Below are some current developments on Agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
Science and Technology Necessary for Development – Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama on Monday observed that Science and Technology is a necessity that could accelerate Ghana's transition from lower Middle income level to a Middle income level. He said as a country that is agriculturally oriented and basically rain- fed, the development of Science and Technology is necessary to help propel food production levels for both domestic consumption and for export to neighbouring countries. President Mahama said this when Dr Imtinan Elahi Qureshi, Executive Director of Commission on Science and Technology for sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), led a delegation to call on him at the Flagstaff House, Kanda. The Executive Director is in the country at the request of President Mahama, who is Chairman of ECOWAS to brief him on the performance of COMSAT and outline the programmes for the year. COMSATS, which brings together a comity of Science and Technology, was started in 1994 and headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Adaptation to Agricultural Technology Holds Prospects for Sector
Mr Kofi Humado, Minister of Food and Agriculture on Friday said adaptation to innovation in agricultural technology and strategic planning holds the prospects to shore up productivity and create wealth in the sector. He disclosed this at the symbolic inauguration of a three One-Stop-Centre (OSC) for agricultural merchandise constructed in the Afadzato South, Jasikan and Kadjebi districts of the Volta region at Atonkor. The OSC, a nobility of AFRICARE, an international non-govermental agricultural development organization comprised a warehouse, training centre, agro-input shop, farmers' library and a community demonstration plot with funding from the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The Centre is to aggregate and facilitate access to farm produce and storage, serve as platform for pricing and measuring, imparting knowledge, depot for agro-chemical and machinery and practicalising of new methods and technology.
Farmer Applauds Government for Banning Rice Importation
Alhaji Suhiyini Ziblim, a Ghanaian rice farmer and seller on Sunday said government’s ban on rice importation through the borders of the Ivory Coast has given a boost to local rice production in the country. He said: ”Since October last year when the ban was imposed on the importation of rice from la Cote d’Ivoire, local rice production and sales has risen about 40 percent, a situation that is encouraging to local rice farmers to yield dividends for their year-long toil.” Alhaji Ziblim who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the ban on the importation had also curbed the perennial smuggling of the commodity into the country as some people took advantage of the practice to smuggle large tons thereby selling it cheaper to stifle the initiative of local farmers.
Inflation Rate Hits 14.8 Per cent in May
The year-on-year inflation hits a fresh four-year high of 14.8 per cent in May, up from 14.7 per cent recorded in April, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said on Wednesday. The monthly change rate for May was 0.9 per cent compared to 1.7 per cent registered in April, 2014. Dr Philomena Nyarko, the Government Statistician, attributed the slight increase in the rate to utilities, the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels group. The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels group recorded the highest inflation rate of 51 per cent followed by transport, which recorded 27 per cent. The food and non-alcoholic beverages group recorded a year-on-year rate of 8 percent, which is one percentage point higher than the 7 per cent recorded in April 2014.
Ghana: Feast of Hope to Feed Hundreds of Children
The Feast of Hope, (FOH) 2014 project is tagged to intensify it public campaign on food wastage would this year on by feeding hundreds of less privilege children in the country. Its core mandate is to intercity a public campaign on food wastage, hunger, feeding the less privileged and creating sustainable solution to food security in Ghana and Africa. The foundation has retreated that, it is at the crossroads for balancing sustainable business, care for the environment and ability to adequately feed the world's people. According to FOH, nearly 40% of the food produced in the world is never eaten. In the United States, roughly 25% of the food is thrown out and in Europe more than 240 million tons of food are wasted each year. In Africa, up to 66% of all food spoils before it is sold. Over 30% of Ghanaians do not have enough food to eat and over 45% of food is wasted in Ghana.
Food Sovereignty Forum Degenerates into Brawl
A forum on food sovereignty in Ghana on Tuesday degenerated into a brawl between Dr Margaret Ottah Attipoe of Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research and organisers. The forum, which was organised by Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa in collaboration with Food Sovereignty Ghana, on the theme: “Food Sovereignty and farmers’ rights”, sought to educate Ghanaians on the need to prevent the promotion of genetically modified (GM) foods, and to encourage organic farming. It was addressed by Dr Vandana Shiva, Founder of the Research Foundation for Science and Ecology, one of the world's foremost environmentalist and anti-genetically modified foods (GMOs) activist. After Dr Shiva’s delivery, Mr Yaw Opoku, a private legal practitioner and a member of FSG in a remark said the organization is made up of volunteers who had the interest of the nation at heart.
Youth Urged to Take to Farming as Business
Mr. James Gunu, the Akatsi- North District Chief Executive, has again urged the youth to take to farming as a business. He said farming was neither degrading nor low paying as perceived. Mr. Gunu made the call while inspecting a 30-acre farm project the Assembly initiated for farming groups at Ave-Afiadenyigba. He said a lot of young people were reaping benefits from farming. “You would realize your negative perceptions are misplaced indeed, when you enter,” the DCE stated. Under the deal, the Assembly tills the land, provides fertilizer and seeds, while the farmers, with a one-third share of the harvest, tender it (farm). Crops on the farm include maize and chili-pepper. Ten farmers each from Zongo, Dzogbekpoe, Asito, Bedzame and Gborhohome are managing the Assembly-initiated community farm.
