Below are some current developments on Agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
Food and Agriculture Organization Promotes Sustainable Farming
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are exploring ways of implementing the Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) project in Upper East Region. This came to light when a Senior Water Resources Officer of FAO in charge of the Regional Office for Africa, Mr. Ruhiza Jean Boroto and the Programme Assistant officer of FAO also at the Regional Office, undertook a fact finding tour of the level of implementation of the project. Mr. Boroto lauded the integrated approach to SLWM, which led to improved crop yields and improved food security and climate change adaptation in the area.
ACA World Cashew Festival and Expo Return to Accra in November
The African Cashew Alliance’s prestigious World Cashew Festival and Expo returns to Ghana for the second year running, with a 4-day event beginning on November 11, 2014 at the Accra International Conference Centre. Over 400 delegates from all over the world and from all levels of the cashew value chain will converge, to forge business deals, share knowledge and discuss the future of the industry, at an event which will bring in over $1 million USD to the Ghanaian economy in the space of 4 days. Although Ghana’s cashew industry is relatively small by global standards, cashew processing in Ghana ranks among the most industrialized in Africa, and the country by now has the capacity to process far more cashews than it harvests.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Visits Forestry Commission
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Nii Osa Mills, has pledged his unflinching support to help the Forestry Commission to raise the necessary funding to sustain old plantations and to develop new ones. Speaking during his maiden visit to the offices of the Commission to familiarize with their operations, Nii Osa Mills called on officials of the Commission to desist from engaging in negative practices that would undermine their work. Citing the recent arrest of containers of Rosewood at the Tema Port, the Minister said it was possible forestry officials gave out the licenses knowing well there was a ban on exports in place. He said such illegal activities that aid the indiscriminate felling of wood would not be tolerated by the ministry and asked the staff to act professionally when dealing with merchants in the timber sector.
Fisheries Enforcement Unit not Perturbed to Enforce Fisheries Laws
The Fisheries Enforcement Unit (FEU) of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development has expressed determination to enforce the fisheries management laws and regulations despite periodic attacks by some disgruntled fishermen in some coastal communities. The National Coordinator of the Unit, Naval Captain Emmanuel Kwafo, told a press conference in Takoradi on Tuesday that fisher folks who contravened the fisheries laws and engaged in criminal acts by attacking personnel of the Unit would be arrested and prosecuted. The comment followed a recent attack on the Western Sector Fisheries Enforcement Unit by some aggrieved fishermen at New Amanful in the Ahanta West District last Wednesday, August 13,when the Unit seized some illegal fishing nets (monofilament nets) during a monitoring exercise.
Anomabo Fishermen Displeased with Illegal Fishing Methods
A group of fishermen at Anomabo in the Central Region have called on the Government to put stringent measures in place against light fishing in all the fishing communities in the country. According to them, despite directives against the use the illegal method, fishermen from some communities such as, Elmina, Abandze, Komenda , Sekondi and others were still using light for fishing , a situation they described as “unfair”. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Thursday, Ato Sam, a fisherman, said the Anomabo fishing community had resolved to strictly abide by the directives and a as result of non-compliance by the aforementioned communities, majority of their people were migrating to those areas thereby reducing their human resource and productivity. “If Government cannot stop them from using light to fish, we will also …
Does Ghana’s Oil Boom Spell the End for its Fishing Industry?
Many in the country’s western region, the epicentre of the fishing industry, had been optimistic that oil production would bring jobs, cheaper fuel and economic prosperity. But now, they say oil exploration programmes are impeding their livelihoods. “Our fish catch has reduced drastically since oil exploration started here,” says Kofi al-Haji Musa, 43, who has been fishing in the area for 31 years. “Before oil exploration started I could fill my canoe with fish three times every day. Now, I can’t even manage one load,” he says. Fishermen and activists say a planned seismic survey by ESL Consulting and Medea Development will disrupt their work during the height of the season, ruining the prospect of a profitable harvest. The survey is due to start next week and continue until November.
