Below are some current developments on Agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural issues
Investment in Agric Already Yielding Impressive Results - Mahama
President John Mahama has given indication that government’s recent increased investment in the agric sector has already begun yielding impressive results. The President early on in the year announced plans to invest heavily in Ghanaian products which have the potential for export. He also hinted of plans to ban the importation of a number of imported goods. In line with this, government promised to revamp the Komenda sugar factory, Pawlugu Tomato factory and has also extended about GHC 50 million to Poultry and rice farmers to support them increase their production capacity. $270 million was spent last year on the importation of poultry products while $467million was spent on rice imports.
Cocoa Processing Company Needs Capitalisation - Shareholders
Shareholders of the Cocoa Processing Company Limited (CPC) have called on the majority shareholders to recapitalise the company to enable it to discharge its duties more effectively. The President of the CPC Shareholders Association, Mr. Sas George, who made the call, said the majority shareholders, Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Ministry of Finance and Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), must come together to inject additional capital into the company to solve its problems. Speaking at the 2013 annual general meeting of the company, he said: “We are in this country and foreign investors will come and buy our own cocoa beans and use our machines to process it, yet our company cannot do the same. This is unacceptable and I’m challenging our majority shareholders to act now.”
Cocoa Processing Company Breaks into West African Market
Cocoa Processing Company Limited (CPC) says most of the structural challenges facing it have been resolved, as the company prepares to break into the West African sub-regional market. “Arrangements are almost complete to commence from the Nigerian Market…The expansion of the local market is currently being pursued by recruitment of suitable key distributors in the regional capitals for distribution of Confectionery products on a larger scale. “Preparations are also underway to break into the West African sub-regional market,” said Mr. Jacob S. Authur, the Board Chairman of CPC at the 2013 Annual General Meeting of the company in Accra. He said Ghana Cocoa Board is assisting the company to free itself of indebtedness to financial institutions to pave the way for increased supply of light crop beans and enable it to achieve a …
Poultry Farmers Want Subsidies on Feed
The Vice-President of the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, Mr. Tony Mensah, has appealed to the government to subsidise the cost of poultry feed in order to help farmers increase the production of birds in the country to meet the growing local demand. He also noted that such a move would empower local poultry farmers to be able to produce sufficient birds to compete effectively with imported poultry on pricing. “Almost 70 per cent of production cost is on feed and this is where we want the government to come in. Now there is no subsidy on poultry as it was in the 1980s,” Mr. Mensah told the Daily Graphic in an interview last Wednesday. “Soya, maize and fish meal are the main ingredients of poultry feed but these are very expensive and that is where the challenge is,” he added.
Birim Central Municipality to Increase Rice Production
The Birim Central Municipality is to increase local rice production this year. In 2013, the municipality produced 8,028.90 metric tonnes of rice and this year, 2,773.62 hectares of land had been put under rice cultivation and it is expected to yield 9,391.47 metric tonnes of high quality rice. Mr. Anthony K. Prah, Municipal Director of Agriculture, said this in an interview with the Media Auditing and Tracking of Development Project team from the Ghana News Agency on the management and production of Inland Valley Rice Development Project (IVRDP). The Media Auditing and Tracking of Development project is sponsored by STAR-Ghana, a multi-donor organisation aimed at promoting local participation in governance. IVRDP is a project introduced by the Government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to boost rice production and ensure…
Scientist Calls for Passage of the Plant Breeders Bill
The Rev Dr Hans Adu Dapaah, Director of the Crops Research Institute (CRI), has urged parliament to speed up the passage of the Plant Breeders’ Bill. This, he said, was necessary to enable the country to register and obtain full ownership of its developed crop and plant varieties. Rev Dr Dapaah said this at a meeting held with the Minister of Environment Science Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, when he paid a working visit to the Institute. He said the nation stood the risk of losing title to the numerous crop and plant varieties, developed and propagated by the Institute, to its francophone neighbours which already have the law in place. The Rev Dr Dapaah said because of the harmonization regime in the development and release of crop and plant varieties among countries in the sub-region, any of them could adopt and…
Ministry to Establish Research Fund
The Ministry of Environment Science Technology and Innovation (MESTI) says it is taking steps to establish a fund in support of research. The goal is to aid aggressive promotion of new ideas and better application of solutions to problems faced by the private sector. Mr. Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, the Minister, expressed concern about the situation where almost all research activities carried out by the research institutions and universities are done through donor funding. The downside is that these donors determine the areas such research should be focused and this he said would have to change. The Minister was addressing separate meetings with the staff and management of some research institutions under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as part of his two-day working visit to Kumasi.
Forestry Commission to Protect Bosomtwe Lake from Pollution
Government is to set up a permanent committee to oversee the efficient and sustainable management of the Bosomtwe Lake and its resources, which is the source of livelihood for about 30 communities with a population of 70,000. This comes amid growing concerns about the depletion of the lake’s fish stock as well as pollution. Mr. Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), said the committee would be made up of representatives of the Traditional Authorities, the District Assembly, Forestry Commission, Water Resources Commission (WRC) and the Ministry of Fisheries. He dropped the hint when he visited Abono, one of the communities in its basin, as part of a two-day official tour of the Ashanti Region.
