Below are some current developments on Agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
‘Decline in Soil Fertility, Threat to Food Security’
Decline in soil fertility, particularly in the northern parts of Ghana, has raised concern about the national food security. The situation, according to Dr. Shashidhara Kolavalli, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), , is partly the result of farming practices that lead to over-cropping. “Current agricultural practices ‘mine’ soil nutrients in the sense that nutrients extracted from soils through crops are not adequately replenished,” he stated while addressing journalists at an event on soil fertility management for Ghanaian agriculture. Dr. Kolavalli informed the journalists of the arrival of a team of 10 experts in the country to offer recommendations to the government on how to solve challenges associated fertility management in Ghana.
‘Let’s Remove Stigma Attached to Agric’
Participants in a roundtable discussion on youth, employment and agriculture have asked that a more strenuous effort be made to change the perception of the youth about agriculture. Members also expressed concern about the lack of interest of the youth in agriculture. They observed a tendency among the youth to shy away from agriculture for the fear of some social stigma that is perceived to come with the involvement in agriculture. As an example they cited school teachers making children to do weeding as punishment. Besides, agriculture remains constrained by the lack of land, funds and ready market for their produce. “The bane of Ghana’s agriculture is the lack of access to a market,” said Mr. Mawuli Agboka of the Ministry of Agriculture, who was a member of the audience.
Ghana Trades Domestic Cocoa Processing for Foreign Exchange
For the want of foreign exchange, Ghana has over the years diligently exported over 75 per cent of total annual cocoa beans, leaving domestic processors of the crop to jostle for the remaining 25 per cent. Although the export of the beans earns the country a minimum of about US$1.7 billion in foreign exchange yearly, it constrains growth in each of the six major processing companies, partly causing them to limit the industry's installed capacity to the current 450,000 tonnes per annum. The decision of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to export more of the cocoa beans as against processing is influenced by the premium price paid for the main crop in the international cocoa market. The main crop beans, which constitute about 80 per cent of a season’s produce, fetch a premium price of 80-90 pounds sterling in addition to prevailing price per tonne on the international cocoa market.
India Gives Ghana $150m Line of Credit for Agriculture
The Government of India has given Ghana a $150 million line of credit to support the country’s agriculture sector, according to a report by the Indo-Asian News Service. According to the report, the fund would go to support the implementation of an Agricultural Mechanization Service Centre (AMSEC), and the projects are intended to provide the Ghanaian farmers with affordable and timely access to farm machinery. Ghana’s Interior Minister, Mark Owen Woyongo was cited in the report to have said that India has also provided another $30 million line of credit to be used for the rehabilitation and upgrade of potable water in Yendi in the northern region…
B-BOVID's Unique Agric Model Worth Learning from - FAO's Africa Representative
The Deputy Africa Regional Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Dr. Lamourdia Thiombiano, has commended B-BOVID, an agri-business company operating in Ghana's Western Region for its innovative and unique agric model that seeks to promote sustainable agriculture, food security, and eliminate poverty amongst farmers. He thus lauded the company's profit-sharing component, stating that, “It is a difficult task for any businessman to share profit” and encouraged other businesses particularly in the agric sector, to consider the profit sharing model to improve farmers' standards of living. Dr. Thiombiano who is also Ghana's Representative at the FAO, gave the commendation when he visited B-BOVID to familiarize himself with the operations of the company and its various models adopted to make agriculture more attractive and dignifying.
Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) Recommends New Maize Varieties
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has recommended two new hybrid maize seeds suitable for improved yields and productivity. It said the Abontem and Omankwa, varieties of seeds have high disease resistance, and favorable for all weather patterns. Mr. Michael Addai, Agricultural Extension Officer at the Nkoranza South Municipal Directorate of MOFA, gave the recommendation when he addressed about 20 maize farmers at a trainer of trainers’ workshop at Fiapre, near Sunyani. The workshop was organised by the Centre for Innovation and Technology Dissemination secretariat of the University of Energy and Natural Resources. It formed part of a three-year project the university, in collaboration with the University of Molise in Italy, University of Guru in Uganda, and Bio-Economy an international non-governmental organisation in Ethiopia are implementing in Brong-Ahafo Region.
Agric Policies must Base on Research – Experts
Agricultural experts have cautioned that the rolling out of agric policies solely for political purposes will negatively impact the sector. They say it’s about time that the government, to set out the guidelines for the African Union on policy adoption in the agricultural sector, should take into consideration the information generated through research before rolling out policies. “What that seeks to do, is to move away from a situation where politicians stand on platforms, make statements which become policies. There is no evidence that it has worked before, there is no evidence that it has the potential to work. But just to play to the gallery, a statement is made and is adopted as policy,” Kwaku Owusu Baah of the USAID’s “Feed the Future Project” said.
