Below are some current developments on Agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
Statistical Service Budgets $20 million for Agricultural Census
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), is to spend 20 million dollars on the on-going Agricultural Census spanning 2014-2017. Mr. Anthony Amuzu, Director of Survey Organization and Census Directorate, said the census is being undertaken by the GSS and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). At the Inauguration of the Western Regional Management Team for the period, Mr. Amuzu said to improve upon the process of collecting information in a more comprehensive manner; a “Modular Approach” has been developed by the FAO. He said this means that the activities surrounding the census would have a first phase of data collection, processing, analysis and dissemination to cover 2013 and 2015.
Advocates Ignore Move on GM Bananas
Scientists in Australia think they know better than God what levels of vitamins and minerals should exist in food, and they are on a mission to engineer new varieties that achieve these unnatural levels. Despite the recent failure of genetically modified (GM) “Golden Rice” with artificially elevated levels of beta-carotene, biotechnologists are quietly shifting their efforts to a new GM banana that contains high levels of provitamin A, which they plan to force on impoverished Africans. The UK’s Independent recently ran a story on the GM banana, which its creators have presumptuously announced will reduce blindness and infant mortality in poor children living throughout Africa.
A Peaceful and Food-secure Africa is Not Just a Dream
An open letter by the International Fund for Agricultural Development‘s President Dr Kanayo F. Nwanze called on African leaders to follow through and deliver on their promises for investing in agriculture. It came just ahead of the 23rd African Union summit that will bring together Africa’s leaders. In the letter, Dr Nwanze says that only seven countries have followed through on the commitment to spend at least 10% of their budgets on agriculture…. Africa has the fastest growing population and the highest rate of urbanization in the world. The middle class is growing across the continent, driving demand for food. As I said in my letter, Africa has land available for cultivation, it has the potential to massively boost food production through investment in agriculture, it has the youngest population on the planet, economic growth rates are strong in many countries
Ghana: 'Halt the Passage of the Plant Breeders' Bill Into Law'
Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) in Ghana have called on the President of the Republic, John Dramani Mahama to as a matter of urgency intervene in halting the passage of the Plant Breeders' Bill (PBB), which is at the consideration stage, into law. Should Parliament ignore their concerns and proceed to pass the current bill into law, the FBOs urged the President to exercise his prerogative of refusing assent to it in the interest of Ghanaians and his personal vision of encouraging home grown solutions. The FBOs which made the call at a day's awareness creation workshop on the controversial PBB and Genetically Modified Organisations (GMOs) in Ghana included; Office of the National Chief Imam and National Catholic Secretariat
Ethiopia: "Ethiopia's Water Management System Should Be Upgraded"
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has been in Ethiopia since 2003, after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the then Ministry of Water Resources to help the country that has long been affected by a series of drought and famine, though it is often dubbed as the water tower of Africa. The IWMI has cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Irrigation and Energy so as to ease some of the critical problems in the water management system of the country. Henok Reta of the Reporter sat down with Simon Langan (Ph.D.), Senior Researcher and Head Office for the Nile Basin and East Africa to learn about those positive impacts happening to the smallholders and the challenges it will take onward.
Ghana’s GDP Grew By 6.7%
Ghana’s Gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter of this year grew by 6.7 percent. The GDP measures the country’s monetary value of the goods and services produced in the country over a period.The latest development announced by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday means that the value of goods and services produced in Ghana in the first quarter of this year grew by 6.7percent compared to the first quarter of last year. This however revealed a decline in growth as GDP had increased by about 9 percent from first quarter of 2012 to first quarter of 2013….The Agricultural sector which contributes about 14.9 percent to GDP in the first quarter of this year recorded the highest year-on-year growth rate of about 12.7 percent.