Need for Farmers to Unite and Cooperate
Madam Juliette Lampoh, Country Director of Concern Universal, a UK-based NGO has urged farmers to unite and cooperate to share ideas and improve on their operations. She stressed the need for farmers’ marketing committees to keep accurate records on their operations to acknowledge their challenges and successes. Madam Lampoh made the call when addressing about 100 Smallholder Farmers at a workshop to adopt marketing strategies to improve on their operations at Nkoranza. The farmers were drawn from Nkoranza Municipality, Nkoranza North District and Ejura-Sekyedumase District. She said marketing committees should in addition, establish effective communication links with their members to keep them abreast with improved and ready market for their produce.
Sakumo Wetlands Under Threat
The Sakumo Ramsar site in Tema has dwindled from a size of 1,300 hectares to 400 hectares largely due to the encroachment of estate developers. “The over 1,300 hectares wetland which serves as a home for migrating birds and a natural flood control mechanism, have been seriously encroached upon by developers reducing the site to about 400 hectares”, Mr. Felix Mishiame, Tema Metropolitan Agricultural Director has disclosed, Mr. Mishiame was in the company of Mr. Isaac Ashai Odamtten, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, who led the team of officials to visit the eastern end of the Ramsar at Tema Communities 10, five and three to assess the extent of encroachment on the Sakumo ramsar site. The team observed that apart from huge mansions constructed on parts of the original site, the Community five end popularly known as….
Dalai Lama Fellows at Ashesi Launch Project to Reinvent Pineapple Farming in Eastern Region
Two Ashesi students, Sam Norman Sali and Emmanuel Ampadu, have been selected as 2014/2015 Dalai Lama Fellows at Ashesi. As part of their nomination, the team has received $10,000 in project funding to implement their agricultural development project, the Sesa Mu Farmers Initiative. The project aims to bring pineapple farmers in Berekuso together to build the Eastern Region’s biggest farmer cooperative, and boost economic growth in the area. “We had initially thought of working on software tools to aid learning in Berekuso’s classrooms, but learned quickly that there was little infrastructure support,” said Sam. The team, determined to contribute to growth still, decided to spend some more time learning about the needs of the people of Berekuso; in so doing, they came across a study done by faculty at Ashesi.
Small Scale Rice Dealers to Demonstrate
The Small Scale Rice Dealers Association of Ghana (SSRIDA), has announced plans to stage a protest against the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The demonstration scheduled for Tuesday, September 2, is as a result of several appeals to the authorities to re-open the Sampa post in the Brong Ahafo Region for members to do business. A letter signed by Mr. Yaw Korang, Coordinator, SSRIDA-GH said: “Even a directive by the then Minister of Trade, Haruna Iddrisu on July 17 to open the border post and lift the ban on inland importation of rice has been grossly treated with contempt.” He said as law-abiding citizens, members are ready for instructions for a peaceful, well-organised and successful demonstration.
CSIR Opens Centre for Transfer of Research and Innovations to the Private Sector
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched an initiative to bridge the gap between research and industry to promote strong collaboration between the two sectors for enhanced productivity and economic development. It has accordingly inaugurated a centre in Accra, the CSIR Technology Development and Transfer Centre (CSIR-TDTC), to transfer research and innovations to the private sector. The initiative will effectively address the situation where many research works and innovations by the CSIR are kept on shelves, thus depriving industry and the nation of their benefits…the prevailing gap between the research system and the private sector “had contributed, in no small measure, to the uninspiring progress in our industrialization”.
The Role Of Agribusiness To Ghana’s Economy
Agribusiness, which in the layman’s understanding is the business of agriculture, is probably one of the new emerging areas of attention and focus in terms of contemporary policy formulation for most developing countries, including Ghana. Agribusiness is a management discipline that blends business management principles such as planning, controlling, organizing, budgeting among others with the science of agriculture to produce goods and services to profitably satisfy the needs of consumers. Until recently, it was only the University of Ghana that train competences in agribusiness management in Ghana... At policy level, agribusiness competences are useful in directing government expenditure towards profitable agricultural investments to maximize returns for the state.
