Agricultural News
Ghana's Agriculture Sector Gets Another US$50 Million World Bank Boost
Myjoyonline.com
The Board of Directors of the World Bank today approved US$50 million to the Government of Ghana, in the form of budget support for the implementation of the country’s Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan, METASIP. The program, known as the Agricultural Development Policy Operation (AgDPO), supports important policy and institutional reforms that will enhance the development and adoption of agricultural technology, such as improved seeds and fertilizer. A statement from the World Bank said a key aspect of the program is smallholder commercialization and the development of a socially inclusive out-grower model that will attract increased private investment in the sector. The program also supports accelerated irrigation development, and improved governance of the fisheries sector. [more]
Peasant Farmers Express Concern About Delay of Subsidized Fertilizer
GhanaWeb
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has expressed concern about the delay in the release of subsidized fertilizer on the market for the 2012 crop season. Mohammed Adam Nashiru, President of PFAG, said farmers have since April planted their crops and yet there was no sign of subsidized fertilizer on the market. Mohammed Nashiru told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that “farmers are jittery and anxious” and called for the timely release of funds to fertilizer importers for consistence supply. [more]
Cadbury Sustains Cocoa Production
Spyghana.com
Cadbury Ghana is promoting sustainable cocoa production in communities where the commodity is grown in the country. The initiative dubbed, Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, is being undertaken with support from the parent company of Cadbury, Craft Food, World Vision and Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to support farmers in 206 communities within seven selected districts. Some of the beneficiaries include cocoa farmers in the Asunafo North, Amansie West, Suhum Kraboa-Coaltar, West Akyem, Mpohor Wassa East, New Juabeng and Fanteakwa districts. The 10-year program, which commenced in 2008, is expected to end in 2018 after which it would ensure sustainable cocoa supply chain in Ghana. Yaa Peprah Amekutzi, Project Director of the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, said about half a million cocoa farmers would benefit from the project. [more]
Dealers Lock Up Subsidized Fertilizer - Over Government's Inability to Pay for Supplies Made
AllAfrica.com
As a result of the government's inability to reimburse input dealers of their last year's subsidized fertilizer supplied, they have threatened not to release subsidized fertilizer onto the Ghanaian market, unless it pays them for the last consignment made. The input dealers, who claim to have more than enough subsidized fertilizer in their various warehouses, have indicated that they are aware of the shortage on the market and the troubles small scale farmers are going through, but are not prepared to incur another debt with the government. According to them, the government, which owes them an amount of about GH¢35,000,000, has not made any bold step towards clearing the debt, but always gives the excuse that their payment is still in the pipeline. Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Mr. Mohammed Adam Nashiru, noted that the government's attitude towards the payment of the debt had given a clear indication that it was not prepared to fight against food insecurity in the country. [more]
Rural Farmers Can't Access Funds
Spyghana.com
At least $320 million allocated to farmers and agricultural and medium-scale enterprises in northern Ghana is sitting idle because many of the intended beneficiaries are from districts without any community or rural bank. According to the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Rural and Agricultural Finance Program (RAFIP), Mr. Raymond Mensah, as at 2011, a total of US$320 million credit for agriculture and medium scale enterprises had not been utilized. The unutilized funds, he noted, was probably higher because the figure mentioned did not include funds from the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), Venture Capital Fund and other funding sources. [more]
Local staple grains phasing out in Upper East
Spyghana.com
Long maturing local varieties of staple grains consumed in the Upper East Region, are gradually phasing out in favor of improved short maturing varieties. Farmers in the Tariganga, in Garu-Tempane District in the region, said that for the past 10 years, erratic rainfall had made rain-fed agriculture unreliable. This is because draught or floods during the later part of the farming season resulted in low yield of long maturing crops such as millet, sorghum, groundnuts, cowpea and bambara beans. Consequently, farmers in the community cultivate short maturing varieties, including maize, sorghum, known as Dorado, soya, cowpea and groundnuts introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Alternative Learning Program (ALP), under CARE International, a non-governmental Organization. [more]
Food Crisis/Security
Jain Irrigation Partners with G8's to Build Sustainable Agriculture In Africa
RTT News
Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., or JSIL, has partnered with G8 and various nations to invest in Africa on the occasion of "The New Alliance For Food Security in Africa" symposium held on March 18 at Washington DC. Prior to the event, Ms. Hilary Clinton hosted the G8 partner organizations and country heads at State House, where African Union President Jean Ping, Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete and Ghana's President Atta Mills were also present. JSIL has committed investment and projects of $375 million over the next few years to build sustainable agriculture and to improve income of small holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the coming years, JSIL will partner and collaborate with the governments of Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana, Cote d'lvoire, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and others. [more]
Ghana Wins Funds from G8 to Promote Agriculture
Ghana