US$50m Fund to Transform Lives of Rural Farmers
US$50million challenge fund aimed at transforming lives by increasing access to financial services for at least one million financially excluded people living in rural and agricultural areas of Africa has been announced in Accra. To be run for seven years and spearheaded by MasterCard Foundation in broad collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Fund will seek to develop solutions that drive inclusive growth in Africa by broadening access and usage of digital financial services. The Fund will be managed by KPMG International Advisory Services and accept innovation proposals until March 20, 2015 for projects. The project will cover eight countries including Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Hunger in Africa could End in Next Decade – UN
Africa could eliminate hunger by 2025 if countries embraced effective policies on job creation, political stability, and social protection, a UN official has said. “Countries in Africa are making significant progress toward ending hunger, there is a high level of political commitment,” James Tefft, a senior policy officer with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Some business leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum backed that view. Economic breakthroughs over the next 15 years will “improve the lives of people in poor countries faster than at any other time in history,” the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said in an open letter released Jan. 21.
University Implements 70,000 Euro Agricultural Project
The University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in partnership with University of Molise in Italy, and Guru University in Uganda are implementing 70,000 -Euro project to improve agriculture productivity. The three-year project dubbed: “Strengthening innovations and technology dissemination for sustainable development in cereals and cocoa,” is being implemented in Techiman, Nkoranza South and Asunafo North Municipalities of Brong-Ahafo Region. It is targeting 40 cocoa and maize farmers in the beneficiary districts. The Reverend Dr Phyllis Opare, Operational Unit Assistant of the Project, and a lecturer at the UENR, who made this known explained that the scheme would supply maize and cocoa farmers with fertilizers, farm inputs and other implements free of charge…
Cassava Processing Group to Benefit from Training
The Manchi Women Cassava Processing Group in the Ga West District is to benefit from a training programme in processing of quality cassava products. With a grant from the Council for Technical Vocation Education and Training (COTVET), the Food Research Institute (FRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research would train the women in the processing of high quality cassava flour, soya gari, starch and tapioka, a local cereal. The diversity of secondary products cassava offers makes it a very useful root crop. However, once harvested, cassava roots are highly perishable and signs of deterioration begin to appear after a few days. Apart from its use as food, cassava is very versatile and its derivatives and starch are applicable in many types of products such as foods, confectionery, sweeteners, glues, plywood, textiles, paper, biodegradable products, monosodium glutamate, and drugs.
Fishermen Asked to Respect Fisheries Regulations
Companies operating international vessels in Ghana’s territorial waters have been urged to declare all their catch and pay the appropriate tax to the Ghana Revenue Authority. Dr Benjamin Campion, Lecturer at the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, who gave the advice, noted that bigger vessels fishing in local waters are normally given a quota, and when they flout it there is a penalty for them to pay. He said, however, some deliberately declare the stock “as accidental catch” thereby evading penalty, making the nation to lose revenue and this impact negatively on the economy. He was speaking at a day’s validation workshop on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing popularly known in the fishing circles as “Saiko” an illegal fish trade at sea that is gradually gaining grounds among fishermen…
Falling Commodity Prices on the World Market
Crude oil is a commodity that does not have firm substitutes, and because it does not have reliable alternatives, consumers have no choice. Consumers cannot afford to dispense with crude oil because in the language of the economist, demand for it is inelastic. Besides, crude oil is a strategic commodity… Prices of energy, metals, minerals and agricultural raw materials dropped by 35 per cent from 2011 to 2014. The fall in commodity prices has been attributed to more supplies and drop in demand for those goods and because the American dollar, the most preferred hard currency, has gained strength following America’s exit from the great global recession and strong economic growth in the US. “Global supply and demand conditions have conspired to generate lower price expectation for all the nine World Bank commodity price indices – an extremely rare occurrence,” a member of the World Bank…
Gomoa Kumasi Gari Producers get Support
The Gomoa West District Chief Executive, Mr. Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah, has presented two sealing machines worth GH¢700 to gari producers at Gomoa Kumasi to enable them to package their produce properly for the market. The major occupation of the people in the area is gari processing and the produce is sold at nearby market centres. The donation was made in response to a request made by the gari producers when the DCE met and interacted with them sometime ago. Mr. Aidoo-Mensah said that the machines were to assist them to package their produce to make it attractive to buyers. He also said under a Rural Enterprises Programme established by the government with support from the Business Advisory Centre (BAC), which is in all districts across the country, small and medium-scale enterprises would be supported to grow their businesses.
