Below are some current developments on agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
Players in Seed Industry Form Association
An association of value chain players in the seed industry known as “The Seed Trade Association of Ghana (STAG)” has formally been launched to promote the interest of its members.STAG is an association of limited liability private commercial enterprises registered or incorporated nationally as well as private international companies registered in Ghana. Their operations include the supply, production, processing, distribution and marketing of improved seeds of assorted cereals, legumes, vegetables, root and tuber varieties. At the launch of the association in Accra, the Chairman of STAG, Mr. Kwabena Adu-Gyamfi said “the broad aim of the association is to represent the interests of the seed industry in Ghana, both nationally and globally.” He said the 12 founder members comprised eight recipients of grants and three prospective grantees of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
Women Farmers Introduced to Knowledge Technology
About 662 women farmer groups from 190 communities in the Upper West Region have been introduced to an audio technology dubbed, the “Talking Book” to help boost their production. The technology, which contains recorded messages on best agricultural practices on soya bean production, health and nutrition, gender issues, and best financial practices on the Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA), is being provided by the Mennonite Economic Development Associate (MEDA), in collaboration with Literacy Bridge Ghana. The 20-million-dollar Greater Rural Opportunity for Women (GROW) project is been funded by the Canadian Government through its Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, with the aim of empowering women for income sustainability and enhanced food security among families in rural communities.
Government, UNCDF Promote Climate Change Resilience
The Ministry of local Government in collaboration with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has launched the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) project to promote climate change resilience in communities. The project, which would benefit 10 districts in the three Northern Regions, would help provide a mechanism to integrate climate change adaptation into local government planning and budgeting systems. The LoCAL project would complement other initiatives being undertaken by various UN agencies to enhance national systems, and existing institutional arrangements for climate change mitigation and adaptation to reduce disaster risks. It would also increase awareness and response to climate change at the local level. The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Kwadwo Agyekum, speaking at the launch of the project, said records had shown that temperatures in Ghana were rising rapidly, and that, the project was timely.
RING Supports 54 Households
The Tolon District Assembly in collaboration with the Resiliency in Northern Ghana (RING) project has presented 165 small ruminants to 54 targeted vulnerable households in the Dimabi Community of the Tolon District in Northern Region. The distribution of the small ruminants, which falls under the livelihood and agriculture component of the RING project, is to ensure increased access and consumption of diverse quality food among households, especially women and children under five. The RING intervention was implemented through a collaborative approach with District Assemblies (DAs) in Northern Region and the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), to improve the livelihood and nutritional status of vulnerable households in targeted communities in the Northern Region. Alhaji Siedu Abubakar, Tolon District Chief Executive, speaking during a ceremony to formally hand over the animals to the beneficiary households, stated that the district had earmarked 2,500 vulnerable households to benefit from the RING interventions; one of which was the distribution of 768 small ruminants to six communities this year.
Government Asked to Account for Cocoa Purchases shortfall
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Ranking Member of Parliament (MP) of the Committee on Food and Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, has asked the government to account for the discrepancy in the purchase of cocoa between October 2014 and last May. He said the Minority was dissatisfied with the answer by Mr. Cassiel Ato Forson, Deputy Minister of Finance, that data from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) showed that 614,262 tonnes of cocoa were purchased for the period against the approved 950,000 metric tonnes. “The House approved a syndicated loan of $1.8 billion for the purchase of 950,000 tonnes, and the Deputy Minister is telling us the COCOBOD bought 614, 262 tonnes. Where is the money for the difference? Dr Akoto asked in a post sitting interview with journalists. The House last year approved 1.8 billion dollars for the purchase of cocoa, for which the COCOBOD through the Ministry of Finance took 1.7billion dollars.