Address Gender Issues in Smallholder Agriculture
Smallholder women farmers in Ghana have one thing in common across all the ten regions: they have less access than men to productive resources and opportunities. Huge gender gap exists for many assets, inputs and services, including secured land, labour, education, extension services, financial services and technology and innovation. One key reason for this is that agricultural policies and programmes are simply not strategically targeting smallholder women farmers as has been established in previous research conducted by SEND-GHANA. The existing gender gaps in agriculture in the country impose costs not only on women smallholder farmers, but on the agriculture sector and the broader economy. When women control additional income, they spend more of it than men do on food, health, clothing and education for their children.
Experts Meet in Accra to Deal with Plant Pest
Sub-Saharan Africa spends more than US $ 1.2 billion annually on pesticides, mainly for use in migratory pest control, and on commodities like cotton, coffee, cocoa and horticultural crops. Dr Lamourdia Thiombiano, Deputy Regional Representative for Africa, FAO, who announced this at a workshop, called for alternatives and promotion of new pest control technologies to deal with the frequent misuse and accidents, inadequate pesticide handling, storage, and management, stockpiles of obsolete pesticides, as well as the call for more rigorous quality standards for export horticulture crops. The Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (CABI) with the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO),is hosting the workshop that would build strategies for timely and sustainable…
National Policy on Fuel Wood Advocated
Mr. Alexander Asare, Manager, Collaborative Resource Management Unit of the Forestry Commission (FC), has called for a national policy on wood and charcoal utilization as fuel. This has become necessary because of the huge potential of the charcoal industry to create employment if well organized and modern methods employed. He was addressing a stakeholders training workshop as part of a wider review of Ghana’s Strategic National Energy Plan (SNEP). The programme was jointly sponsored by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Energy Commission of Ghana. Mr. Asare said despite the successful promotion of the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), the urban population still depended heavily on charcoal from the hinter lands. He said the situation where producers continued to harvest wood from the transitional and savannah zones as raw material for production was fueling deforestation.
Climate Change should be National Security Concern – Dr. Manteaw
Dr. Bob Offei Manteaw, Director of Research, Innovation and Development of Africa Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management (AISWAM), said the launch of the National Climate Change Policy was in the right direction. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Dr. Manteaw said the Policy, which was launched by President John Dramani Mahama, would provide yet another opportunity for a rethink of Ghana’s commitment to address the complex challenges of climate change. He urged Government to move climate change discussions beyond empty rhetoric by putting in place proactive governance mechanisms that are effective and far-reaching. Dr. Manteaw, who is a Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Governance Expert, is of the view that climate change discussions in Ghana and most African countries have…
MEDEA - Cola Natural Resources Office Unveiled
Cola Natural Resources Ghana Limited and MEDEA Development Limited on Friday unveiled their new office in Accra as part of efforts to consolidate their operations in the country. This follows Parliamentary approval of the agreement for oil exploration in the Cape Three Points Block offshore Ghana between the government and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on one hand and the Cola Natural Resources Ghana Ltd and MEDEA Development Ltd in July 2013. The area of operation covers approximately 1,560 square kilometres, with the water depth ranging from 30 metres to 200 metres. Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Dr Giuseppe Ciccarelli, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MEDEA Development Limited, hailed Ghana for its good governance and fare business climate.
COCOBOD/ Hershey to Sponsor 3 Cocoa Farmers
Three cocoa farmers, will in August, be sponsored to visit the Hershey Company, a leading chocolate producing company in the United States of America, as part of Ghana Cocoa Board’s initiative of sustaining and boosting cocoa production. Dr Francis Oppong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD in-charge of Agronomy and Quality Control, said the Board has since 1985, been recognizing the efforts of cocoa farmers, who support the economy in various ways. He made this disclosure during a ceremony organized by the Board in collaboration with the Hershey Company, to officially announce the sponsorship package for cocoa farmers, and to address issues geared towards cocoa sustainability in Ghana. He said, between 1999 and 2008, best cocoa farmers were sponsored by the Board to visit Britain to participate in the ….
Ghana: Biotechnology Will Increase Food Security and Improve Nutrition ̶ Dr Florence Wambugu
The Chief Executive Officer of Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International, Dr Florence Wambugu, has stated that not only will Biotechnology address malnutrition, but will also help increase food production, food security and improve nutrition. Dr Wambugu made the statement at a stakeholder's forum to discuss the "Global Status Of commercialized biotech GM crops in Accra, yesterday. According to her, Africa's population might unavoidably increase by 50%, hence there was the need to increase food production, adding that the assertion that Africa lacked the knowledge on Biotechnology was false due to the extensive research that had gone into the sector in Africa, making her qualified enough to espouse the technology. She, however, emphasized that it would require a high-level political will to make it effectively adopted in Africa as being advocated for by scientists.
