence regarding the successes and failures of previous support to FBOs and their micro-level impact on smallholder farmers in Africa.  In particular, three programs from Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon that provided support to FBOs were presented and evaluated at the workshop.  The three programs examined were the Millennium Development Authority’s Commercial Development of Farmer-Based Organizations Program (Ghana), FAO’s Agricultural Commodities Program (Cameroon), and the World Bank’s Programme de Services Agricoles et Organisations de Producteurs (Senegal).

GSSP sent a team including GSSP staff, leaders from three FBOs and the Chief Operating Officer of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) to discuss the genesis, conduct, and impact of MiDA’s support to FBOs.  For more information, please read our brief note on discussion and findings from the workshop.

Last week, ASTI/IFPRI and FARA jointly sponsored a conference on Agricultural R&D: Investing in Africa's Future at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra.  The conference complemented an analysis of three decades of data on agricultural research systems in SSA collected by ASTI with a series of commissioned papers that will suggest a policy road map for strengthening African NARS. The conference provided a focused set of policy alternatives around the themes of sustainable financing, efficient organization of NARS supported by regional and international capacities, options in training the next generation of agricultural scientists, and processes for effective performance evaluation of research institutes and R&D systems.  An overview of the conference can be found here along with a program from the event.

Fertilizer subsidy program

• There has been increase in application of fertilizers due to the subsidy program
• Farmers who applied fertilizer on their farms obtained not only higher yields but a positive net income over those who did not use fertilizer
• The program led to an increase in the volume of trade and number private-sector actors in the market
• The overall future economic return of the program is positive, with an estimated benefit-cost ratio of 1.7
• To forestall delays in the fertilizer importation and distribution, it is recommended that government starts the negotiations with the importers early so that the fertilizers are in stock in the regions and districts prior to the planting season

NAFCO program

• The evidence shows that there was stabilization of maize price in 2010 compared to preceding years’ prices, but additional data is needed for further research on the role of NAFCO in this stabilization
• Although NAFCO is financially viable under current conditions projected in the short term, a decline in its revenue could pose problems and likely force the government to spend more on its operations than intended
• NAFCO should carefully track it revenues, make realistic projections, and find ways to minimize its variability
• NAFCO should also put in place a transparent information system about its prices, identification of its buying agents, and the location of any buying and selling depots

Block farms program

• Participating farmers have attested to the benefits they received including access to low-cost credit in the form of inputs and mechanization services, which have led to greater productivity, production, and incomes.
• Farmers need to be encouraged to pay back their loans to raise the currently low recovery rates, otherwise it is difficult to see how the government can sustain the program
• Similarly, it is difficult to see how farmers will be able to buy and pay for such inputs and services on their own
• Contrary to expectations, the youth have not been a strong focus of the program as it was conceived, because, being relatively inexperienced, the youth are considered a riskier venture in terms of being able to properly manage the farm, obtain decent yields, and pay back loans

AMSEC program

• The program has contributed to improving the access by all farmers to those services and raised the average area mechanized by the surveyed farmers from 5.3 acres per farmer in 2008 to 7.8 acres per farmer in 2010, representing a 21 percent increase per year in the area mechanized
• Because the demand for mechanization services far outstrips the demand, the program has not crowded out private-sector investments in the market
• The newer tractors associated with the AMSEC program seem to break down more frequently (17 – 64% more) than those operated by non-AMSEC agents, which is due to lack of skilled operators, mechanics and spare parts for the newer brand of tractors imported via the program
• Expanding and deepening the training offered by the Agricultural Engineering Services Directorate (AESD) of MoFA is inevitable, particularly when different brands of tractors than what is commonly used are imported on such a large scale

Program interaction effects and overall economic viability

• The presence of NAFCO seems to enhance the positive effects of the other programs.
• The important implication of this is that, by offering a fixed and assured output price when farmers make resource allocation decisions at the beginning of the production stage, it lowers farmers’ uncertainty about future prices and permits higher purchases of inputs.
• The roles of the AMSEC, fertilizer and block farms programs seem to be inherently linked to the success of the NAFCO program by ensuring higher yields and outputs
• Even more importantly, how much the fertilizer subsidy for example may also be contributing to more stable production growth to meet the growing consumer demand remains an important question to address when trying to isolate the direct effects of NAFCO activities on prices

As Ghana becomes an oil economy, there is now recognition that that the cocoa sector has to become even more efficient in order to survive. GSSP has been gathering data and conducting an analysis designed to identify opportunities for Ghana’s cocoa sector given this current context. Last week, Shashi Kolavalli gave a seminar at IFPRI’s Washington DC office to share preliminary findings on factors that have contributed to increasing the share of producer prices and declining export taxes; the costs and benefits associated with the government’s role in maintaining quality; and opportunities for market and non-market interventions to introduce incentives into the system to continually seek improvements in efficiency.  The presentation can be found here.

