Below are some current developments on agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
Tree Global Distributes Cocoa Seedlings to Farmers
Tree Global, a trade organization in agriculture and forestry, in collaboration with Mondalez International, a chocolate manufacturing company, has distributed 2,500 innovative cocoa seedlings to farmers at Bosuso to boost their production. As part of the distribution, experts from Tree Global demonstrated how the seedlings should be handled from the removal of the pots to planting to ensure that the tap root is intact and firmly held by the soil. Mondalez International, a chocolate manufacturing company in the US and biggest buyer of Ghana cocoa has instituted cocoa life communities support project, in seven districts to support farmers to improve their wellbeing especially cocoa production and the welfare of their children. The districts are: New Juaben, West Akim, Suhum and Fanteakwa in the Eastern Region, Amansie West in the Ashanti Region, Wassa East in the Western Region and Asunafo North in the Brong-Ahafo Region.
Yara Pulls out of Government Fertilizer Subsidy
A leading fertilizer distributor in the country, Yara Ghana Ltd, has pulled out of the government’s fertilizer subsidy programme for this year. According to the company, its products would only be available in the open market to enable farmers, who have just started planting for the season, to get access to the product in any quantity…. The Managing Director of Yara Ghana, Mr Jorgen C. Arentz Rostrup, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that in line with its commitment to farmers, the company would maintain its extensive import programme for the year and also ensure that the product was available in the market at all times. He added that Yara would also assign its agronomists to work closely with the farmers to ensure high yield and quality. The company has agronomists positioned across the country, particularly in cereal producing areas…
Rice Farmers Call for More Support to Boost Production
Rice farming is gradually becoming such a lucrative business in Ghana as demand increases. Many farmers are now reporting impressive yields as patronage of the delicacy increases across the country. Last year the farmers enjoyed a bumper harvest and are expecting same this year. Ben Kanat, a rice farmer at the Ashaiman Rice Irrigation Site tells JOY BUSINESS planting a hectare of certified rice seeds could produce about 120 bags of rice. For him although producing rice is a tedious job, it is highly rewarding. Another rice farmer at Dowenya in the Greater Accra Region, Emmanuel Arden is particularly excited about the fact that post-harvest losses in rice production are virtually non-existent. “When the price for our produce is low we can store it and for more than 5 to 10 years the rice will still be in good shape. So in rice production you can never be at a loss as it pertains….
Poultry Farmers want Compensation for Destruction of Bird Flu Infected Farms
The Ghana National Poultry Farmers Association is asking government to compensate farmers whose birds have been destroyed as part of measures to contain the Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) scare. They want the Ministry of Agriculture to set up a fund to compensate farmers whose birds will be killed when outbreaks are detected on their farms. The association fears the absence of such a package will discourage farmers from reporting suspicious symptoms of the disease to health officials. A total of about ¢1.5 billion [¢1.5million in new currency] was paid as compensation to farmers by the government in 2007 when about 13, 371 birds were reported dead as a result of the outbreak. About 27,356 birds were destroyed by the veterinary services as part of the control measures. The Nogouchi Memorial Institute has confirmed tests conducted on samples from farms in Achimota and Tema have tested…
ADB brouhaha: UNICOF Accuses NLC of Bias
The Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance Workers (UNICOF) has accused the National Labour Commission of bias in the impasse between staff of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) and its management. Workers of the bank are seeking the dismissal of their board and management for incompetence. They have given government until June 2, 2015, to resume their nationwide strike if their call is not heeded to. The NLC in a statement on Thursday urged the workers to resort to proper procedures to get their concerns addressed. But in a counter statement Friday, UNICOF said the NLC appears to be “confusing” the real issues being pushed by the workers. “The NLC by its unique role and function is supposed to be a fair arbiter in the resolution of disputes and therefore expected to exhibit neutrality regarding issues that come to its attention.
ADB Workers Call Off Strike
Workers of Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) have called off their day old sit down strike which began on Thursday. Workers embarked on the strike to press home their demand for government to sack its Managing Director, Stephen Kpordzih and also dissolve the current board. A letter from the union leaders directing the staff to comply with the industrial action said: “With regards to the Board and Managing Director’s refusal to step aside for a proper examination of issues of gross incompetence and corruption raised by the joint unions and the failure of the appointing authorities to nominate external investigators to support the BoG to unravel the truth, we hereby declare a sit-down protest starting on the 28th of May 2015 till our shareholders do the needful”.
‘Suspend Implementation of 10 percent Import Adjustment Tax’ -- OPDAG
Members of the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana (OPDAG), a non-governmental association, have asked government to suspend implementation of the Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) on imported crude palm oil (CPO) until the gap between local production and demand is closed. Government is to impose a 10 percent IAT in addition to the 10 percent ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET) on imports of crude palm oil. This is in line with a global movement toward Customs unions, wherein ECOWAS is introducing a CET to allow same the Customs duty to apply for all goods entering ECOWAS members, regardless of which country within the area they are entering. ECOWAS is due to implement the CET this year. A statement submitted to the Ministry of Finance upon consultation with key stakeholders in the oil palm value chain and their representatives, to make known their position on the ...
Illegal Activities Threaten Chipa Forest Reserve
The Forestry Commission has raised red flags about the increasing destruction of the Chipa Forest Reserve at Kordiabe in the Dangme West District of the Greater Accra Region. “Illegal felling of trees and sand winning is gradually becoming a thorn in the flesh of the reserve which is mainly made up of cassia, neem, mahogany and acasia trees,” the Chief Executive of the commission, Mr. Samuel Afari Dartey, said at the launch of the 2015 Greening Ghana Day at Dodowa. He therefore rallied members of the community to join forces with the commission to protect the forest against such illegal activities. “I will encourage everybody to seek permission from the Forestry Commission before undertaking any activity in the reserve,” he said. With the nation's forest resources reduced from 8.2 million hectares in 1900 to 1.6 million hectares currently, the Greening Ghana project is aimed at halting deforestation….
