Below are some current developments on agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
USAID Introduces Risk Management Tool for Agribusinesses
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has developed an investment mapping software for the northern part of Ghana to help players in the agricultural value chain to gather the required information and minimize risk in their businesses. The resource, which can be accessed online, has mapped the location of farms; infrastructure; support service providers such as input dealers, and business advisory service providers. It has information on the availability of roads and irrigation facilities, processing facilities and warehousing etc. to help the agribusinesses in the value chain to choose where to locate their investments. The software, FinGAP Nautilytics, is part of the Financing Ghana Agriculture Project (FinGAP) being implemented by the USAID under the United States government’s $250 million Feed the Future initiative. Mr. Fidelis Paa Kwesi Dadzie of USAID-FinGAP, who presented the software at the second Ghana Agribusiness Investment Summit in Accra last Wednesday, explained that the software could help financiers to mitigate risk as it allowed them to make quick assessments of the environment.
USAID Launches Programme on Cross-border Trade
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a new programme aimed at eliminating barriers to cross-border trade in staple foods and help increase food security within West Africa. The “Food Across Borders Programme” (ProFAB), would focus on ensuring the improvement of public policies, increasing information on regional trade and strengthening the voice of private sector and regional organizations. Mr. Gene Cretz, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, at the launch in Accra on Thursday, said the institution of the programme, was based on the recommendations of an ECOWAS forum held in January 2013, which called for the need to draw attention to the crucial role that regional trade plays in West Africa’s food security. He said the recommendations also brought to the fore the increasingly important role regional trade would need to play to ensure the long-term resilience of the 365 million residents of West Africa.
Rice Farmers in Botanga Get Power Tillers
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has handed over 16 power tillers to rice farmers in the Botanga Irrigation Scheme area in the Kumbungu District, Northern Region, to boost their production. Each of the tillers costs GHc22,000. The provision of the power tillers, which is in the form of a grant, is a collaboration between the USAID-ATT Project and J. K. Technologies, dealers in small agricultural equipment. Under the initiative, the USAID-ATT Project will provide 70 per cent of the funding for the purchase of the equipment, while farmers pay 30 per cent. Additionally, the tillers are meant to assist farmers in the Savanna Ecological Zone to adapt to the use of agricultural machinery to help boost production. The power tillers come with other agricultural equipment such as reapers and transplanters to make rice production less laborious for farmers. Speaking at the handing over ceremony at Botanga, the Chief of Party of the ATT project, Mr. Mike Dockery said the initiative was part of the broader objective to assist farmers in the Savanna Ecological zone to adapt to new agricultural technologies to increase their …
Farmers Design Agric-financing Model
The maiden stakeholders’ forum to discuss how to arrive at a suitable model for effective and efficient agricultural financing has opened at Koforidua. The workshop, being attended by representatives of leading farmers’ organizations in Ghana, is organized by the Agricultural Financing Network in collaboration with USAID African LEAD, an international technical support group. It is on the theme: “Agricultural Financing Mechanism, Which Realistic Option for Ghana”. Mr. Felix Quansar of the Private Enterprises Foundation, said the lack of adequate knowledge on agricultural financing by officials of banking institutions and farmers seriously affected fund raising to support agriculture in the country. He called for the development of different financial packages for different farmers groups engaged in different types of agriculture to meet their specific needs. Mr. Quansar said the lack of knowledge about the specific financial needs of farmers engaged in specific crops or a branch of agriculture made the financial institutions to offer the same financial package to all farmers which often led to the disadvantage of many.
Ghana needs Holistic Agric Strategy – Edward Effah
Edward Effah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fidelity Bank, has called for a comprehensive agricultural master plan to improve agribusiness in the country. According to him, the lack of an agricultural master plan had hampered the continuous growth of the sector. Mr. Effah, who made this known at the 2015 Agribusiness Investment Summit organized by the USAID in Accra, said “Ghana can learn a lot from Malaysia which has a consistent agriculture strategy and has been successful in exporting farm products for over 50 years.” He added that Malaysia has built capacity in the agriculture sector and invested across the value chain of their crop production. There are too many fragmented projects which do not bring the best out of the country’s agriculture sector, Mr. Effah indicated.
Solidaridad Supports Oil Palm Farmers
Solidaridad - West Africa, an International Non-Governmental Organization, is assisting oil palm farmers in the country on how to improve upon their farms for maximum profitability through financial and technical support. The support which is under the Sustainable West Africa Oil Palm Programme (SWAPP) is funded by the Dutch Government. Interacting with the Daily Graphic during a field trip to some oil palm farms and an outreach programme with oil palm farmers in the Kwaebibirem district of the Eastern Region, the project coordinator in-charge of incubator of businesses and access to finance, which is a component of SWAPP, Ms. Kosi Yankey, said the project sought to provide incubation support and access to risk capital to help grow businesses and accelerate the development of a larger and more productive oil palm sector in West Africa. She said a total of 1.5 million Euros has been invested as risk capital to support small-scale and medium enterprises in the oil palm sector in Ghana while 1.8 million Ghana Cedis.