Ghana is expected to get some 600 million dollars from a three-billion-dollar fund for the new Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition being championed by the G8 countries. Ghana’s share of the fund, which was announced at the G8 summit held at Camp David, Maryland at the weekend, will be a major boost to the government in the implementation of the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP). It is expected to enhance agriculture production and alleviate over 1.3 million Ghanaians out of poverty. The G8 leaders, at the meeting, approved the five-year METASIP and agreed to advance their contributions. Out of the amount for Ghana, the USA is expected to provide 225 million dollars, while Canada, France and Germany will be contributing 71 million dollars, 76 million dollars and 69 million dollars respectively. [more]
Obama Unveils US Food Security Plan for Africa
By Daily Graphic
The United States of America (USA) has unveiled a plan to release US$3 billion to fight hunger and malnutrition in Africa. President Barack Obama, who made the pledge at the opening of the G8 summit Friday, said it was a moral, economic and security imperative to address food security in Africa. President Obama said investments in African agriculture by private US companies, for a total of more than $3bn, would address 'unacceptable' starvation. 'It's a moral imperative, it's an economic imperative and it's a security imperative,' Mr. Obama said. ''There is no reason why Africa cannot feed itself.' The summit is being attended by President John Evans Atta Mills alongside Mr. Jekaya Kikwete of Tanzania, AU Chairman and Mr. Thomas Yayi Boni of Benin and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. Taking his turn to address a symposium on global agriculture and food security at the Ronald Reagan Building International Trade Center in Washington, DC, President Mills pledged the Ghana Government’s commitment to ensuring food security. [more]
Gender Issues
ECOWAS Considers Women’s Role In Regional Agricultural Investment
Ghana
Ghana is hosting a four-day ECOWAS Regional Workshop to examine the role of women in the search for food security in West Africa. It is being attended by representatives of ECOWAS Member States from Ghana, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote I’dvoire and Mali with the aim of achieving a better understanding of the contribution of women to the strategic food chain as identified in the ECOWAS Regional Agricultural Investment Program. The participants are also expected to help ensure better integration of gender concerns into the Regional Agricultural Investment Plan (RAIP). RAIP indicates that achieving food sovereignty in the Region requires priority work on products which enjoy a high production potential, correspond to the changing habit of the populations and demonstrate a high level of extra-regional imports which could be replaced by enhancing the complementarities of the production basins and promoting regional trade. [more]
Reports
Establishing Business Growth Opportunities by Analyzing the Linkage between Food Processing Entrepreneurs and Smallholder Farmers in order to Alleviate Poverty
Investment Climate and Business Environment Research Fund
The objective of this study was to evaluate the linkage mechanism between grass root rural agricultural (tomato) producers and urban food processors; to establish productivity indices for small-holder farmers and food processors; to assess the effectiveness of the marketing strategies and storage and preservation; and finally to analyze the impact of the linkages on poverty alleviation. The linkage among the tomato producers was established. It is in form of information flow and knowledge transfer, capital flow, frequency of contact and social relations. The linkage between producers and buyers also exist. It is in form of trade/product flow, capital flow, as well as flow of information and knowledge transfer. Finally, the linkage exists among processors also; this is in form of information flow and knowledge transfer and a bit in social relations. The linkage was observed to have a positive impact on poverty by using the possession index as a proxy. [more]
Children Working in Commercial Agriculture: Evidence from West and Central Africa
UNICEF, Briefing paper No. 2
This paper focuses on children working in commercial agriculture, whether they do so as unpaid family labor or as paid workers, part-time or full-time. Two different perspectives inform research and policy-making on children’s work in cash crops. One has trafficking in persons and new forms of slavery at its core and is closely linked to work on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. In the late 1990s images in international media of poorly-clad children working with machetes or carrying heavy loads of cocoa pods sparked moral concern internationally and generated a number of interventions to rescue suffering children. Generally, children were seen as victims of deceitful traffickers and unscrupulous cocoa farmers who exploited and mistreated child workers and, in some cases, even locked them up to prevent their escape. [more]
“Food for Credit: How A Microfinance Based Development Approach Affects Food Security and Sovereignty”
By: David Basu Roy
The global food crisis has grown seemingly in tandem with the popularity of employing microfinance as a tool to challenge structures of poverty. However, any connection of the two in the literature is limited, with few studies investigating the direct effect, if any, microfinance plays in advancing food sovereignty. This paper seeks to investigate this relationship, and determine if microfinance has a positive, neutral, or negative effect on improving food security and promoting food sovereignty. It is found that microfinance often addresses issues of food insecurity, but not in a manner that challenges larger structures impeding food sovereignty. More holistic ideologies and movements toward achieving food sovereignty are investigated. The result is ambiguous as to whether or not microfinance is a net positive force in such movements, but it is concluded that power structures must be challenged for microfinance’s implementation to be effective. [more]
Thank you
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