Agricultural Issues
Ghana Economy May Grow 20% on Oil Exports, Gold and Cocoa, World Bank Says
Bloomberg
Ghana’s economy may expand by 20 percent this year as the start of oil production for export, along with high prices for cocoa and gold, boost revenue, according to the World Bank. “First-quarter growth was 23 percent and oil, gold and cocoa have since enjoyed very high prices on the international market,” Dante Mossi, senior operations officer of the World Bank’s office in the West African nation, said in an interview in Accra, the capital, on Sept. 9. “The trend will follow.” The Washington-based lender’s forecast is higher than its earlier projection of 14 percent, which was made in June and was in line with the Finance Ministry’s own 14.4 percent estimate announced in July. [more]
Aid Methods Failing Agriculture in West Africa: Oxfam
AFP
International charity Oxfam said Friday that donors have failed to reform the way they give aid to agriculture in West Africa, criticizing short-term, badly coordinated projects that cost millions. Releasing a report in Dakar, Oxfam's regional agricultural campaign director Samira Daoud said despite commitments by big donors to reform the way they give aid, projects continue to be carried out in an ineffective fashion. "The main way of intervention of donors is still the project approach, we have said and donors have said it is not efficient, it is not a good way of providing aid ... in particular through agriculture it should be more aligned to national priorities," she told AFP. [more]
Ghana to Become the Bread Basket of West Africa
Ghana Broadcasting Corporation
Ghana has positioned itself to become the bread basket of West Africa through accelerated modernization and commercialization of agriculture as well as women participation and re-orientation from subsistence production to market oriented production. The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kwesi Ahwoi who stated this however bemoan the underfunding of research and and inadequate marketing of findings. Mr. Ahwoi was speaking at the ongoing workshop on Root and Tuber Crops in Accra. [more]
Ghana: Cocobod Introduces SPS Project to Sustain Market Access of Cocoa
AllAfrica.com
Despite tremendous improvement of the cocoa industry in West Africa, especially Ghana, the threat posed by diseases and pests, and uncontrolled influx of harmful pesticides continue to exert enormous adverse effects on farm yields, particularly where the causal agents are not properly controlled. Farmers sometimes lose their entire crop to a disease like the black pod, if there is lack of proper application or availability of the recommended fungicide. "The situation is aggravated by the use of banned or unapproved chemicals, either as a result of ignorance of economic reasons. [more]
AGRA Makes Great Impact in Agriculture - SARI
BusinessGhana
Dr. Stephen Nutsugah, the Director of the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has lauded a giant stride made by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in Ghana’s agricultural sector. He said within the few years of the implementation of the AGRA projects, beneficiary farmers had increased their crop production from an average of 1.5 tons per hectares to 2.5 tons per hectare. This implies that farmers’ production had gone up to 25 bags of cereals per hectare. [more]
Food Crisis/Security
As 200 Million People are Undernourished, NEPAD Warns of Bigger Consequences If Africa Does Not Invest in Food Security
Ghana Business News
Statistics on food security and nutritional status show that over 200 million Africans are said to be undernourished and suffering from vitamin and mineral deficiencies according to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an economic development program of the African Union (AU). In Ghana over 1.2 million people, representing 5% of the population, are food insecure. [more]
High Food Prices - A Harsh New Reality
Sudan Vision
In Mexico City, mass protests about the cost of tortillas. In West Bengal, disputes over food-rationing. In Senegal, Mauritania, and other parts of Africa, riots over grain prices. And in Yemen, children march in public to call attention to child hunger. This chain of events is in stark contrast to the falling food prices that consumers have come to expect over the past several decades. On February 13, the FAO announced that 36 countries are in crisis as a result of higher food prices and will require external assistance. In many of these countries, food insecurity has been worsened by conflict, floods, or extreme weather. [more]
Ghana Ripe for Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Production
GhanaWeb
Ghana's vast expanse of arable land and favorable weather positions the country as a potential producer and processor of fresh fruits and vegetables on a large scale. Mr. Sunny George Verghese, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Olam International, who made the observation, said this must be exploited to consolidate the country's food security. He was addressing officials and stakeholders of Olam Ghana Limited at a dinner in Accra to mark his two-day visit to Ghana. [more]
In other news
Infrastructure Access and Household Welfare in Rural Ghana: The Empirics of the Nexus
Access to public infrastructure services is generally identified in the development literature as critical for economic transformation. At the household level, infrastructure access can be essential for improved socio-economic well-being. However, empirical evidence on the extent to which access to different infrastructure services contribute to enhancing household welfare, especially in the developing world, remains limited. In a comprehensive review of the literature on this subject, Ayogu (2007) aptly surmise that overall … the question is not about whether infrastructure matters but precisely how much it matters in different contexts? The present thesis responds to this knowledge gap by providing some quantitative understanding of how much infrastructure matters to economic development and in the context of Ghana’s development experience since the 1990s. [more]