Ghana Committed to Eliminate Child Labour on Cocoa Farms – Vice President
Vice President Kwesi Amissah Arthur has stated that Ghana is currently working to eliminate all forms of child labour on the cocoa farms. He said consequently the government has introduced the Child Education Support Programme to ensure that schools in cocoa growing communities are rehabilitated and new ones built in communities where there are no schools. Vice President Amissah-Arthur was speaking at a Cocoa Dinner organized by the Federation of Cocoa Commerce held at Grosvenor House, London, United Kingdom. The dinner brought together around 900 people from the international cocoa community including key influential guest speakers. The theme for year’s dinner: "West meets East," with focus on West Africa as the world's leaders of cocoa producers and the growing importance of Asia to the global economy. The Federation of Cocoa Commerce was established in 1935 in Paris to serve the growing trade in physical cocoa.
Newmont, GIZ Support Food Production in Brong Ahafo
Newmont Ghana’s Ahafo Mine in collaboration with German group, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) have commissioned a processing center in the Asutifi district of the Brong Ahafo region, to help farmers reduce post-harvest losses and improve their earnings. The almost $700,000 project, known as the Asutifi Processing Service Centre, is expected to revamp agricultural production in the Ahafo mine’s host communities and other communities in the Asutifi North and South districts. Joep Coenen, General Manager of the Ahafo Mine, speaking at the commissioning ceremony in Kenyase, lauded farmers in the Brong Ahafo region for their hard work in consolidating the region’s position as the bread basket of Ghana and underscored the need to support their effort to ensure greater value for their efforts.
Farmer Association Joined to GMO Case
An Accra Fast Track High Court, has granted the application for the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen (GNAFF) to be joined to the law suit filed by Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG). The Court has also asked the plaintiff to re-file the writs of summon to include GNAFF as the fifth defendant in the case. Initially, the suit was against the National Bio-safety Committee, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Attorney General (A-G) and the National Bio-safety Authority. The Court adjourned the matter to June 8, to deal with an application for an injunction to stop the Ministry from commercializing GMO Cowpea and rice.
Benso Oil Palm Plantation makes Profit
The Benso Oil Palm Plantation Limited made a profit after tax of 12.9 million Ghana cedis in 2014 representing 112 per cent increase over that of 2013. Mr. Ishmael Yamson, the Chairman of Board of Directors, announced this at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company at Takoradi. He said a dividend of GH¢ 0.0706.00 per share was approved for 2012 compared to GH¢0.0334 for the previous year. He said by the prudent operation of the management, the company had been declared the first certified sustainable oil palm plantation in Ghana and second in the whole of Africa by the Round Table Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international organization based in Malaysia. The company embarked on various corporate social responsibility activities within the catchment area, notable among them being reconstruction of roads and bridges, provision of school furniture, roofing of community centres and scholarships for senior high students. In addition to employment, the company spent GH¢ 9.7 million on fruits bought from small holders and out grower farmers in the catchment area thereby contributing to a reduction of ….
World Vision Ghana Intervention Improves Food Security in Upper East
Majority of farmers in the operational areas of World Vision Ghana (WVG) in the Upper East Region who adopted the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration Technology (FMNR) have had their crop production increased. WVG works in the Talensi, Bawku West, Garu –Tempane and the Kassena-Nankana West Districts, and in all these areas majority of the farmers had adopted the technology. The basic method of the FMNR is that the farmer selects the stumps or shrubs he or she will utilize, and decides how many stems will be allowed to grow on each stump, based on the farmer’s needs and ultimate purpose for reforestation. Excess stems are then cut, and side branches pruned off up to half way the trunk.
Journalists Attend Climate Change Training
An environmental training course on climate change reporting has opened in Berlin for selected journalists from all over the world, to sharpen their skills in climate reporting in their respective countries. The Ecologic Institute in Berlin in partnership with the German Foreign Office is hosting 20 journalists from Ghana, Zambia, Botswana, Egypt, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Namibia and Kenya as well as those from Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, South Korea, India, Jamaica, Philippines. Mr. Hinrich Tholken, Head of Division on Climate and Environmental Foreign Policy, Sustainable Economy of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, said climate change threat was a global issue that should be dealt with, not only by environmentalists, but governments, and society at large. He said because climate change issues were so complex and technical, journalists whose duty was to inform the public, had to be educated and that was why the German Foreign Office was collaborating with the Ecologic Institute to organise the training for them.
Ghana to Celebrate Fourth Forestry Week and Greening Day
The Forestry Commission, in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, would celebrate the Fourth Forestry Week and Greening Ghana Day from May 23-29, 2015. The theme for the week-long celebration is: “Healthy Forests Mitigate Climate Change”. A statement signed by Joyce Ofori Kwafo, Corporate Affairs & Media Relations Manager, said the celebration was to commemorate the International Day of Forests which fell on March 21 each year. It is a day set aside by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests and trees outside forests. The UN, however, allows member states to adapt the celebration of the International Day of Forests as well as the date, to suit their peculiar circumstances. The Forestry Commission of Ghana chose the month of May for the celebration because of favorable climatic conditions during that time of the year for tree planting and other silvicultural operations.
