Below are some current developments on agriculture in Africa:
Agricultural Issues
UNDP, Partners Implement Project to Boos Cocoa
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on Thursday launched a project to enhance the eco-system, and boost cocoa production in the Asunafo North Municipality. The project is being implemented in collaboration with Mondelez International, a chocolate manufacturing company in USA. Dubbed: “Environmental Sustainability and Policy for Cocoa Production in Ghana Project (ESP),” it would educate the youth on climate change, its impact on the environment, and the appropriate ways to address the challenge. The outreach programme would involve the establishment of environmental clubs in 16 Junior High Schools (JHSs) in the Municipality and promote several school-based activities that would create the needed awareness, understanding and interest in climate change and its consequence on the environment.
Ghana Introduces Electronic Payment System for Cocoa Farmers
Ghana has introduced an innovative “Cocoa Sika Payment Platform,” an Electronic Payment System for cocoa farmers, to facilitate rapid and secured payment of monies to farmers for beans purchased. The Cocoa Sika Payment Platform seeks to eliminate physical movement of huge sums of money to farmer gates and ensure a cashless system that will eradicate losses associated with the physical cash payment system. In collaboration with stakeholders, the innovative Cocoa Sika Payment system would be operated mainly by two telecommunication giants – Vodafone and MTN. Introducing the Cocoa Sika Payment Platform at the inauguration of the Progressive Licenced Cocoa Buyers Association in Accra, Mrs. Gladys Awuku, Chief Manager at Bank of Ghana said a cashless payment system in the cocoa sector is a welcoming news. She said Bank of Ghana will continue to support and provide adequate …
Huge Youth Employment and Business Opportunities in Africa’s Cocoa Sector
The African Development Bank and the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) are poised to boost business opportunities in Africa’s cocoa sector, including youth employment and empowering women’s participation. Both institutions recently met in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to see how they can cooperate to foster the cocoa industry’s transformation in Africa. Cocoa is one of the five Cs (cocoa, coffee, cotton, cassava and cashew) that have been selected for support under AfDB’s new Agriculture and Agri-business Draft Strategy. Africa produces 73% of world cocoa, with over 70% of that coming from Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. It is a major export earner, yet its production is still in the hands of aging small-farmers with over 70% productivity losses as a result of numerous challenges.
Food Security: The Need to Educate Farmers on Extension Services
In agriculture, the role of extension officers in the development of the sector across the globe cannot be undoubted. Their roles are as important as the actual processes of ensuring that agriculture is effective. And this has persisted as one of the prime agents in agriculture development, especially in rural settings. But exactly who are extension officers and what roles at all do they play in the advancement of agriculture and the overall sustenance of extension service approaches through committed and effective management? In the field, an agricultural extension officer is the one involved in the distribution of agricultural information to rural towns, who in turn, teach rural farmers to become farmers. Their roles improve the farmers’ abilities by supplying information on a variety of things that are important to farmers.
"Our Goal is to End Poverty and Hunger"
By Laurent Thomas, Assistant Director-General at FAO for International Technical Cooperation, From the Addis Ababa Third International Conference on Financing for Development to the UN General Assembly in New York and the post 2015 Sustainable Development goals: A road paved with good intentions for the poor and hungry. The Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa this week was a rare opportunity for high-level representatives from governments, civil society and the private sector to reflect on and debate the future architecture of development financing. The timing of the conference was particularly important, coming just months before the next United Nations General Assembly, when Member Nations are expected to endorse an ambitious new package of Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030….
Preliminary Results in Nigeria Shows Farmers can Double Cassava Yield
Preliminary results from experimental plots reveal that by switching to improved weed management practices, Nigerian cassava farmers could double the current national average yields of 12-13 tons per hectare. Researchers working under the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), led Cassava Weed Management Project, say the current national average yield of cassava puts the yield per stand of cassava plant at 1.2-1.3 kg. However, recent harvest from trial plots recorded a breakthrough as a single cassava stand at Igbariam in Anambra State produced a 34 kilogram roots, a statement from IITA copied to the Ghana News Agency has said. “Elsewhere our preliminary results show that the average national yield of 20-39 tons per hectare is achievable if farmers can simply adopt and use improved weed management practices,” said Dr Alfred Dixon, Project Leader for the Cassava Weed Management Project.
