Agricultural News
Ghana Must Adopt New Approach to Agriculture and Agro-Business
Myjoyonline.com
Government has been challenged to adopt new approaches to agriculture if the sector is to be sustained and maintained as the backbone of the country’s economy. The Chief Executive Officer of B-Bovid, an agro-business company in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region, wants support for farmers to take a new dimension such that farmers will earn more from their produce and improve on their standards of living. Mr. Issa Queadreago was speaking at the Western Regional Policy Fair which was on the theme, “Managing Agricultural Development in the face of the Oil and Gas Industry”. His delivery was titled “Private sector initiatives in the agric sector”. [more]
Agriculture to Spearhead Northern Transformation
Myjoyonline.com
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate to the NPP flag bearer has said that agriculture would be a major focus of the next NPP administration. He said agriculture would be one of the major tools for the transformation of the North. Dr. Bawumia made this known at Wungu in the Walewale Constituency of the Northern Region on Monday. He was addressing a durbar of chiefs, elders and the people of the town as part of his tour of the Mamprugu areas of the region. Addressing the people in his native Mampruli, Dr. Bawumia said, “Nana Akufo-Addo is committed to see the North develop and the gap between us and our brothers and sisters in the south bridged. We are focused on transforming the north. We want to put the vast land at our disposal to productive purposes and to make the North a food basket for Ghana and the entire Sahel region in order specifically to create jobs and improve lives.” [more]
Ghana Produced 13.5 million tons of Cassava in 2010
Myjoyonline.com
Ghana produced 13.5 million tons of Cassava, 6 million tons of yam and 1.4 million tons of cocoyam in 2010, Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture, said on Friday. Speaking at the dialogue session of the Western Regional Policy Fair at Essipon, near Takoradi, he said the Western Region produced 600,000 tons of yam, 75,000 tons of yam and 224,000 tons of cocoyam during the same period. Mr. Ahwoi said the Ministry's Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP), which was being implemented in the Aowin-Suaman, Bia, Bibiani, Juabeso, Sefwi Wiawso and the Mpohor Wassa East districts in the region, could help address post-harvest losses. [more]
SADA to Establish Tractor Assembly Plant
GhanaWeb
The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is to establish a Tractor Assembly Plant in the Northern Ghana, to help boost agriculture. The Plant which is expected to produce an average of 1,000 tractors a year is to satisfy both domestic needs, as well as international demand within the West African sub-region. Siting of the new plant in the region had become necessary because of the enormous fallout from the activities of SADA. This was made known by the Vice President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, when he presented 100 tractors and other agricultural inputs valued about 24 million dollars to farmers, at a function in Tamale dubbed: “BRINGING PROSPERITY TO THE NORTHERN SAVANNAH”. [more]
Food Crisis/Security
Ghana Food Security Under Threat
GhanaWeb
Dr. Kwame Osei in a recent article stated that the Ghana economy is in a mess due to various factors. One of these is the massive decline of the Ghana cedi that at time of writing this has reached 1.92 against the US Dollar. In a previous article Food Security Ghana (FSG) also highlighted the devastating effect that the declining cedi has on the livelihood of millions of Ghanaians with food prices spiraling out of control. According to Dr. Osei the following factors are the main contributors to the mess that Ghana is in:
* The Government of Ghana (GoG) is being dictated to by primarily the International Monetary Fund (IMF) / World Bank with regards to economic, monetary and fiscal policies. According to him this is due to the fact that up to 50% of the Ghana budget is funded from loans and financial assistance from the likes of the IMF / World Bank and other donors like China and the US. [more]
Reports
Farm Diversity and Heterogeneous Impacts of System Technologies on Yield, Income and Poverty: The System of Rice Intensification in Timor Leste
Selected Poster prepared for presentation at the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) Triennial Conference, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, 18‐24 August, 2012.
Natural resource management practices, such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), have been proposed to tackle agricultural challenges such as decreasing productivity growth and environmental degradation. Yet, the benefits of system technologies for farmers are often debated. Impacts seem to be context‐specific, which is especially relevant in the small farm sector with its large degree of agroecological and socioeconomic heterogeneity. This was not always considered in previous research. We analyze the impacts of SRI adoption on rice yield and household income among smallholder farmers in Timor Leste. Heterogeneity is accounted for in an endogenous switching regression framework. Comparing mean yield and income levels, we find no significant differences between SRI adopters and non‐adopters. This is due to negative selection bias; SRI seems to be adopted more on plots and by farmers with less than average yields. Controlling for this bias reveals significant yield and income gains. Poor and non‐poor households benefit from SRI adoption; small farms benefit more than larger farms. The results also suggest that SRI may not be beneficial when compared to conventional rice grown under favorable conditions and with best management practices. [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
If you would like us to add your colleagues to our mailing list, please send their names and emails to us at IFPRI-Ghana@cgiar.org and we will be happy to do so. If you wish to no longer receive these updates, please reply to this email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, and we will remove you from the mailing list.