Private Sector Protests G-CAP Implementation
The Joint Consultative Committee on Private Sector Stakeholders has expressed dissatisfaction with statements by some people in authority that the G-CAP programme would be implemented at all cost. A press release issued recently in Accra, which was jointly signed by John Awuni, an Executive Member of Food & Beverages Importers Association of Ghana and George Kwaku Ofori, President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), among others, criticized the decision to carry on with the programme despite concerns by other stakeholders. “We view this deliberate act as an imposition of the programme on Ghanaians in spite of the flaws and we, in the business community, have also resolved to resist the imposition of this questionable programme vehemently,” the group noted… “What will be the fate of the majority of the informal sector traders who ply their trade in the sub-region as they practically cannot access the certificate of conformity?”
OFAB Ghana Holds Workshop For Tamale Students On Biotechnology
About 80 selected students drawn from 8 senior high schools within the Northern Region have benefited under a 1-day sensitization workshop on Biotechnology at the Nyankpala campus of the University of Development Studies in Tamale. They were ten participants each drawn from eight selected schools within Tamale, Tolon and Kumbungu respectively in the Northern Region. “It was well fashioned to sensitize students on job prospects in the field of Biotechnology and to encourage them to enroll in the subject for a better future” Dr. Margaret Ottah Atikpo, Focal Person of OFAB-Ghana Chapter has said. Biotechnology is the use of scientific methods to produce genetically modified food crops that are more pest, disease and drought resistant and with short maturity periods. It is a technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives to make or modify products…
Reports/Articles
Willingness to Adopt Certifications and Sustainable Production Methods among Small-Scale Cocoa Farmers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana
R Aidoo, I Fromm - Journal of Sustainable Development, 2015
The main objective of this research project was to identify current cocoa production practices and determine the principal factors that affect the adoption of sustainable farming practices and socio-environmental certifications among small-scale cocoa farmers in Ghana. The study was conducted in two cocoa districts (Atwima Mponua and Ahafoano North) in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. A combination of stratified, systematic and random sampling techniques was employed to select 439 cocoa producing households for the study. A standardized structured questionnaire was used to gather field data through personal interviews. Results showed that membership in farmers’ organizations, awareness of certification and size of cocoa farm were the main determinants of willingness to adopt sustainable cocoa production methods and certifications. Whereas membership in farmer-based organizations and awareness about different aspects related to certification had a significant positive effect on adoption of cocoa certification, farm size tended to have a significant negative effect on adoption of certification…
Climate and Development Outlook
K Network - 2014
The impacts of climate change in Africa will be significant and long-term (see for example www.cdkn.org/ar5-toolkit for some headline messages for Africa). Long-lived infrastructure and development planning are likely to be particularly affected. Factoring climate change into their design and implementation is, therefore, vital to development outcomes. Yet we know very little about how long-term climate information is used in African decision-making. While seasonal climate information is increasingly embedded in development and humanitarian actions across Africa, our knowledge of the barriers to, and opportunities for, the uptake of long-term climate information is comparatively scant. It is this know it is this knowledge gap that the Future Climate For Africa (FCFA) scoping phase seeks to fill. FCFA is a five-year international research programme jointly funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The programme aims to advance scientific understanding of sub-Saharan African climate….
Socio-Economic Impacts Of Ebola On Africa
ON AFRICA - 2015
The Ebola virus disease (EBOLA) outbreak in West Africa has the worst death toll since the disease was diagnosed in 1976. It also has far-reaching socioeconomic consequences. Although the disease is still unfolding, several studies on those impacts have been conducted since the disease broke out in West Africa, including those by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Country Reports have been prepared by United Nations Country Teams (UNCT) under the leadership of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country offices and the World Health Organization (WHO). But fewer reports have focused on West Africa, and virtually none on the African continent. Moreover, most early prospects and projections on EBOLA’s socioeconomic impacts were based on patchy data and reflected uncertainty about the disease’s future epidemiological path. It is against this background that ECA began this study. The overall objective is to assess the socioeconomic impacts on countries, the region, and Africa as a whole, both in terms of the real costs entailed and growth and development prospects, so as to devise policy recommendations to accompany mitigation efforts….