Climate Change Policy Requires Private Sector Engagement
Dr Emmanuel Tachie-Obeng, the Senior Programme Officer, at the Environmental Protection Agency has said the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) required private sector engagement. He said the policy also required investment from the sector to build climate resilient for the future. Dr Tachie-Obeng was speaking during the 5th General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Climate Change Conference in Accra. This year’s conference is on the theme: “Trade Union Perspectives on strategies for rolling out Ghana's NCCP". The conference, in collaboration with GAWU and FES, was to interrogate the strategies for rolling out the NCCP, with the view to develop trade union perspectives. He said options to reduce impacts of climate change are well defined in the policy and its strategic steps, adding that, it was not the responsibility of government alone to advocate on …
Create Balance Between Development and Sustainable Environment
Mr. Thomas Okyere, Brong-Ahafo Regional Forestry Manager of the Forestry Services Division (FSD), has urged Ghanaians to create the needed balance between socio-economic development and sustainable environment. He observed that infrastructural developments were springing up all over the country at the expense of the environment, because vegetation cover, particularly forest lands, was being cleared off with impunity. Mr. Okyere gave the advice in an address delivered for him at a day's workshop on the establishment of a community Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) for effective implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) activities in Ghana at Nkoranza in the Brong-Ahafo Region. The workshop, the sixth at the district level in the country since 2014, was organized by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local chapter of Transparency …
Fisheries Sector Needs Seasonal Closures to Replenish Stock
Stakeholders in the fisheries industry have been urged to consider pushing for a seasonal closure on fishing for small pelagic, to help solve the country's fisheries crisis. The total landings of small pelagics (anchovies, sardinellas, mackerel and horse mackerel) have decreased from 277,000 metric tonnes in 1996 to about 92,000 to metric tonnes in 2011. Mr. Kofi Agbogah, National Programme Manager for the USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP), said seasonal closure is the quickest way to sustain the fish stock in the country's coastal waters. Mr. Agbogah said a seasonal closure is a period when a ban is placed on fishing activities in respect to a type of fish, area and zones, method of capture, or any parameters specified in the notice of closure. He made the suggestion on Tuesday during the Greater Accra Regional Fisheries Stakeholders Meeting on the SFMP held in Tema.
UN Needs $20 Million to Battle Bird Flu in West Africa
The UN appealed on Monday for $20 million to stem outbreaks of bird flu in West Africa, a region still weakened by the Ebola crisis. The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO) said it needed the funds (18.45 million euros) to respond swiftly to outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu, without which the poultry virus would spread beyond the region. Because the highly virulent disease can be transmitted to humans, the FAO said it was working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) on contingency plans and probing suspected flu cases. The call follows outbreaks in poultry farms, markets and family holdings in Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria and Ghana. "The outbreak comes as countries across West Africa are still recovering from, and in some cases still battling, Ebola," the FAO said, referring an epidemic that was centered in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
New and Improved Cowpea/Groundnuts Launched
Mr. Daniel Syme, the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, on Thursday called on researchers and research institutions to come out with more improved and early maturing crops for farmers in the northern part of Ghana. Mr. Syme said the climate change was fast catching up with the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Region, as well as the Northern part of the Brong Ahafo Region, where rainfall patterns have drastically and dramatically changed, giving these areas less than two months of active rainfall. The Deputy Minister made the call when he launched an agricultural project meant to upscale the growing of cowpea and groundnuts in Northern Ghana, comprising the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Regions. According to the Deputy Minister, who launched the project on behalf of the Minister, Mr. James Zuugah Tiigah, the rainfall, especially for this year, was clearly one of …
Reports/Articles
Potential impact of Climate and Socioeconomic Changes on Future Agricultural Land Use in West Africa
KF Ahmed, G Wang, L You, M Yu - 2015
