Hello all,
It is a new week and you are warmly welcome to the week’s news digest. Please find below a summary of last week’s agricultural news articles on Ghana.
Agricultural Issues
GMO Test Trials Divides Ghana
Savelugu - A battle over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is building in Ghana after the government recently completed regulations that could allow modified cowpeas and other selected crops to be grown following confined field trials (CFT)… The BT Cowpea is among three other crops – cotton, rice and sweet potatoes – which have been cleared for confined trials and evaluation. Scientists will seek to create a cowpea variety resistant to…
ADB to Help Minimize Post-Harvest Losses
The effort by the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to help minimize post-harvest losses in the country’s agriculture sector has seen some significant improvement, with the investment of GH¢208 million, this year by the bank to finance value-chain activities. According to the bank, it has been able to support value-chain activities such as export and food cropping, poultry farming, aqua-culture and inputs supply to also ensure relief to farmers.
Ghanaian Farmer Wants Government to Resource NAFCO
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has called on government to adequately resource the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) to enable it to perform its functions. Mr Mohammed Adam Nashiru, President of PFAG who made the call at a sensitization forum on the operations of NAFCO in Tamale on Thursday, said this would ensure food security as well as improve incomes and livelihood of farmers
Zimbabwe: 'Make Biotech Work for Zim-Asset'
In a speech read on her behalf by Mrs Scholastica Madzinga, an official in the ministry, at the recent launch of the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology Zimbabwe chapter in Harare, Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Dr Olivia Muchena said raising public awareness paved way for application of biotechnology to attain the food and nutritional security goals as outlined in Zim-Asset.
Australia Announces USD300,000 Aid Programme
The Australian High Commission has announced AUD300,000 (GH¢600,000) funding for various social intervention projects in deprived communities in Ghana and other West African countries under its 2013/2014 Direct Aid Programme (DAP). A total of 14 poverty alleviation projects in education, healthcare and agriculture will receive support under the programme.
Farmers Still Use Old Methods of Storage-Report
Farmers are still using old methods of storing produce despite the introduction of improved storage facilities by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to reduce post-harvest losses. According to the 2013 Auditor General’s Report on MoFA’s Support to Farmers to increase Food Security, “the farmers were not using these storage facilities because they said the facilities were expensive to construct”.
Reports/Articles
Understanding Village Poultry through the Agricultural Household Model
DHQ Tan - 2013
Village poultry fulfils many roles in the livelihood of rural households such as food security and income generation. Their global prevalence in tropical villages attests to their relative ease of production and low demands on household resources. Nevertheless, such low input-output production systems are plagued by multiple challenges associated with high flock mortality and low productivity… The research aim of this thesis is to identify the socio-economic variables relevant to farm households and which consequently influence intra-household preferences and the resources that households thereby allocate to poultry production.
Farmer Preferences for Drought Tolerance in Hybrid Versus Inbred Rice
DL Ortega, DJ Spielman, V Singh – 2013
Recent efforts to develop rice cultivars with drought-tolerance (DT) traits have resulted in the release of several varieties that demonstrate significant resilience to drought stresses. This paper addresses the previously unanswered question of whether the private sector might play a future role in developing similar strains through applications of advanced biotechnology, and whether their research and development efforts would benefit poor and vulnerable farmers in hazard-prone ecosystems.
A New Source of Elemol Rich Essential Oil and Existence of Multicellular Oil Glands in Leaves of the Dioscorea Species
JI Odimegwu, O Odukoya, RK Yadav, CS Chanotiya… - The Scientific World Journal, 2013
Dioscorea species is a very important food and drug plant. The tubers of the plant are extensively used in food and drug purposes owing to the presence of steroidal constituent’s diosgenin in the tubers. In the present study, we report for the first time that the leaves of Dioscorea composita and Dioscorea floribunda grown under the field conditions exhibited the presence of multicellular oil glands on the epidermal layers of the plants using stereomicroscopy (SM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Essential oil was also isolated from the otherwise not useful herbage of the plant, and…
Determinants of Aggregate Agricultural Productivity among High External Input Technology Farms in a Harsh Macroeconomic Environment of Imo State, Nigeria
SO Anyanwu, SO Anyanwu - 2013
The main purpose of this study was to isolate and discuss the determinants of aggregate agricultural productivity in an environment where policy on subsidy of fertilizer is inconsistent. The study examined determinants of aggregate agricultural productivity among HEIT farmers in Imo State, in order to provide information on those variables that play significant roles in determining the aggregate agricultural productivity in an environment where HEIT inputs such as inorganic fertilizer are not subsidized.
Season's Greetings