NGO Holds Media Workshop on Forest Management
The Friends of the Earth (FoE), in collaboration with its partners, on Tuesday opened a two-day media workshop on the Enforcement and Governance for Sustainable Forest Management (CiSoPFLEG) project to assist journalists in reporting on forest governance issues. The workshop, which was partnered by National Working Group on Forest Certification, also aimed at enhancing their capacity as well as effectively contributing their quota to governance in the forestry sector. Mr. Christopher Manu, who addressed the media on behalf of Dr. Theo Anderson, Director, FoE- Ghana said the training session formed part of the awareness programme on Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), which is an agreement between Ghana Government and the European Union. He said the CiSoPFLEG project was regional in character, and similar initiatives are being implemented in Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and D.R. Congo.
Okyehene Declares War Against Environmental Degradation
The Okyehene, Osagyefuo Amaotia Ofori Panin, has called for an all-out war on environment degradation in the country. He observed that in the past forests and river bodies were protected but now, they are being destroyed through tree felling and chainsaw operations. He said river bodies are being polluted through illegal mining for selfish gains. The Okyehene therefore called on Ghanaians for the protection of the legacy inherited from their forefathers. Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin was speaking at a durbar at Takorase organised to climax the week-long celebration of this year’s Okyeman Environment Week, which also marked the World Environment Day. The celebration was organised on the theme: “Rise up and join the fight against degradation.”
EPAs Won’t Destroy Agric Sector - Hannah Tetteh
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, has stated that the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will not destroy the local agriculture sector but rather boost and provide increased investments for the sector. Contrary to beliefs that the EPA would threaten the survival of the local agribusiness sector, she said the agreement would rather provide measures that provide opportunities for investment. Ms Hannah Tetteh said this when government and the European Union (EU) met with Parliamentarians on June 3 in Accra to seek their support for the EPA. She said the EU and ECOWAS under the agreement would examine all co-operation measures in order to identify new opportunities for the development and export of agricultural products which has strong international demand.
Fire Guts PR Office of Agric Ministry
Some audio-visual materials and other office documents were yesterday destroyed when fire gutted the Public Relations (PR) office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The materials included some video tapes of previous National Farmers Day celebrations and tours conducted by ministers who had served the ministry. It took the efforts of workers of the ministry and some labourers working on the ministry’s extension project to bring under control the fire, which started at 12:30 pm. No one was injured and the cause of the fire was yet to be established as of press time. A member of staff who saw heavy smoke emerging from the windows of the Public Relations Department raised the alarm.
Rural banks Urged to Ensure Strict Risk Management Controls
The Managing Director of the ARB Apex Bank Limited, Mr Kwadwo Aye Kusi, has urged rural and community banks (RCBs) in the country, to tighten their risk management controls to save them from the activities of fraudsters. He said with the rural banks now turning to latest technology to improve their customer service, they were likely to be exposed to fraudsters but noted that with the necessary risk management controls in place, persons who would attempt to dupe them would not succeed. Mr Aye Kusi made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the 19th annual general meeting of Dumpong Rural Bank Limited at Asakraka – Kwahu in the Eastern Region. He said the banking business had become competitive but risky at the same time and reiterated that the only way to minimise the risk was to have an effective risk management control in place.
African Farmland Investments Face Governance Challenges
The rush for African farmland has created new opportunities for local elites to capture rents from what have been — until now — poorly monetized land resources. This has stimulated the formation of influential new local coalitions serving the interests of international capital. As a result, the quality of societal representation and the potential for much-needed agricultural investments to contribute to rural poverty alleviation is severely undermined. Foreign investor interest in farmland gained momentum in the wake of the food and energy price crises of the mid-2000s. Investors lacking funds or capacity to actually invest in the land, bank on profiting from rising land values; others, on favorable long-term prospects within international commodity markets.
Climate Change Must be Seen as a Security Concern
“It has not been normal for rainstorms like these to happen at this time of the year, early in March.” President Mahama noted on this year’s rainy Independence Day. The President has done a great deal in raising concerns on climate change, and with the Former President H.E. John A. Kufuor serving as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, Ghana has great potential in not only taking the lead for the region in combating global warming, but also reshaping the agenda to highlight yet another dimension of climate change–the threat to peace and security. The theme of this year’s World Environment Day on June 5th, “Raise your voice, not the sea level” called to mind the urgency to help protect Small Islands States - collectively home to more than 63 million people - in the face of growing risks and vulnerabilities as a result of climate change.