Illegal Mining Endangering Cocoa Production
The Managing Director of Solidaridad West Africa, Mr. Isaac Gyamfi, has called for concerted efforts to tackle the threat posed to the nation’s cocoa production by illegal gold mining. He said the danger was real and must never be under-estimated, adding that, decisive action must be taken to deal with it. Solidaridad is an international non-governmental organization (NGO), engaged in the training of farmer groups in six countries in the sub-region, to increase agriculture production. Mr. Gyamfi said the situation where cocoa trees were being cut down to make way for the digging of the precious mineral, undoubtedly would hurt production levels. He was speaking at a farmers’ forum held at Tepa in the Ahafo-Ano North District
SADA Constructs 40-megawatts Solar Plant Project
The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), in partnership with DCH Solargiga Company of Germany, has launched a 40-megawatts solar energy plant to augment the national electricity grid to accelerate development in SADAs ecological zone. The 117-million-dollar project, which is under construction at Pigu in the Savalugu/Nanton Municipality, is a Public Private Partnership (PPP), under a joint venture of 90 percent and 10 percent respectively of DCH Solargiga and SADA. Major (retired) Dr. Mustapha Ahmed, Minister of State in-Charge of Development Authorities, revealed this in Tamale on Thursday during a stakeholder’s forum aimed at throwing more light on the technicalities and economic benefits of …
Lake Bosomtwe to Become Ultra Biosphere Reserve in Ghana
Lake Bosomtwe in the Ashanti region has been nominated as a biosphere reserve to institutionalize sustainable management of the lake and its catchment resources. If accepted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, Lake Bosomtwe will become the ultra-biosphere reserve in Ghana after Bia Biosphere Reserve in the Western region and Songhor Biosphere Reserve at Ada in the Greater Accra region…Mr. Dos Santos said hundreds of farmers have been assisted with agricultural cash crops such as cocoa and oil palm and forest trees which they have inter-planted on their existing forms to help create a more diverse, productive and sustainable land use system.
President Mahama appointed AU trade committe Chairperson
President John Dramani Mahama was on Thursday picked up as the Chairperson of the high level African committee on trade at the on-going African Union ordinary session in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. He takes over from Mr Idris Deby Itno, President of the Republic of Chad, for the next one year. This formed part of the highlights of the 23rd ordinary session of the AU Heads of State and government meeting in the Central African country. During the two-day session, the African leaders would among other issues deliberate on agriculture and food, security, agricultural mechanisation, human rights abuse and industrialisation pertaining to the continent.
Efforts at Ensuring Good Forest Governance Gather Momentum
Efforts at promoting good forest governance to satisfy the requirements of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) signed between Ghana and the European Union (EU) had intensified. Forest fringe communities are being assisted through series of sensitization workshops to take responsibility for the protection of timber resources because of the enormous benefits they stand to gain. One of such workshops had been held at Sefwi-Wiaso by the Working Group on Forest Certification Ghana under the VPA Project. Mr Stanley Manu, the Group’s Resource Person, said the goal is not only to aid the people to take good care of the forest but to also empower them to negotiate and enter into proper Social Responsibility Agreement (SPA) with the timber companies. The SRA is a legal arrangement meant to help the forest fringe communities to receive benefits from the harvest of timber resources in their areas.
Marginal Increase in some Commodities in Tamale – Survey
There has been marginal increases in some commodities in Tamale as especially millet, beans and yam in the two main Aboabo and the Tamale Central markets. Three tubers of yam (Medium size), which was sold last week at GH¢7 is now being sold at GH¢8 this week while millet had been increased from GH¢3.00 to GH¢3.50 pesewas and beans increased from GH¢6.00 to GH¢7.50 pesewas….
Articles/Reports
Road Transport and Agriculture: A Comparative Study of the Implications of Road Access for Subsistence Agriculture in the Northern Ghana.
D Bonsu - 2014
Subsistence agriculture that evolves around the production of staples like maize, groundnuts, yams remains the paramount livelihood for most people in the northern region of Ghana. A starting point in improving productivity and profitability has been the construction of roads. The dominant literature on the road- agriculture relation argues that, with road access farmers can access farm inputs and the market at lower cost. This will allow farmers produce more for themselves and the market. Some even argue with road access farmers will turn to cultivate cash crops. This line of argument visible in most literatures and government documents present subsistence agriculture as if it is an economic activity geared towards market or ….
Unlocking the Potential for Integrated Agricultural Research for Development in the Savanna of West Africa
AA Adekunle, A Ayanwale, AO Fatunbi, LO Olarinde… - 2014
The Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) is FARA’s suggested approach as a response to the shortcomings of African Agricultural Research and Development (ARD) in terms of its failure to achieve impact beyond the localities in which it is conducted and the accumulation of so-called ‘improved technologies’ on research shelves rather than in farmers’ fields. It is expected that the IAR4D will enable agricultural research to play a more effective role in catalysing development by embracing a broader system of agricultural innovation that will facilitate interaction and enhance the flow of knowledge between all key actors in agricultural systems and value chains. The SSA CP is being implemented in three Pilot Learning Sites (PLS) across the continent. By applying IAR4D, SSA CP aims to reverse the underperformance of agricultural research in Africa by developing, testing and scaling up an approach for conducting agricultural research for development, which overcomes the shortcomings of conventional approaches.
