Agricultural Issues
Ghana to Focus on Cocoa Certification to Achieve Production Targets
Myjoyonline.com
The Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union wants the government and COCOBOD to take a critical look at cocoa certification as a key factor in modern cocoa production. Cocoa buyers and consumers of chocolate around the world are increasingly demanding traceable cocoa and a lot of cocoa producing countries are grabbing the opportunities therein. Cocoa certification demands that a farmer’s social, environmental and economic activities fall in line with best labour practices; in exchange for premium price on produce. [more]
President Kufuor's Agricultural Legacy for Ghana
GhanaWeb
A few weeks ago Ghanaians woke up to the good news that the 2011 World Food Prize has been awarded to the former President J.A. Kufuor, together with the former Brazilian President L.I. Lula da Silva. The award was in recognition of “...their independent, personal commitment and visionary leadership in creating and implementing policies targeting the alleviation of hunger and poverty in their countries”. This piece takes a close look at the agricultural performance of President Kufuor’s administration during the eight year term of office and provides a basis as to what might have informed The World Food Prize Foundation to offer him that prestigious award. [more]
China to Share Agric Technology with Ghana
Myjoyonline.com
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Gong Jianzhong, has indicated his country's readiness to share its agriculture and technology expertise with Ghana as part of its bilateral commitment to the country. He said his country had over the years under the Communist Party, advanced in mechanized agriculture and scientific technology, which Ghana could tap to enhance its economy to achieve the 'Better Ghana' agenda. [more]
Ghana Can Become Net Exporter of Food
Myjoyonline.com
President of the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association (NFFAWAG), Philip Abayori, is urging government support for the National Service Scheme (NSS) to replicate its agricultural projects in all districts of the country. He believes the step will not only create jobs for hundreds of youth, it will also position agriculture as a modern-day business worth the investment of young Ghanaians, and eventually establish the nation as a net exporter of food. A stunned Abayori could hardly hide his joys after touring a couple of the NSS’ farms in the Central Region, explaining that the projects sit perfectly with national desire to entice the youth into agriculture and serve as training grounds and avenues for the transfer of appropriate industry technology and practices. [more]
New Fertilizer Introduced in Ghana
Ghana News Agency
A new fertilizer variety, Proterfert LN 6, 5 natural organic fertilizer based on amino acids and rich in yield increase has been introduced in the country to help farmers increase their productivity. Protifert LN 6, 5 is a liquid fertilizer ecologically produced from amino acids and peptides of natural origin, and gives plants the necessary ingredients needed while saving the biological energy required for their synthesis. Mr. Oreste Odelli, Managing Director of Sicit 2000, manufacturers of the product, from Italy, launched the product in Accra at the weekend. He said the product was sold in over 50 countries worldwide and expressed the hope that it would help improve farming in the country. Mr. Odelli said Ghana is the first country in the West African Sub-Region to be introduced to the product due to the country’s efforts in food production and advised farmers to make judicious use of the fertilizer to help increase food production. [more]
Ghana Is a Catalyst to African Transformation
Ghana News Agency
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations on Food and Agriculture Agencies, Madam Ertharin Cousin, has lauded the significant growth of Ghana’s agricultural sector saying that Ghana is a catalyst to the transformation of Africa. She said the significant growth of the country in agriculture despite huge unutilized arable land indicates that if about 40 to 60 percent of such lands were put on agricultural activities, Ghana could feed the rest of the continent. Madam Cousin said this on Tuesday at Sorugu, a farming community in the Tamale Metropolis where she visited to see the progress of Sorugu Tung-Teeya, a smallholder women rice farmers and processors association. Her visit forms part of a familiarization tour to acquaint herself with the progress of the World Food Program’s (WFP) interventions in improving food security in Ghana. [more]
Local Government/Decentralization
Government Gets US 175 Million to Strengthen Local Government Planning.
Ghana News Agency
Government has acquired funding to the tune of 175 million US Dollars, to embark on Capacity Development of Local Government and Support Program (CDLGASP) for 46 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies. The program is aimed at building and strengthening the capacities of human resource and logistics for the beneficiary assemblies to improve the planning system, for the benefit of the people. Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minster of Local Government and Rural Development, announced this at the first anniversary of the installation of Nana Okoawia Dwomo Babu, as the Chief of Effiduase, in the New Juaben Traditional area, at the weekend. [more]
Do We Need Reform of Local Government and District Assemblies in Ghana?
GhanaWeb
A house with a weak foundation is bound to collapse. A top-down approach to development often fails because it is dictatorial, imposition and it does not engender participatory democracy. Furthermore, it does not encourage ownership of programs and projects initiated at the top by the central government. Ghana is a unitary state with a unitary constitution, hence the development paradigm being top-down. Britain, our former colonial master, also has a unitary constitution. Yet the quality of life and service delivery in Britain is far more superior to that in Ghana. The difference is that their local governments at the grassroots tick and there is a two-way grassroots approach to development, top-down and bottom-up. [more]
In other news…
The Integration of Urban Agriculture into Sustainable City Development. A Case Study of Accra and Kumasi Cities
The concept of sustainable city/urban development have emerged over the last decades as a new requirement for metropolitan and urban level public action which involves conceptual principles and practices as applied in land use planning. The need for sustainable urban planning and development reached an important point in 2007, when half of the world‘s population was defined as living in cities. A sustainable city enables all its citizens to meet their own need and to enhance their well-being, without degrading the natural world or the lives of other people, now or in the future. Planning as the framework within which urban development occurs, can and should play a major role in helping to ensure sustainable urban development. The main thrust of this research was to identify the potential role of planners and policy in the urban food security debate and how to incorporate urban agriculture into urban planning and management. A triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative methods was used in order to give the research statistical and conceptual significance. [more]