Food Security/Crisis
ECOWAS Regional Food Security Meeting Opens in Akosombo
The three-day seventh Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) West Africa Multi-disciplinary and Management Teams meeting opened in Akosombo on Tuesday. It is to call various partners to strategies and strengthen the partnerships for agricultural growth and ending hunger by 2025 in the sub-region. In a statement signed by Mr. Fernando Salinas, West Africa Team Leader and issued to the Ghana News Agency said that the West African sub-region is home to over 320 million people representing 37.1 percent of the whole Sub-Saharan Africa population. It added that about 72 to 93 percent of the population in more than half of the 15 countries in the sub-region are classified as low incomes using the Multidimensional Poverty.
Integrate Trees with Crops Farmers Advised
Farmers and the Youth in Agriculture, have been advised to integrate trees with crops, as agro-forestry technology for sustainable farming and food security. Mr George Ansah Akomeah, a Programme Officer for the Trees for the Future, a non-governmental organization, gave the advice at a forum with trainee-farmers at the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture (KITA) in the Ejisu Juaben District at the weekend. He said it was important for farmers to practise agro-forestry, by integrating fast-growing multi-purpose trees with crops, in order to improve soil fertility and reduce deforestation. Mr Akomeah said: “It had been noted that farming contributes to deforestation and desertification due to the unsustainable practices used by farmers, hence the need for them to plant trees with crops, an alternative solution to support small farmers improve food security.
Reports/Articles
Macroeconomic Policies and Agricultural Development in Developing Countries: Lessons from Emerging Economies
OB Olusegun, OF Elizabeth, OE David, RM Ekundayo - International Business and …, 2014
This paper brings to the fore the macroeconomic policy issues in emerging and developing countries with respect to agricultural development. By exploring theoretical and empirical evidences, it describes the macroeconomic tools that have been deployed by various governments of selected emerging and developing nations especially between 2000 and 2010. The major findings are that emerging countries like Brazil, China and India have systematically manipulated macroeconomic tools in either jumpstarting or fast-tracking their economic development. It recommends that in order to foster development, developing countries need to learn to manipulate macroeconomic policies relating to taxation, trade, government expenditure and exchange rate.
Meeting Information Needs of Cocoa Farmers in Selected Communities in the Eastern Region of Ghana
DA Dankwah, O Hawa - 2014
The development of any nation depends on the production and exportation of key products and services for foreign exchange. Countries like Brazil, Botswana and Ghana owe their development to the production and exportation of sugar, diamond and cocoa respectively. According to ISSER (2008) cited in Baah, Anchirinah and Amon-Armah (2011) agriculture remains the largest sector in the Ghanaian economy in terms of its contribution with the cocoa sector being the most critical and contributing 31.8 percent to foreign exchange earnings and 28 percent of agricultural growth in 2006. In recent years, cocoa production has picked up due in part to higher producer prices, liberalization of internal marketing, establishment of a price stabilisation system, government-backed rehabilitation programmes, control of pests and diseases programme, fertilizer credits and the privatization of input supply to farmers (International Cocoa Organisation, 2007, cited in Baah, Anchirinah and Amon-Arhah 2011).
Agricultural Market Information Services in Developing Countries: A Review
MM Magesa, K Michael, J Ko - Advances in Computer Science: an International …, 2014
Access to agricultural markets and marketing information are essential factors in promoting competitive markets and improving agricultural sector development. The agricultural sector employs majorities in developing countries and it contributes greatly to the development of these countries. Unluckily, majorities of the farmers are smallholders living in isolated rural areas and thus lack appropriate access to markets for their products and also lack of these, smallholder farmers are exploited by greedy traders and receive low prices for their agricultural produce. This study has explored the use of agricultural market information services in linking smallholder farmers to markets, especially in sub-Sahara developing countries. Origin of, the needs for, and the current status of agricultural market information services in developing countries are clearly presented. Lastly, the study explored the limitation of the success of most agricultural market information services in sub-Sahara developing countries.
Did the Price-related Reforms in Ghana's Cocoa Sector Favour Farmers?
W Quarmine, R Haagsma, A van Huis… - … Journal of Agricultural …, 2014
It is generally hypothesized in the innovation systems literature that institutions can create production incentives for farmers. This paper examines whether the introduction in 1984 of the Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC) in Ghana's cocoa sector has improved the transmission of world prices to farmers. We test how fast and to what extent world prices have been transmitted, and also address the stability of the prices received by cocoa farmers. For the period 1960–2011, the results were as follows: (1) the production of cocoa beans depended positively on the prices farmers received and negatively on price variance; (2) the establishment of the PPRC provided higher prices for farmers; and (3) the PPRC's use of the flexible freight on board (FOB) price-setting rule resulted in a better price transmission than the employed cost-plus-margin approach. However, under the FOB price-setting rule, producer price variance rose sharply. We conclude that, although FOB pricing mechanisms are often recommended for markets where prices are …..