Political Reforms and Food Security
H Pieters, D Curzi, A Olper, J Swinnen - 2014
This paper studies the effect of a political regime transition on food security and more specifically on child mortality. Using a new estimation approach, the Synthetic Control Method, we find that a political reform towards a democracy does not systematically reduce child mortality. Of the 33 country case studies, we find a significant and positive relation between food security and political reforms for 4 countries, while for the remaining 29 countries no impact was found. These results are in contrast with the results from the traditional difference-in-difference estimations.
Prevalence of Malnutrition and Associated Factors among Children Age 6-59 Months at Lalibela Town Administration, North WolloZone, Anrs, Northern Ethiopia
BM Yalew - J Nutr Disorders Ther, 2014
Children are most vulnerable to malnutrition in developing countries because of low dietary intakes, lack of appropriate care, and inequitable distribution of food within the household. Malnutrition remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children throughout the world. Malnutrition In Ethiopia, in the form of stunting, underweight and wasting were identified as 44%, 29% and 10% and Amhara National region state 52%, 33.4% and 9.9%, respectively in children under five. The magnitude and various associated factors were not clearly known in the study area. Objective: To determine the prevalence of malnutrition and associated factors among Children age 6-59 Months in Lalibela Town, Northern Ethiopia.
2nd Globe Natural Capital Accounting Study : Legal and Policy Developments in Twenty-one Countries
BM Milligan, E Terama, R Jimenez-Aybar, P Ekins - 2014
The natural environment provides goods and services that are essential for our wellbeing and development. Every part of the natural environment that is capable of contributing to human well-being is a capital asset – part of our ‘natural capital’. Natural capital includes renewable components such as ecosystems and solar energy, and non-renewable components such as mineral deposits and fossil fuels. Human activity has substantially degraded the natural environment. The global stock of natural capital and valuable goods and services that it provides are being rapidly depleted, in some cases irreversibly. Conventional measures of wealth and economic development do not take this into account. The status of natural capital is not for example captured comprehensively by accounting frameworks such as the UN System of National Accounts, or by economic activity measures such as GDP.
Urban Agriculture: A Global Analysis of the Space Constraint to Meet Urban Vegetable Demand
F Martellozzo, JS Landry, D Plouffe, V Seufert… - Environmental Research …, 2014
Urban agriculture (UA) has been drawing a lot of attention recently for several reasons: the majority of the world population has shifted from living in rural to urban areas; the environmental impact of agriculture is a matter of rising concern; and food insecurity, especially the accessibility of food, remains a major challenge. UA has often been proposed as a solution to some of these issues, for example by producing food in places where population density is highest, reducing transportation costs, connecting people directly to food systems and using urban areas efficiently. However, to date no study has examined how much food could actually be produced in urban areas at the global scale. Here we use a simple approach, based on different global-scale datasets, to assess to what extent UA is constrained by the existing amount of urban space. Our results suggest that UA would require roughly one third of the total global urban area to meet the global vegetable consumption of urban dwellers. This estimate does not consider how much urban area may actually be…
Valuing Smallholder Food Production - A Call for New Theories
CB Thompson - Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 2014
The idea that industrial agriculture is successful in providing food security during this time of climate change and increasing world hunger is grounded in the ontology and episteme of neoliberal economics. Therefore, the goal of this article is to extend the debates about the transformation of economic theories-from assumptions to concepts to measures—in order to recognize smallholder, food-producing techniques, ones that acknowledge the bio-physical limits of planet earth and demonstrate “evidence-based” resilience. The first proposed alternative set of theories, ecological economics, challenges neoliberal economics by redefining the planet as a closed system in which externalities cannot exist and by recognizing natural capital as an important factor of production. A second alternative, traditional ecological economics, challenges neoliberal….
Factors Influencing Farmers’ Choices of Adaptation to Climate Change in Ekiti State, Nigeria
OA Obayelu, AO Adepoju, T Idowu - Journal of Agriculture and Environment for …, 2014
Climate change poses a great threat to human security through erratic rainfall patterns and decreasing crop yields, contributing to increased hunger. The perceptions of the indigenous people about climate change and their responses to climate change have significant roles to play in addressing climate change. Therefore a critical study on farmers’ choices of adaptation is critical for ensuring food security and poverty alleviation. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 156 households in Ekiti state while descriptive statistics and multinomial logit (MNL) were used to analyze the data obtained from the households. The results showed that the most widely used adaptation method by the farmers were soil and water conservation technique measures (67 percent). The multinomial logit analysis revealed that…