Agricultural News
Fertilizer Subsidy Fuels Smuggling
GhanaWeb
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has confirmed the smuggling of subsidized fertilizer across the northern border into Burkina Faso, but says regional and district security councils have deployed personnel to the border- posts to check the practice. Director at the Directorate of Crop Services at the Ministry, Emmanuel Asante-Krobea, told the B&FT that he had personally visited smuggling points in the north, particularly Bawku, and confirmed that fertilizer from Ghana, which is sold at subsidized rates to farmers under the government’s Fertilizer Subsidy Program (FSP), is being smuggled into Burkina Faso where the commodity is relatively more expensive. [more]
More Private Sector Investment In Agriculture Targeted
GhanaWeb
A $3 billion initiative, which is aimed at sustaining agricultural growth in Africa, is expected to encourage more private businesses to participate in the sector to promote the welfare of smallholder farmers. The project, supported by G-8 countries, is expected to lift 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years. Codenamed ‘new alliance for food security and nutrition’, the initiative aims at catalyzing private sector investment in agriculture and combining effective policies by African governments to promote innovation and focus on managing risk. [more]
EDAIF to Commence Operations in Northern Part of Ghana
GhanaWeb
The Export Development and Agriculture Investment Fund (EDAIF) is to extend its services to the Northern, Upper West and Upper East Regions. This is to enable groups and institutions in these regions to benefit from the financial package, technical support and promotion of export products being offered by EDAIF. Mr. Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku, acting Chief Executive of EDAIF, announced these in an interview with the Ghana News Agency. [more]
B-BOVID Launches Ghana’s 1st ICT centre for Agriculture
Myjoyonline.com
In the wake of the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in addressing the challenges of small scale farmers and improving the livelihood of the rural poor, B-BOVID, a Ghanaian agro-business that is promoting a new model of social inclusive commercial farming, has launched a modern ICT centre where small scale farmers and the youth would be trained and supported to use ICT to improve productivity. The centre will support small scale farmers to improve their production, access the market and create a platform for knowledge and information sharing. In addition, it would assist in building their capacity, reduce social isolation and make agriculture a more efficient and prosperous venture. The centre will be the first of its kind in Ghana, if not in West Africa. [more]
NPP to Boost Agriculture with Integrated Approach – Bawumia Assures Farmers
GhanaWeb
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice-Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has assured farmers in the Brong Ahafo region and countrywide that the Akufo-Addo administration would implement a holistic approach to agricultural development based on the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) module. The NPP Running Mate, who made the disclosure on Tuesday at Akokoa in the Atebubu-Amantin Constituency, further assured farmers that they would be major stakeholders in the NPP’s transformation agenda which would have as one of its keys, the boosting and modernization of agriculture. Reacting to concerns raised by the chief of Akokoa on the need for farmers of the area to be given the needed support, Dr. Bawumia said “ when the NPP talks about transforming Ghana, it involves an urgent and irreplaceable desire to make lives better for farmers and boost agricultural production. With this in mind, the NPP would implement a tried and tested approach which tackles the problems faced by the agricultural industry holistically. [more]
Food Crisis/Security
Stumbling Blocks En Route to Food Security
Peace FM Online
Food security is certainly the biggest issue that the world should address and that governments globally, including Ghana, should place on top of the agenda. Even though Ghana is seen as a country that is tackling this issue there are indicators that all may not be as rosy as is being projected. Firstly we are experiencing a food crisis despite denials by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). Food Security Ghana (FSG) has been stressing this point time and time again. The true fact is that too many Ghanaians (51.8%) are still under the global poverty line and that affordability of food is a major concern in Ghana. [more]
Reports
Exploring Opportunities for Enhancing Innovation in Agriculture: The Case of Oil Palm Production in Ghana
Journal of Agricultural Science; Vol. 4, No. 10; 2012
We carried out a study using key informant interviews, focus group discussions and individual interviews to explore opportunities to enhance innovation in the oil palm sector in Ghana. Current technical innovations at the farm level are insufficient to promote sustainable oil palm production and to alleviate poverty because of overriding institutional constraints at the larger-than-farm level. Oil palm was selected for the study for three main reasons: (1) It is considered a national priority crop because of its potential for reducing poverty, (2) It has a wide geographical coverage and (3) It is considered as both food and cash crop. Oil palm has evolved in the past 40 years from a public-sector to a private-sector crop. The study identified the following main actors in oil palm production: small private farms that produce about 80% of the crop; large-scale industrial estates with their network of smallholder and out-grower farmers who produce to supply their large-scale mechanized processing mills; small-scale semi-mechanized processing mills, medium-scale mechanized mills and secondary processors. [more]
Evolution of Agricultural Water Management in Rainfed Crop-Livestock Systems of the Volta Basin
Research for Development Series R4D paper 04
Agricultural water management (AWM) is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources for agricultural purposes, through a suite of strategies. This sector comprises all types of agricultural systems, from rainfed to fully irrigated, with water sources varying between rainwater, surface water or groundwater. In the dry areas of the Volta Basin, agricultural systems are mostly rainfed. AWM strategies in rainfed systems are different ways to influence rainwater flows in order to maximize infiltration in the soil, retain run-off and minimize losses, and range from field-scale techniques like stone bunds or manure application to watershed-scale structures like small reservoirs. These AWM strategies have been extensively studied and promoted in the Volta Basin during the last decades. However, economic and physical water scarcity still limits agricultural production of most of the smallholder crop-livestock farms of the basin. Numerous projects and programs are currently working on best-fit AWM identification and promotion in the basin. In this context, there is a high risk of duplication of what has been done or of reinventing the wheel. The objective of this paper is to synthesize existing knowledge, interventions, lessons, and gaps in knowledge regarding AWM in the Volta Basin. [more]
The Role of Agricultural Growth on Millenium Development Goals in Kenya: A Strategy of Poverty Reduction
Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences (JETEMS) 3(4): 324-331
Agricultural is the backbone of Kenyan economy. Its growth is a prerequisite for rural development, hence poverty reduction. The agricultural sector is required to absorb an increasing number of employees and income generation of the people occupied in the agricultural sector, hence increasing the purchasing power of the people. This paper examines the role of agriculture on millennium development growth in Kenya. Kenya being a developing country has developed millennium goals to achieve in vision 2030 and it is in ground this paper wants to look at the role of agricultural growth in achieving those visions. In this paper data from Africa development indicators from World Bank are considered for graphical analysis to study the trend and annual pattern of behavior which supports the hypothesis of the paper that agricultural growth is important on achieving the goals. [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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