Agricultural News
Ghana Reduces Hunger by 87%
Myjoyonline.com
Ghana has reduced by 87 per cent the number of people undernourished in the country over the past two decades due to improved investment in agriculture. This is in spite of the increasing population, changing weather patterns, inadequate lending and innovations that are threatening to squeeze the cuff off the country’s agric sector. Senior Policy Officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Mr. James Tefft said these on the sidelines of the18th African Rural and Agricultural and Credit Association (AFRACA) General Assembly in Accra, which was under the theme “‘enhancing the agricultural value chain through innovation.’ “Agriculture should be treated as a business and investments made in the smallholder farmer through innovative financial support mechanisms and instruments”, Mr. Tefft said. [more]
Do not Neglect Agricultural Sector for Oil and Gas
Ghana News Agency
Mr. Gershon Wodzrah, the Central Regional Director of Food and Agriculture, has stressed the need for government not to neglect agricultural sector because of the oil and gas development. He said oil and gas were not renewal resources and could finish at anytime and suggested that a substantive amount from the oil industry be invested in the agric sector to keep the economy running even at the time the oil wells would be dried up. Mr. Wodzrah gave the caution at a day’s stakeholder’s workshop in Cape Coast to address gaps in accessing citrus and lime markets in the country. The workshop organized by the Cape Coast Citrus Farmers Cooperative Society Limited (CCFCLS) and sponsored by Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, was attended by more than 50 citrus farmer drawn from Cape Coast, Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese and Mfantsiman districts. The workshop was to create awareness on the importance of citrus and lime industry to the economy in Ghana, highlight the plight of farmers and the challenges they face as well as to stimulate stakeholder interest in the citrus and lime sub sectors to push for a policy framework for the establishment of a citrus board. [more]
Africa Can Avoid Food Shortages
Eyewitness News
Africa could avoid food shortages if it reduces the tangled web of rules, fees and high costs strangling regional food trade and by putting large swathes of uncultivated land to productive use, a World Bank report said on Wednesday. Just five percent of Africa’s cereal imports are now provided by African farmers, according to the report released on the eve of an African Union summit on agriculture and trade in Ethiopia. [more]
Reports
Report of the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 Farming the Waters for People and Food
Phuket, Thailand, 22–25 September 2010
Organized by FAO and NACA and hosted by the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 – Farming the waters for people and food (Phuket Conference on Aquaculture) was held from 22 to 25 September 2010 in Phuket, Thailand. Its purpose was to review the present status and trends in aquaculture development, evaluate the progress made in the implementation of the Bangkok Declaration and Strategy on Aquaculture Development Beyond 2000, address emerging issues in aquaculture development, assess opportunities and challenges for future aquaculture development, and build consensus on advancing aquaculture as a global, sustainable and competitive food production sector. This event was a follow-up to the Conference on Aquaculture in the Third Millennium, which was organized by Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and FAO in February 2000, and the Kyoto Conference on Aquaculture organized by FAO in May and June 1976. Attended by 446 registered participants from 80 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Near East, North America and Oceania, representing all stakeholder groups in aquaculture, it was organized in four sessions (introduction and opening, regional reviews and a global synthesis on aquaculture development, thematic sessions in six plenary lectures and 20 expert reviews, recommendations and conclusions based on these thematic reviews) and included three invited guest lectures, four side events and poster sessions. [more]
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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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