Below are some current developments on Agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
Cocoa Farmers Flock to Flagstaff House to Praise President Mahama Over Cocoa Price Increase
The President of the Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association, Alhaji Alhassan Bukari, has thanked President John Dramani Mahama for the new producer price of cocoa, which they describe as unprecedented. Farmers of the cash crop clad in traditional cloth filled the meeting area at the Flagstaff House looking satisfied after Government last week announced a review of the producer price from GH¢3,392 to GH¢5,520 per tonne for the 2014 cocoa season. The increment represented a whopping 62.74% increase, and translates into GH¢345 per bag of 64kg of cocoa, and about 75% of the net FOB….“If your friend does something good, he deserves to be commended”…
Cocoa and Not Oil is Our Mainstay – President Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday said contrary to the expectations of many, government will continue to invest heavily in agriculture especially cocoa. This he said is because, cocoa remains the key foreign exchange earner for the Ghanaian economy, and not oil. "The contribution of oil to our national budget last year was only US$700million. Cocoa brought US$3billion into our economy. So cocoa is still the mainstay of our economy and we must put our money where our mouths are", the President noted. "Every year we earn anything close to US$3billion on cocoa alone and yet people are more excited about oil. Ghana has discovered oil so our lives are going to change. Cocoa still affects our lives more than oil", Mr. Mahama said to loud applause from the cheering cocoa farmers.
Stick with Best Practices to Maintain Cocoa Quality
Licensed cocoa buying companies (LBCs) have been told to aid farmers to stick with best practices that had over the decades helped the country to enjoy premium on its cocoa. Mr. Julius Martinson, the Ashanti Regional Manager of the Quality Control Company Limited (QCCL), said the beans should not only be taken through proper fermentation but must be thoroughly dried. He made the call at a two-day capacity building workshop organized by OLAM Ghana Limited, one of the leading LBCs, for its purchasing clerks (PCs) in Kumasi. More than 200 PCs from the company’s 42 operating districts were on hand to learn new ideas to achieve optimal performance.
‘Mass Cocoa Spraying must be Monitored’
Minority spokesperson on Agriculture in Parliament, Dr. Akoto Owusu Afriyie, has criticized government for failing to adequately monitor the mass spraying exercise of cocoa farms. The cocoa mass spraying exercise was instituted in 2001 by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), in consultation with government to support cocoa farmers to eliminate cocoa diseases and help increase production. Dr. Owusu Afriyie complained that the exercise was discriminatory, expressing concern about the limited number of bottles of insecticides allocated to the various cocoa-growing districts for the exercise. Dr. Akoto Owusu Afriyie has since cautioned COCOBOD against the planned phasing out of the programme. He advised them to take measures to solve the implementation challenges confronting the exercise rather than abandon the cocoa farmers to their fate.
Deplorable Roads Cut off Krachi and Other Yam Producing Districts
Four yam producing districts in the Volta and Northern Regions have been cut off from the southern part of the country as a result of the deplorable nature of roads. Travelers and foodstuff traders from the Krachi West, Krachi Nchumuru, Kpandai and Wulensi districts now spend between twelve and thirty hours to get to Accra. Manasseh Azure Awuni traveled to Kete-Krachi over the weekend and reports that the situation has been worsened by the rains… The road to Kete-Krachi is littered with potholes and parts of it are punctuated by ponds of water, some of which are above knee level. The only reason passengers and traders in foodstuffs are able to move out of the four districts to the southern part of the country is that over a dozen young men from nearby volunteer to cut tree branches to help vehicles cross.
2014 National Food and Agric Show (FAGRO) Launched in Kumasi
The 6th National Food and Agric Show (FAGRO) has been launched in Kumasi with a call on the public to support the development and sustainability of the country’s agricultural sector, in order to boost the growth of the economy. FAGRO, an annual event organized by the FAGRO secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, aims at creating a network and marketing platform to project the agricultural investment potential and opportunities in Ghana and the West African sub-region…. “A country whose agricultural sector isn’t a priority is likely to collapse, fail or face major economic problems,” she said.