Gomoa Central MP Distributes Inputs to Farmers
The Member of Parliament for the Gomoa Central Constituency in the Central Region, Mrs. Rachel Florence Appoh Opoku, has assured farmers in her constituency of her continuous support in their quest to improve their lives. According to her, as the MP for the area, she would ensure that her constituents, who were predominantly farmers, were provided with the needed farming inputs. She said that most of the peasant farmers in the area were unable to buy the inputs due to poverty so she would use her share of the Common Fund to purchase the inputs and distribute them to the farmers freely. Mrs. Appoh Opoku gave the assurance when she distributed some farming inputs to farmers in four communities in the constituency. The beneficiary farmers were drawn from Gomoa Aboso, Benso, Ekroful and Akropong. The items, worth GH¢50, 000, included 1,200 machetes, 100 knapsack sprayers, 100 pairs of wellington boots and 10 cocoa-spraying machines. She explained that she had been distributing the inputs to farmers since 2013 and would ensure that a substantial number of them would be given their share of the items to improve their living conditions.
Reports/Articles
Big tractors, but Small Farms: Tractor hiring services as a Farmer-Owner’s Response to an Under-developed Agricultural Machinery Market
Houssou, Nazaire; Asante-Addo, Collins; Diao, Xinshen; & Kolavalli, Shashidhara
The debate about agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) has largely ignored the role of the capital service market in spreading the use of mechanical technologies. Yet, custom machinery hiring services have been essential for the widespread use and ownership of tractors and other agricultural machines in many countries where small farms are dominant. Using survey data collected in 2013, this paper suggests that tractor services can play a key role in the adoption of tractor use among Ghanaian farming households. Medium and large-scale farmers own tractors in the survey districts, while most small-scale farmers access tractors through hire services. Farmers expand their farm size when they acquire a tractor, but not to such an extent as to fully utilize the capacity of the machine. They engage in hiring-out tractor services to increase the scale of tractor use and make profits. Medium-scale farmers offer the bulk of tractor services. These farmers will be key for spreading agricultural mechanization in Ghana…
Can Smallholder Fruit and Vegetable Production Systems Improve Household Food Security and Nutritional Status of Women? Evidence from Rural Uganda
N Kabunga, S Ghosh, JK Griffiths - 2015
This paper aims to empirically infer potential causal linkages between fruit and vegetable (F&V) production, individual F&V intake, household food security, and anemia levels for individual women caregivers of childbearing age. Using a unique and rich dataset collected from rural smallholder Ugandan households, we show that the use of a qualitative tool to measure household food insecurity is robust and applicable in other contexts. We also show, using robust econometric methods, that women living in F&V-producer households have a significantly higher intake of F&Vs than those living in non-producer households. Furthermore, F&V-producer households are potentially more food secure, and women caregivers in producer households have significantly higher levels of hemoglobin, rendering the prevalence rates of anemia lower among F&V-producer households. We argue that these effects, modest as …
An Analysis of Yam Production in Nigeria
N Verter, V Bečvářová - Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae …, 2015
Yams as a stable food crops do not only serve as integral vehicle for food security, but also as a source of income, and employer of labour in the producing areas in Nigeria. Lack of finance, inadequate farm inputs, storage facilities and high cost of labour are identified as the primary constraints to yam production in the country. This article deals with most of the determinants of yam production, constraints and the importance yam products in Nigeria. The findings of the study suggest that farm size, producer price, fertilizer use, yield (Hg/Ha), and economic growth have a positive influence on yam production in Nigeria. On the contrary, the result shows an inverse relationship between commercial loans and yam production in the country. There is an urgent need for the Nigerian government to provide a conducive environment and investment climate by subsidizing farm inputs and providing affordable loans to the smallholder yam farmers for a sustainable production.
Drivers of Adoption of Improved Maize Varieties in Moist Transitional Zone of Eastern Kenya
E Bett, P Mbataru, J Ouma - 2015
Despite its role in food security in Kenya, maize deficit has increased in the recent years posing serious food security threat. This worrying trend necessitates careful review of adoption. The paper quantifies determinants of adoption and intensity of use of improved maize varieties in moist transitional zone of Eastern Kenya based on data collected between September and October 2013 from 314 farming households. Double hurdle model was used to estimate the determinants of adoption and intensity of use of improved maize varieties. Many of the institutional factors: extension contacts, farmer group membership, distance to input market and extension office were significant in explaining the probability of adoption. Fertilizer use, livestock and consumer worker ratio were identified as important farm characteristics in the adoption. Age was the only household characteristic that was associated with the likelihood of adoption. These factors were not important in the intensity of adoption. Intensity of adoption was explained by intercropping of maize and legumes, ownership of mobile phones, household size, remittances, confidence in extension …
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