Agricultural News
Ghana's 2011 Non-Traditional Exports hit $2.4 billion
The Africa Report
In 2010 the country recorded about $1.629 billion recorded in the NTEs. Earnings from agriculture, processed and semi-processed products as well as handicrafts contributed to the growth. Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Exports Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr Kwadwo Owusu Agyeman, said an enterprise development approach adopted by GEPA, in which key companies were targeted and supported to be able to export and better collaborate with stakeholders' involvement in planning and management of trade fairs, contributed significantly to the 2011 achievement. [more]
Nation to Benefit from US$13.5 Million Cocoa Initiative
AllAfrica.com
The ongoing drive of the federal government to give more attention to the agricultural sector received a boost at the weekend with the selection of Nigeria and three other African countries for the African Cocoa Initiative which will lead to the establishment of 100,000 cocoa farms in the selected countries at the cost of $13 million. According to Country Representative of International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) in Nigeria, the organization bankrolling the project, the other African countries are Ghana, Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire. [more]
Government Takes Measures to Increase Cotton Production
Ghana
The Government of Ghana has pledge its commitment towards the increment of cotton production in the country. To this end, a technical assistance program to revitalize the cotton production in Ghana is being developed in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) International Fund for Agriculture (IFA) and the World Bank. This, is to facilitate the adoption of new cotton varieties developed through biotechnology and incorporating genes which confer resistance to insect pest damage (Bt-cotton). The program would also rehabilitate the cotton classing and grading facility and also build the national capacity to produce high quality cotton. It would also build pilot processing centres for cotton seed oil processing and other by-products from seed cotton. [more]
Marketing Dilemma of the Ghanaian Farmer
Myjoyonline.com
"A soldier walks on his stomach", so the popular adage goes. Similarly, "a hungry man is an angry man". The computation of these two noble sayings goes to conclude that farming is the strength of almost every nation on the earth regardless of their status quo, of either being a developed, or, a developing nation. It is however harrowing to notice the lack of interest in farming by the Ghanaian youth with the covert disrespect for farmers by governments who have over the years paid only lip service to these farmers without helping them make any meaningful gains with the exception of a few who happen to produce cocoa especially. The backbone of the African economy in general, and that of Ghana in particular, is agriculture. Agriculture accounts for about 30 per cent of the nation's GDP though a large chunk of it is from cocoa to the neglect of other crops especially the abundant citrus in the country which can equally fetch the nations millions of dollars if proper attention is accorded it. [more]
Reports
Assessing the impacts of conservation agriculture on farmer livelihoods in three selected communities in central Mozambique
Doctoral Thesis, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Agriculture is the major source of livelihood for more than 80% of the people in Mozambique. Many years of cropping using slash-and-burn practices has resulted in negative environmental impacts which result in low crop productivity, food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. During the last 20 years there have been a number of initiatives by rural development and research organizations working in partnership with the government to introduce environmentally friendly, more efficient and sustainable technologies, so as to restore soil fertility, improve moisture conservation and ensure increased crop productivity. Among these technologies, conservation agriculture has been promoted since 2007 by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) in central Mozambique. This study assesses the alleged livelihoods benefits of conservation agriculture for smallholder farmers. [more]
Calling for Better Crops: An exploration of social upgrading through two mobile phone-based agriculture extension projects in Uganda
A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies
In recent years, mobile phones have become increasingly enmeshed in the daily routines of communities across the globe. This exponential swell of mobile teledensity in developing nations, especially in rural areas, gives evidence to mobile phones as being a contributing factor towards social and economic changes in local livelihoods driven by agriculture. In this study, any economic upgrading is organized under the concept of overall social upgrading. This dissertation investigates such evidence by exploring the social effects from the use of mobile phones through two agricultural extension projects in Uganda. [more]
Thank you
The articles included in this news digest have been generated from online news sources and the daily graphic newspaper published within last week. For more information on any of these articles, please contact Adwoa Kwarteng at A.Kwarteng@cgiar.org
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