Environmental Degradation Costs Ghana 5-10% of GDP – Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission’s (FC) estimation of Ghana’s environmental degradation in its major natural resource sectors as at 2010 costs between five to 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The forest sector, out of this, accounted for 63 per cent, equivalent to USD $500 Million in monetary terms, Professor Mrs. Esi Awuah, Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) said on Friday. Prof. Mrs. Esi Awuah was speaking at a durbar organized by the National REDD+ Secretariat under the auspices of the FC at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Brong-Ahafo Region. Prof…“Forest’s contributions to our economy, livelihoods and as a provider of micro-climate to our agricultural activities and eco-systems services cannot be underestimated”.
Cocoa Farmers Exposed to Model Farm Programme
About 560 cocoa farmers from 10 communities in the Ayensuano District of the Eastern Region, have attended a rally on a “Model Farm” to help prepare them for the 2014/15 cocoa season which opens in October. As part of efforts to arrest the decline in cocoa production in the country, Ghana Cocoa Board initiated a National Cocoa Disease and Pest Control (CODAPEC) programme, popularly called “Mass Spraying” to assist farmers to combat the Capsid / Mirid and the Black Pod diseases. The programme aimed at training farmers on the cultural and chemical methods of pests and diseases control. It also educates and trains local sprayers on safe pesticides usage…
Plant Acacias for Charcoal Production – Environmentalist
Mr. Samuel Kwabena Nketiah, an environmentalist, has emphasised the need to plant acacia trees and harvest them for charcoal production instead of resorting to forests for such purposes. Mr. Nketiah, a member of the National Planning Committee of the Ghana Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (GhREDD+), said acacia trees grew between three and five years, and sprout after being felled, thus ensuring replenishment. He said such potentials of acacia trees made them suitable for charcoal production which also ensured sustainable environment… Mr Bamfoe said: “We do not have to harvest the forest unsustainably and expect to develop sustainably,” and urged the public to practice afforestation.
Stop Presentation of Farmers as the most Deprived – Farmer
The 2013 Upper Manya Krobo District Best farmer, Mr. Moses Kumah Ayittey, has called for an end to the wrong notion that farmers are the most deprived in the society. He said the wrong notion is one of the major reasons that make the youth to refuse to invest in agriculture and trooped to the commercial towns chasing none existing jobs. Mr. Ayittey said there was evidence that when farming was properly managed and the appropriate procedure and technology applied, the returns to the investor could be as high as the returns to the best investments in the economy. Mr Boateng said the introduction of the Dupon Pioneer seeds and the new planting protocol to the 4H-Ghana Clubs in the district helped farmers in the district to increase their maize yield from six mini bags per acre to…
New Soybean Processing Plant Launched
“It’s been a dream come true” said Catherine Sobrevega, the Country Project Manager of the MEDA Ghana’s GROW project, during her welcoming address. She explained passionately how MEDA in an effort to grow the soybean value-chain first conceived this idea, and Mr. Baaro, a committed entrepreneur jumped at the opportunity of the partnership. It marks a milestone for the GROW project by linking rural women farmers to another market partner to sell their soybeans…United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through their Feed the Future Project – Agriculture Technology Transfer (ATT); Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD) and many more supporters, his and MEDA’s vision has become a reality.
Articles/Reports
Social Institutional Influence on Fisheries in Two Fishing Communities in the Volta Lake in Ghana
MA Amu-Mensah, FK Amu-Mensah, EK Abban - Sociology Mind, 2014
Social institutions are one of the most important institutions in communities, especially in rural areas, where decision making depends on the chief, his elders or opinion of the community. The study looked at the hindrances and catalysts they presented, to the introduction of an innovation (fish cage culture) and its acceptance. The paper, presents how Dzemeni and Kpando Torkor, fishing communities in the Volta Region, are influenced by their social institutions in fisheries activities. Using primary and secondary data the study investigated the potential of social institutions influence and possible effect on fishery innovation. Results indicated that institutions with better capacities mostly influenced individual and community decisions on livelihood activities.