‘Ghana Sold Enough Cocoa to Service 2014 Loan'
Ghana's cocoa regulator COCOBOD has purchased 652,986 tonnes of cocoa in the 2014/15 season as of June 26, Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson told parliament, according to records seen by Reuters on Friday. The amount is significantly down on last season but is sufficient to service the $1.7 billion cocoa loan COCOBOD took out last year because the regulator forward sold just 624,500 tonnes as collateral, Forson said on Thursday. Ghana's output this season falls short of its initial forecast of more than 1 million tonnes, a fact that has rattled the global cocoa market given that the West African country is the world's second-largest producer, behind Ivory Coast. It will also reduce revenues for Ghana, which also exports gold and oil. The country has seen a sharp slowdown in economic growth due to lower global commodity prices and a fiscal crisis. "COCOBOD sold forward total tonnage of …
Future Lies in Agric Development
Africa can and must be transformed from a continent reliant upon food imports to one that can feed itself and export a surplus to help feed a growing world population. That was the consensus arrived at in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, when Heads of State and Governments of the African Union met there last weekend for their annual gathering. The theme of the event was “Transforming Africa’s agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods through harnessing opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development”. It is significant to realize that 2014 has been declared Year of Agriculture and Food and Nutrition Security by the African union. African leaders are being requested to commit to bold targets to be achieved by 2025. These include eliminating hunger and improving nutrition; doubling agricultural productivity; reducing poverty by half through agriculture; and creating job opportunities for Africa’s youth and women through inclusive value-chain development among others. It does become apparent that a more focused look at agriculture, the base of most African economies, is looked at properly and put in perspective.
EDAIF must Spread Out – Farmers
The Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) needs to be decentralized in such a way that it goes across the country to reach smallholder farmers and also cover a lot more crops than it currently supports, the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has said. “EDAIF is known in some areas; but in some areas, too, farmers do not even know about it,” president of the association Abdul-Rahman Mohammed said in Accra, at an event to validate findings of research commissioned by the association into the fund’s activities. “In terms of mango and cassava farming, EDAIF has done a lot; but we are saying that it should be extended to other crops like maize, soya beans, cotton and others,” he said. The researcher, Joseph Yaro of the University of Ghana, intimated that the fund has so far been limited to “a few individual big farmers” who are not living up to a condition on them to support ...
Fertiliser Subsidy is a Mirage – Farmers
The promise by government to make available to farmers as much as 180,000 metric tonnes of subsidised fertiliser for the 2015 farming season has been a ‘mirage’ so far, members of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) have said, asking government to make good its promise. “We have still not received the subsidised fertiliser in most of the farming districts,” President of PFAG Abdul-Rahman Mohammed said in Accra, during a workshop to validate research findings on whether the Export Trade, Agricultural & Industrial Development Fund is benefitting small-holder farmers. “We therefore call on government to release it with immediate effect, since the farming season is already in progress,” he said. Some of the farmers indicated that the market price of up to GHc125 for a bag of fertiliser is beyond their means, and that if government does not make the subsidy available their output will greatly diminish.
Improved Variety to Rescue Cowpeas Production
An improved Cowpea with pest and climate change resistance has been developed to boost the production of the crop in the country. The variety was developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SARI). The three agencies will launch a project dubbed "Taking Cowpeas to Scale in West Africa" in the northern regions to encourage more youth into cultivating quality Cowpeas to meet the demand of the international standards. The project is expected to start this year and end in 2017, and is expected to scale out cowpea varieties, production and processing technologies which are considered most crucial in improving living standards of people in the country’s northern areas.
ADB Bank Initial Public Offer commence
The Agricultural Development Bank’s Initial Public Offer (IPO) has commenced. The bank announced on Friday July 3, 2015 that the offer of more than 80 million shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange had commenced. Early this year, the bank was forced to put its plan of the launch of the IPO on hold after the government who is a majority shareholder called for a temporary suspension following agitations from workers of the bank... It is unclear whether the matter has been resolved but the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Adu Anane Antwi told Accra based radio, Citi FM that the offer has indeed commenced. “I can confirm that we’ve received the public notice which has been issued that the offer is commencing today as per the offer document that has gotten SEC’s approval,” Mr. Antwi said.