Agriculture is a key component of anthropogenic land use and land cover changes that influence regional climate. Meanwhile, in addition to socioeconomic drivers, climate is another important factor shaping agricultural land use. In this study, we compare the 5 contributions of climate change and socioeconomic development to potential future changes of agricultural land use in West Africa using a prototype land use projection (LandPro) algorithm. The algorithm is based on a balance between food supply and demand, and accounts for the impact of socioeconomic drivers on the demand side and the impact of climate-induced crop yield changes on the supply side. The 10 impact of human decision-making on land use is explicitly considered through multiple “what-if” scenarios. In the application to West Africa, future crop yield changes were simulated by a process-based crop model driven with future climate projections from a regional climate model, and future changes in food demand were projected using a model for policy analysis of agricultural commodities and trade. Without agricultural 15 intensification, the climate-induced …
Effects of Practices of Maize Farmers and Traders in Ghana on Contamination of Maize by aflatoxins: Case study of Ejura-Sekyeredumase Municipality
JO Akowuah, LD Mensah, C Chan, A Roskilly - African Journal of Microbiology …, 2015
Contamination of maize by aflatoxins is of major concern to governments and the international community because high degrees of aflatoxin in food render the food unsafe for human consumption. The disposal of such foods also constitutes an economic loss in food production. This paper reports the findings of a study conducted during the 2013 minor maize farming season in Ejura-Sekyeredumase Municipality in the Ashanti region, and in Agbobloshie market in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The study was to investigate management practices employed at the market level and on farms by maize traders and smallholder farmers, respectively, and their impact on aflatoxin contamination. Purposive sampling was used to select 150 farmers from maize farming communities across 10 cluster zones based on geographical location of farms within the municipality. Maize traders were also selected from a …
Extension of Small-Scale Postharvest Horticulture Technologies - A Model Training and Services Center
L Kitinoja, DM Barrett - Agriculture, 2015
A pilot Postharvest Training and Services Center (PTSC) was launched in October 2012 in Arusha, Tanzania as part of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project. The five key components of the PTSC are (1) training of postharvest trainers, (2) postharvest training and demonstrations for local small-scale clientele, (3) adaptive research, (4) postharvest services, and (5) retail sales of postharvest tools and supplies. During the years of 2011–2012, a one year e-learning program was provided to 36 young horticultural professionals from seven Sub-Saharan African countries. These postharvest specialists went on to train more than 13,000 local farmers, extension workers, food processors, and marketers in their home countries in the year following completion of their course. Evaluators found that these specialists had trained an additional 9300 people by November 2014.
Effects of Pre-treatments and Drying Methods on Chemical Composition, Microbial and Sensory Quality of Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato Flour and Porridge
F Haile, S Admassu, A Fisseha - American Journal of Food Science and Technology, 2015
This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of pre-treatments and drying methods on the chemical composition (proximate composition, β-carotene content and phytochemicals), functional properties, microbial and sensory of orange-fleshed sweet potato flour and porridge. Physical (blanching) and chemical (1% salt, 0.5% citric acid solution soaked for 20 min) of the sliced OFSP followed by drying (sun, solar and fluidized bed dried) with complete randomized design for chemical composition, functional properties, and microbial load analysis and randomized complete block design was used for sensory analysis. The moisture (4 - 8%), protein (4 - 8%), fat (0.9 -2.5), ash (4 - 8%), fiber (3.5 - 7%), total carbohydrates (80 - 84%) measured as a function of treatment and drying. The energy contribution of OFSP was determined by difference of the proximate excluding the fiber (352.9- …
GMOs for Development: To what Extent is EU’s GMO Policy Coherent with its International Development Objectives?
M Stojanovic - 2015
Given the increasing world population, prices and greenhouse gas emissions, there is a need to innovate agriculture in order to accelerate crop productivity sustainably. These issues are compounded in developing countries, which often face severe droughts, famine, and have limited access to drinking water. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are the proposed solution to these concerns, with an increasing number of countries reaping the benefits of the new technology. GMOs are a hotly debated topic in the European Union (EU), but for very different reasons. Namely, a negative public perception on GMO safety and ethics has led to a restrictive and precautionary approach to GMO regulation. EU’s GMO policy has shown an international impact, mainly in the poorest countries, many of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.
*The GSSP News Digest just summarizes news that is reported in the press. Any errors of fact or omission are not IFPRI’s responsibility*