African Development Bank Elects New President
Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, has been elected as the new president of the African Development Bank (AfDB). He becomes the eighth person elected as AfDB president. Dr. Adesina secured the position after beating two other candidates, Chadian Finance Minister Kordje Bedoumra, and Cape Verde’s Finance Minister Cristina Duarte. The three were shortlisted from a list of eight candidates. Dr. Adesina secured 58 per cent of the votes in the final round at a meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, while Kordje Bedoumra secured 32 per cent votes, and Cristina Duarte, 10 per cent. His election as the bank’s eight president signals the exit of Dr Donald Kaberuka, who completes his second and last term at the helm of Africa’s most notable multilateral development finance institution on August 31.
Reports/Articles
Farmer’s Knowledge and Perception of Diversified Farming Systems in Sub-Humid and Semi-Arid Areas in Benin
AC Segnon, EG Achigan-Dako, OG Gaoue… - Sustainability, 2015
Building on farmer’s agroecological knowledge to design environmental-friendly agricultural systems is crucial given the environmental impact of industrial agriculture. We investigated the drivers of farmers’ knowledge of agrobiodiversity management and analyzed how farmers’ knowledge and their current farming contexts may guide future farming systems in sub-humid (Bassila) and semi-arid (Boukoumbé) areas of Benin. We conducted structured interviews with 180 farmers and used generalized linear models and correlation analyses to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of farmers’ knowledge and perception. Land tenure, ecological conditions and sociolinguistic membership were the main drivers of farmers’ knowledge of agroforestry systems, practices, species diversity and current farming systems. Sociolinguistic membership also significantly predicted farmers’ knowledge of livestock management.
Urban Food Systems and Global Sustainable Land Use
U Fritsche, S Laaks, U Eppler - GLOBALANDS Issue Paper prepared by IINAS, 2015
Global land use is dominated by agricultural production, especially permanent grasslands for animal grazing, and for cultivating feed and food crops. The global food system (value chain of production and consumption of food as well as transport, processing etc.) changed radically over the last centuries, from subsistence agriculture and food production within and close to villages and cities to more rural production and urban consumption patterns nowadays, with a growing role of international trade. The future of the global food system is rather uncertainty due to climate change impacts, diet dynamics, and yield developments. With cities and urban areas being “hotspots” of sustainability challenges and opportunities, urban food systems (as subsets of the global food system) are of interest.
The Water Footprint of Food Aid
N Jackson, M Konar, AY Hoekstra - Sustainability, 2015
Food aid is a critical component of the global food system, particularly when emergency situations arise. For the first time, we evaluate the water footprint of food aid. To do this, we draw on food aid data from the World Food Programme and virtual water content estimates from WaterStat. We find that the total water footprint of food aid was 10 km3 in 2005, which represents approximately 0.5% of the water footprint of food trade and 2.0% of the water footprint of land grabbing (i.e., water appropriation associated with large agricultural land deals). The United States is by far the largest food aid donor and contributes 82% of the water footprint of food aid. The countries that receive the most water embodied in aid are Ethiopia, Sudan, North Korea, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Notably, we find that there is significant overlap between countries that receive food aid and those that have their land grabbed. Multivariate regression results indicate that donor water footprints are driven by political and environmental variables, whereas recipient water footprints are driven by land grabbing and food indicators.
Fisheries Centre: An overview of the Nigerian Marine fisheries and a Re-evaluation of its Catch Data for the Years 1950 to 2010
L Etim, D Belhabib, D Pauly - 2015
Nigeria, with more than 250 ethnic groups and a current population of about 170 million inhabitants is the most populous African country. With a crude oil production of 2.5 million barrels per day, Nigeria also ranks as the largest producer of crude oil in Africa and the sixth largest producer in the world. The fisheries sector, which is also important, has grown considerably since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960. However, government fisheries departments lack officers responsible for field data collection; consequently, catch data are often exaggerated or unreported. Using standard procedures, we re-estimated (i.e., reconstructed) the Nigerian marine fisheries catches from 1950 to 2010 to account for likely under-reporting and non-reporting of the catch of fish and shrimps trawlers, artisanal and subsistence fishers, foreign legal and illegal fleets and discards. This led to catches of about 34,000 t in 1950, 540,000 t in 2005 and 490,000 t in 2010. Reconstructed domestic catches were about twice the data supplied to the FAO. Taxonomically, sardinellas (Sardinella spp.) represented the largest …
The State of Soil Degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Baselines, Trajectories, and Solutions
K Tully, C Sullivan, R Weil, P Sanchez - Sustainability, 2015
The primary cause of soil degradation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expansion and intensification of agriculture in efforts to feed its growing population. Effective solutions will support resilient systems, and must cut across agricultural, environmental, and socioeconomic objectives. While many studies compare and contrast the effects of different management practices on soil properties, soil degradation can only be evaluated within a specific temporal and spatial context using multiple indicators. The extent and rate of soil degradation in SSA is still under debate as there are no reliable data, just gross estimates. Nevertheless, certain soils are losing their ability to provide food and essential ecosystem services, and we know that soil fertility depletion is the primary cause. We synthesize data from studies that examined degradation in SSA at broad spatial and temporal scales and quantified multiple soil …
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