ADB Trades Off 25% Shares to Foreign Investor
The Agricultural Development Bank (adb) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a foreign company known as Atlas Mara Limited for an initial equity investment of $50 million. This is contrary to earlier assertions by the bank that it will not have foreigners or foreign companies either participate or own shares in the bank’s quest to raise funds through an Initial Public Offer (IPO). The MoU which was signed on June 4, 2014 by the Managing Director of ADB, Stephen Kpordzih and Head of Corporate Development for Atlas Mara limited, Kenory Dowers, had the ADB’s board secretary and vice president of Atlas Mara Limited as witnesses. Under the terms of the agreement, Atlas Mara is to be given ordinary shares to the tune of 25% of ADB as part of the IPO. According to documents cited by Citi Business News, Atlas Mara is demanding consent rights or significant influence in …
Reports/Articles
The Pesticides Law and the Attitudes of Pesticides Dealers in the Northern Region of Ghana: Implications for Environmental Security and Human Health
W Abukari - Journal of Environment and Earth Science, 2015
The efforts of Ghana at enhancing its food security through increased and sustained Agriculture production has resulted in the increasing use of pesticides since the 1960s. Knowing very well of the environmental and human health impacts of pesticides, the government of Ghana through the EPA enacted the pesticides law ie Part II of the EPA Act (1994, Act 490) to regulate the handling and the use of pesticides in Ghana so as to minimize it`s negative impacts on the environment and human health. Within the framework of the pesticides law, the EPA in collaboration with strategic stakeholders in the pesticides industry has over the years organized series of training for pesticides dealers throughout the country to equip them with the technical knowledge on the proper handling of pesticides. The purpose of this paper was therefore, to interact with 106 purposively selected trained pesticides dealers in 16 districts of the northern region to ascertain how they are handling pesticides giving due cognizance to their environmental and human health impacts. It revealed that majority of the dealers (81%) had …
Credit Access and Adoption of Cocoa Research Innovations in Ghana
E Obuobisa-Darko - Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2015
Even though the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) has introduced a number of innovations to increase cocoa yield per hectare, rate of adoption has been very low. One of the reasons given for the low adoption is lack of access to credit. The main objective of the study was thus to find out the effect of access to credit and other farmer characteristics on the adoption of the CRIG recommended cocoa technologies. A sample of 600 cocoa farmers selected through a multistage sampling technique was used for the study. Cocoa extension officers were engaged to use questionnaires to gather data from cocoa farmers. The logistic regression model was used to estimate the impact of credit access and other factors on adoption of CRIG recommended technologies. Results of the study indicated that technology adoption is significantly influenced by credit access, primary education, hired labour, own labour, membership of association and frequency of extension advice. It is recommended that financial institutions should make credit accessible to cocoa farmers.
Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) - Ghana Fisheries Gender Analysis
E Torell, A Owusu, A Okyere Nyako - GEN002. 21p, 2015
The SFMP supports the Government of Ghana’s fisheries development policies and objectives and squarely aims to assist the country to end overfishing and rebuild targeted fish stocks. Adoption of sustainable fishing practices and reduced exploitation to end overfishing is the only way Ghana can maintain the sustainability of its marine fisheries in order to increase its wild caught local marine food fish supply and bring greater profitability to the fishery - which in turn has the potential to benefit two million men and women indirectly. The SFMP will develop nested governance arrangements and management plans for fishery management units at three ecosystem scales, utilizing adaptive co-management approaches tailored to each unit. Civil society engagement will be crucial in this process. The SFMP will undertake stakeholder engagement in order to build consensus, involving men and women engaged in the fisheries sector at national and local level.
Analysis of Farmers Adoption Behaviour of CRIG Recommended Technologies as a Package: The Case of Some Self Help Cocoa Farmer Associations in the Eastern Region of Ghana
A Mercy, F Aneani, S Ofori, PF Branor - Agricultural Sciences, 2015
Adoption of recommended technologies as a package is the prelude to increase cocoa productivity per unit area. This is due to the interactive benefits of individual technologies which have been recommended by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG). However, many surveys among cocoa farmers have reported low adoption of technologies resulting in low productivity of cocoa with an average of 450 kg/ha among small holder cocoa farmers in Ghana. The current study investigates the adoption behavior of some cocoa farmers belonging to some self-help farmer associations in the Eastern Region who are being monitored by CRIG since 2011. Primary data was collected from 131 respondents using questionnaires to interview farmers between 2013 and 2015. The results showed that adoption of recommended cocoa technologies as a package was still low. Respondents, however, identified a number of …
Promise and Reality of Decentralization - The Case of Farmers’ Access to Agricultural Advisory Services in the Sunyani Municipality of Ghana.
PY Aboagye - 2015
This study explores the extent to which decentralization has affected farmers’ access to agricultural advisory services in the Sunyani Municipality of Ghana. Specifically, it focuses on how political and organizational factors, which are intermediate outcomes of decentralization, affect the availability and relevance of advisory services. The study follows a qualitative research design employing qualitative methods of data construction. A total of 26 semi-structured interviews and 3 focus-group discussions with government officials and farmers were conducted in three farming communities in the study area. Using the soufflé theory of decentralization as a conceptual model for the data analysis, the results indicate that though there is some political commitment to decentralize, decentralization has not led to strengthened institutional capacity, effective stakeholder participation, accountability and adequate funding…
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