Climate, Agriculture and Knowledge in Africa: Agricultural Research and Advisory Services in the Face of Climate Change
J Morton, D Kisauzi, I Ohiomoba, D Demby… - 2014
The vulnerability of African agriculture to climate change creates key tasks of promoting agricultural adaptations and adaptive capacity in agriculture, and embracing opportunities for low-carbon development in agriculture. Agricultural research services, and agricultural advisory services, will be key actors in this work. This report synthesizes findings from the project Climate Learning for African Agriculture, assessing how African agricultural research and advisory services are taking account of climate issues in their policies and practices, and how they can better do so in future. The project worked both at a regional level and through case studies in Sierra Leone, Benin, Uganda and Mozambique, with a strong emphasis on shared learning through national- and local-level workshops
Workshop on Global Value Chains for Food and Nutrition Security
H Manson, A Lopez-Montes - Workshop on Global Value Chains for Food and …, 2014
There is a growing recognition that many problems in design and implementation of food security and value chain development initiatives are complex when various specificities and challenges of social, human and economic development are considered. In this context, complexity means that design and implementation of support or enabling policies must deal with interdependent problems and actors, navigating nonlinear and unpredictable change processes and involving various stakeholders. This paper builds on existing literature on new or experimentalist governance frameworks as a response to complex policy problems and relates it to evidence based participatory approaches for design, implementation and management of interventions for food security and value chain articulation. The framework and findings presented are based on the results of applying a methodology in a research-planning case carried out in the yam sector in Ghana, (West Africa).
A Framework For Land Information Management In Ghana
SY Adiaba - 2014
Land information management in Ghana, as in many developing countries, remains a practice monopolised by public sector land administration agencies, which are known for being inefficient in delivering services that satisfy the needs of citizens. Under this monopolised regime, landed property related data gathering, processing through land registration, storage and dissemination of the information as final product for public use is entirely based on expert knowledge. Meanwhile, reliance on this kind of knowledge for land information management has continuously failed to promote smooth flow and a broad based access to reliable information for decision making by citizens. This failure has created a huge land information gap between market participants’ especially genuine and fraudulent landed property owners on one hand and potential buyers, lenders, and investors on the other hand
Vital Signs: Integrating Data To Visualize the Human, Agriculture, and Nature Nexus
CA Palm - 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015), 2015
Striving to achieve increased agricultural production with inclusive growth and reduced environmental impact requires a means of assessing and tracking the various components of these three dimensions. Some programs track livelihoods (income, food security, nutritional security) through household surveys, other programs monitor crop production by field assessment, but few programs are designed to measure environmental aspects (land cover change and ecosystem services such as water and energy provision, climate forcing, and biodiversity) along with agricultural expansion or intensification. Even when all aspects are measured they are not done so in the same place or time that is required to assess the combined outcomes and make informed decisions to move towards sustainable agricultural intensification.
Is there Enough to Drink? Nakore Community in Wa Municipality of Upper West Region of Ghana and Water Accessibility
I Agyemang, I Nuhu, V Anasara, I Aziz, I Ashetu… - 2014
The recognition of water is in reality one of the most basic necessities for development and improving a people’s quality of life led to the launch of the international drinking water supply and sanitation decade (IDWSSD) by the General Assembly of the United Nations in November 1980 with the goal to provide all people with water of safe quality and adequate quantity and basic sanitary facilities by 1990. In Ghana, rural water service providers do not take into account the productive uses of water that can help the communities economically to be able to sustain the water supply systems. However, despite their relevance, multiple uses of rural water supply and their effects have not been studied nor documented widely, especially in the Nakore Community of Ghana. It is perceived that, the community is suffering from water related diseases. Some people from the community are also migrating to urban areas due to inadequate potable water accessibility and other social infrastructure….
Strengthening Local Seed Systems Within The Bean Value Chain: Experience Of Agricultural Innovation Platforms In The Democratic Republic Of Congo
P Njingulula, P Wimba, KF Masuki, M Katafiire, M Ugen… - African Crop Science …, 2014
Access to good quality seed is the beginning of successful crop production as an enterprise. Unfortunately, this remains a challenge to the smallholder farmers in the eastern and central Africa, whose seed systems are still under-developed. The situation is even worse in conflict burdened parts of some countries like the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where socioeconomic systems have been progressively disrupted. This paper presents the process and findings from a study which involved application of an Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) approach to the seed systems to improve the bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) value chain in South and North Kivu provinces of the DRC. Seventy four stakeholders were involved, including farmers and farmer associations, local grain/seed traders, private and public extension agents, researchers, finance and credit cooperatives and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)