Government Divested Company for Free
It has emerged that the government divested the Medie Horticultural Development Company Limited (MHDC) located at Medie near Nsawam, without getting a pesewa from the transaction. In 1998, Ghana Fresh Produce Limited, which has bought MHDC, executed MoU with the government for them to work together towards executing a joint venture agreement to process, package and export horticultural products. “We did not receive any money from that divestiture. We had a situation where the government took our shares and the other person also did but did not pay anything,” Asakkua Agambila, Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), told the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts yesterday.
Reports/Articles
Exploring the Potentials of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development in Southern Africa
AA Adekunle, AB Ayanwale, AO Fatunbi, LO Olarinde… - 2014
The acknowledged poor performance of traditional agricultural research and development (ARD) approaches reflected in the low adoption rates of technologies, poor linkages among agricultural value chain actors and the pervasive unprofitability of farm enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) led the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) to suggest the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) approach. This approach enables agricultural research to play a more effective role in catalysing development. It embraces a broader system of agricultural innovation that facilitates interaction and enhances flow of knowledge among all key actors in agricultural systems and value chains.
Challenges to Scenario-guided Adaptive Action on Food Security Under Climate Change
PJ Ericksen, K Kok, JSI Ingram, M Herrero, A Palazzo… - 2014
This paper examines the development and use of scenarios as an approach to guide action in multi-level, multi-actor adaptation contexts such as food security under climate change. Three challenges are highlighted: (1) ensuring the appropriate scope for action; (2) moving beyond intervention-based decision guidance; and (3) developing long-term shared capacity for strategic planning. To overcome these challenges we have applied explorative scenarios and normative back-casting with stakeholders from different sectors at the regional level in East Africa. We then applied lessons about appropriate scope, enabling adaptation pathways, and developing strategic planning capacity to scenarios processes in multiple global regions. Scenarios were created to have a broad enough scope to be relevant to diverse actors, and then adapted by different….
Enrichment of ‘Apula’-A Roasted Maize Meal with African Yam Bean and Plantain Fruit Flour
PA Yusufu, SID Egwujeh, A Damak, J Netala - Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 2014
This study was carried out to determine the effect of blending African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa), firm ripe plantain fruit (Musa paradisiaca) flour with maize (Zea mays), on the chemical and sensory properties of ‘Apula’ -a roasted maize meal. Roasted maize grain was blended with African yam bean and firm ripe plantain fruit flour at different proportions of 100:0:0 (Maize, African Yam Bean and Plantain), 70:20:10 and 50:30:20. The samples were coded A, B and C respectively. The chemical composition and sensory evaluation were determined using standard methods of analysis. The results of the chemical analysis showed significant (p<0.05) increase in the protein, fat, fibre, vitamins A and C, calcium and potassium contents of the blended samples. Sensory assessment revealed that blended samples (sample B and C) received….
Plant Genetic Engineering, Climate Change and Food Security
R Ortiz, A Jarvis, P Fox, PK Aggarwal, BM Campbell - 2014
This paper explores whether crop genetic engineering can contribute to addressing food security, as well as enhancing human nutrition and farming under a changing climate. The review is based on peer-refereed literature, using results to determine the potential of this gene technology. It also provides a brief summary of issues surrounding this genetic enhancement approach to plant breeding, and the impacts on farming, livelihoods, and the environment achieved so far. The genetic engineering pipeline looks promising, particularly for adapting more nutritious, input-efficient crops in the development of the world’s farming systems.
Global Food Systems: Diet, Production, and Climate Change Toward 2050
YD Lee - 2014
To address food security in a food abundant world requires a new paradigm that walks away from a strict production perspective. While research on agriculture and food security has increased significantly in the past decades, it has mostly focused on agriculture and food production rather than on the entire food system, from production to nutrition intake. It has also typically employed economic equilibrium approaches to make future predictions. This study proposes a paradigm shift by, first, using a material flow approach to construct an integrated model to analyze global food systems and estimate food surpluses and deficiencies toward 2050 under climate change and, second, by including the range of the food security systems (production, access and utilization). It does so by considering production, demographics and …