African Leaders Pledge Greater Investment in Agricultural Sector
Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the Equatorial Guinea’s President urged African countries to invest heavily in their agricultural sector to decrease their dependence on the West, ensure food security, and significantly reduce hunger in their countries. He made his remarks at the closing session of the Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union (AU). “Africa should reorient itself to ensure its independence and security of African states through the safe production of its own consumer goods, Africa cannot be content to continue with the current dependence on the economies of the developed world,” Obiang said. According to Obiang, the development of agriculture can greatly reduce dependence, “Africa can ensure food security and significantly reduce hunger in our countries. Africa should heavily invest in agricultural development to transform itself in order to accelerate growth to increase production and productivity,” he said.
Reports/Articles
Local Knowledge Flows for Reducing Vulnerability of Rain-fed Agriculture to Environmental Change: Patterns and Drivers of Flow in North-Eastern Ghana
EK Derbile, W Laub - Information and Knowledge Management, 2014
Informed by the theory of knowledge flows for the success of the modern firm, this paper set out to examine the patterns and drivers of local knowledge flows for reducing vulnerability of agriculture to environmental change in the Atankwidi basin, north-eastern Ghana. Drawing on findings from a composite methodological approach to data collection comprising the application of focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and a household survey, the authors make three observations pertaining to the dynamics of local knowledge flows for reducing the vulnerability of subsistence agriculture to environmental change. First, that local knowledge flows or local knowledge diffuses easily within the household and between households that have kinship ties. Secondly, that these knowledge flows are geographically localized at three spatial…
Effect of Variety and Spacing on Insect Pest Infestations and Growth of Amaranthus (Amaranthus spp) in Alau Dam, Maiduguri, Nigeria
MM Degri, Z Dauda, BI Richard - 2014
Amaranthus species are important vegetable crop cultivated and consumed daily Nigeria and many countries of the world. Unfortunately insect pests are a major setback for commercial production and for the purpose of food security in the country. The experiment was conducted at Alau Dam in 2010 and 2011 cropping seasons to investigate the effect of variety and spacing on these insect pest infestations and their subsequent growth performance. The results showed that Amaranthus cruentus was attacked more than the remaining three species and 20cm x 20cm plant spacing was found to be also the most effective in reducing insect pest infestations… Therefore, vegetable farmers should use insect pest resistant varieties and good agricultural practices like the recommended crop spacing for the purpose of pest management and good crop performance.
Analysing the Role of Structured Finance on Productivity and Livelihoods of Small Scale Farmers in Zimbabwe
M Njovo, M Caroliny - European Journal of Business and Management, 2014
Developing countries’ economies are at a critical development phase and Zimbabwe is not an exception. Focus is on uplifting the small scale farmers who face a myriad of challenges in obtaining working capital. Working capital availability is considered critical for affecting farm productivity and livelihoods. Conservative financial institutions have not been coming to the rescue of small scale farmers owing to lack of collateral and sound balance sheets. The study sought to establish whether structured finance affected productivity and livelihoods of small scale farmers. The findings of the study were that capital availability affected productivity. It was however established that for structured finance to be a success it was not to be applied in exclusivity. There were ancillary issues such as infrastructure, training and information provision which had to be taken into account.
The Role of Radio in Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services – Experiences and Lessons from Farm Radio Programming in Malawi
R Chapota, P Fatch, C Mthinda
Agriculture is currently the most important sector of the Malawi economy. It employs about 80% of the total workforce, contributes over 80% of foreign exchange earnings, accounts for 39% of gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes significantly to national and household food security. The Malawi agriculture sector is divided into the estate sub-sector, comprised of commercially oriented and leasehold land, and the smallholder sub-sector, dominated by subsistence food production on customary land (Government of Malawi, 2011). The smallholder sub-sector occupies about 80% of the land whilst the commercial sector comprises 20% (Government of Malawi, 2000).Extension was identified as a key service to enhance agricultural productivity in colonial times. In 1903, the colonial government brought in organized agricultural extension that advised farmers on improved methods of cotton production, and later broadened out to other crops and livestock (Kabuye and Mhango, 2005).
An Investigation into the Balancing Of Agriculture And Wildlife Ranching For Economic Sustainability(A Case Study of Laikipia County)
MM Mutemi - 2014
The main objective of this study was to investigate the balancing of Agriculture and Wildlife ranching for economic sustainability, with a case study of Laikipia County. The study established the causes of conflict between agriculture and wildlife on land use, the measures put in place to mitigate agriculture and wildlife conflict on land use by the local people, and various ways in which a compromise can be reached for the purpose of safeguarding both agriculture and wildlife conservation. The study is a descriptive survey in which questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data. Data is analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The study concludes that the balancing of agriculture and wildlife ranching for economic sustainability is greatly influenced by conflicts between agricultural activities and wildlife