Cashews in Ghana – Nut cluster
A mountain of bulging jute bags hides the far wall of a vast shed. A deafening rattle comes from the machine by the open door, a green contraption of conveyors and rotating metal drums that sorts cashews by size and drops them into sacks. Amid the din, an engineer (Italian, like the machine) explains how it works. The new factory at Techiman in western Ghana belongs to Rajkumar Impex, an Indian company which processes more cashews than anyone else: 8-10% of the global crop and 20% of Africa’s. Venkatesan Rajkumar, its founder and boss, says that by 2014 he intends to have 18% of the global total. [more]

Food Crisis/Security
Ghana Improves in Food Security – Global Hunger Index
Ghana Business News
Ghana is the only country south of the Sahara to have improved on its score in the Global Hunger Index (GHI), according to its 2011 report titled “The Challenge Of Hunger: Taming Price Spikes and Excessive Food Price Volatility”. According to the report jointly authored by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerlife and Concern Worldwide, Ghana and Nicaragua improved from alarming to moderate from the period 1990 to 2011. It says although from the 1990 GHI to the 2011 GHI, 15 countries were able to reduce their scores by 50 percent or more, “only one country in Sub-Saharan Africa – Ghana – is among the 10 best performers in improving their GHI scores since 1990”. [more]

Ghana: Harnessing All Resources to Conquer Hunger
AllAfrica.com
Yesterday, October 16, was celebrated as World Food Day. In Ghana, Oxfam and its partners organized a news conference last Friday in which they highlighted key issues such as hunger in the face of changing climate; rising food prices, population growth, and competition for land from bio-fuel, industry and urbanization. They also focused on the need for constant interaction with farmers and producer organizations on their perspectives on the issues of agriculture development and food security in Ghana. [more]

 Gender Issues
More Women to Benefit from Rural Women Anti-Poverty Project
Modern Ghana
Rural poverty in Ghana has been identified to continue to be one of the major socioeconomic problems besetting the Ghanaian economy and the need for pragmatic measures to be put in place to target the rural poor has been underscored. In order to help reduce rural poor especially among women, Global Media Foundation, a human rights and anti-corruption media advocacy foundation has initiated a project dubbed “Rural Women Anti-poverty Project” which aims at empowering rural micro business operators to expand their businesses in order to reduce poverty among rural women. [more]

Assemblies Urged to Give More Support to Women in Agriculture
Daily Graphic
Addressing a forum on the joint celebration of World Rural Women’s Day, World Food Day and the Global Call of Action against Poverty at Bawku in the Upper East Region, Mr. Nicholas Apekerah, Executive Director of Trade Aid Integrated, urged municipal and district assemblies in the region to act without delay to address issues that limit women’s productivity, especially in the area of agriculture in order to address the problem of food insecurity and poverty.
World Food Day is organized on the 15^th of October every year to recognize the contributions of rural women in food security and the development in rural areas. The day has also been set aside by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) to promote food availability and raise awareness of hunger and poverty in the world.
Mr. Apekerah stated that if women were supported with farm inputs and logistics and assured of a ready market for their produce, they would produce enough food to reduce the rate of hunger and poverty. The Municipal Chief Executive of Bawku, Mr. Musa Abdulai, promised the government will continue to do all it could to ensure rural farmers, including women, were provided with all they needed in order to produce enough food to feed their families and the nation.
Source: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 No. 18667, page 16

Other News
Set Aside Percentage of GDP for Research
Daily Graphic
The Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor Eugene Amonoo-Neizer, has called on government to set aside a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for scientific research and development. He said that this was aligned with the African Union’s protocol which makes it a prerogative for members of the body to set aside 1% of their GDP for research in areas that would improve knowledge in science. He said this at a visit to the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), a subsidiary of CSIR.
Prof. Amonoo-Neizer also stated that Ghana would soon get a horticultural institute to make the industry viable. Through government’s intervention, the shea nut industry is now growing fast enough to surpass the country’s major cash crop which is cocoa.
The director of SARI, Dr. Stephen Nutsugah, said the research areas of the institute included crop improvement, soil fertility management, cropping systems, crop protection and post-harvest improvement. SARI is operation in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions of Ghana.
Source: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 No. 18668, page 21

 Emerging Evidence on the Relative Importance of Sectoral Sources of Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
Purposeful, well-targeted and successful transformation policies will be elusive for a country or region that does not understand the relative importance of its sectoral sources of growth. This study aims at eliciting understanding in this respect by providing an assessment of the relative importance of the major sectors as sources of growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Our findings reveal that, contrary to the general belief that agriculture is the most important contributor to economic growth in SSA countries, rather it is the service sector that leads, followed by agriculture and manufacturing.While not discounting policies aimed at strengthening all sectors, the service sector particularly needs to be better positioned to foster sustainable economic growth in SSA countries. [more]

On Friday, the team presented preliminary findings at a meeting of the MoFA-DP Group at the PPMED library. The meeting was attended by the Chief Director, heads of various programs in the Ministry, and representatives of key donors to the sector. The discussions were followed by a reception we hosted at the Afia Hotel.  The study team has promised to make the draft report available by October 28, 2011 and it will then be shared with the Agriculture Sector Working Group for their feedback.