Below are some current developments on agriculture in Africa:
Ghana, Iran Sign Agreement on Agric, International Cooperation
Ghana and Iran deepened their ties Sunday when President John Dramani Mahama and his Iranian counterpart, Dr Hassan Rouhani, discussed a wide range of issues of mutual interest at the start of the Ghanaian leader's state visit to the Islamic state. Two new agreements were also signed in agriculture and international cooperation. At a bilateral meeting at the magnificent Sa'd Abad Palace, the seat of the presidency in the capital, Tehran, Sunady, the two leaders discussed collaboration in the oil and gas, petrochemical and refinery industry, the generation and distribution of power, light industry, civil engineering and cement production. Iran has comparative advantage in those areas and both presidents believed the two countries could work together for their mutual benefit…
Modernize Agric Sector For Sustained Economic Growth
He said the situation exists though it has been acknowledged that it is only through the transformation and modernisation of the sector that the country can achieve viable and sustainable economic development. Dr Ahmed said this at a stakeholders’ workshop of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Policy Nodes and Hubs in Accra. The Ghana Policy programme was financed by the AGRA with support from various institutions which focused on agricultural development in Ghana. The programme aimed at spurring a green revolution in Ghana through the development and implementation of progressive agricultural policies targeting smallholder farmers. Dr Ahmed said from the 1990s, a number of policies and programmes have been formulated to guide interventions in the growth and….
Adopt Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture – Expert
Mr. Delali Nutsukpo, a climate change expert, has called for a Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA) as an alternative approach to addressing climate change within smallholder agriculture systems. He said CRSA prioritized the concerns of the most vulnerable in society, including people’s rights, knowledge and vulnerability. Mr. Nutsukpo was speaking at a day’s civil society organization CRSA training workshop for policy makers in Accra on Friday. The training was organized by the General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) in collaboration with ActionAid Ghana. He said scaling up CRSA required committed and concerted efforts from a variety of stakeholders including government and donors. “The National climate smart agriculture action plan provides entry point for the implementation of the CRSA in the country,” he added. Mr. Nutsukpo said the success of CRSA would require the support of stakeholders at all levels of government and civil society…
Farmers to be Supplied with 100,000 Spraying Machines
Cocoa farmers are to be supplied with 100,000 spraying machines this year at highly subsidized price. It is an initiative by Desert Lion International (DLI), a Ghanaian company that deals in agricultural implements, and the goal is to support efforts at improving crop yield. Mr. Kwame Tweneboah Koduah, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said the machines had been certified by the Cocoa Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and received the approval of the COCOBOD. He broke the news at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DLI and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. The pact is to help build the capacity of the company to manufacture vital agricultural inputs to increase agricultural production. It is currently engaged in the assembling of cocoa spraying machines and the manufacture of insecticides. The company has set its sights on acquiring the competence and capacity ….
Severe Harmattan Cuts Cocoa Output
The General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) has revealed that the 2015/16 cocoa season may yet face another decrease in production due to the prolonged harmattan season which kills cocoa flowers before they grow into pods. In the 2014/15 season, a similar weather condition, as well as diseases, caused cocoa output to decline by 23 percent, dropping from 900,000 metric tones to 700000 metric tones. Speaking to Citi Business News, the Secretary General of GAWU, Mr. Edward Kareweh stated that this year’s harmattan season is unprecedented and may affect cocoa production adversely. “This year’s harmattan season will seriously affect all those crops that are growing around this time. If you look at a crop like cocoa; they need a lot of rain, moisture and humidity at a certain level all the time”, he said….
Harsh Winds, Lack of Rain to Hit Cocoa Output
Ghana could lose as much as 25 percent of its projected cocoa output this season as harsh winds and a lack of rain confound efforts to boost yields in the world's second-largest producer, a government source has said. The harmattan wind, which blows off the Sahara sapping soil moisture and spoiling seeds, came early this season and has intensified in recent weeks -- stunting pod growth more than usual and stifling government plans for expansion. The West African country had hoped to produce 850,000-900,000 tonnes of cocoa in the 2015/16 crop year, up from the previous season's 740,000 tonnes. But a government source with knowledge of crop estimates said full-year production might not exceed 750,000 tonnes, and could fall as much as 25 percent short of initial estimates. In addition to impacts from the weather, some cocoa farms have been destroyed by seasonal bushfire, the source said….
COCOBOD Woos Investors into Secondary Processing
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is bidding prospective companies desirous of processing cocoa beans to do so up to the tertiary level. This is the point where the final products are made, rather than producing intermediary products such as cocoa liquors and cocoa butter for further processing in developed economies. “This time, our focus is to see investments in the processing area that process cocoa up to the tertiary level. Therefore, we want to see chocolate and other cocoa products being made. That is where the money is and that is where the country can benefit,” the Public Affairs Manager of the Board, Mr. Noah Amenyah, told the Daily Graphic in Accra. He spoke to the newspaper on the sidelines of a public investment forum to interact with a French investment delegation, significantly made up of the private sector from Bordeaux….
COCOBOD Increases Seedlings to Cocoa Farmers
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has increased its free distribution of cocoa seedlings to farmers from 50 million to 60 million across the country. The move is to ensure that every farmer get access to the seedlings free of charge to replant, as well as raise the country’s cocoa output from the current 850,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes. Dr. Stephen Opuni, Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, said this when a two-member delegation from DZ Bank, a German Financial Institution, visited the company to acquaint themselves with its operations as part of activities to mark a farmer’s durbar in the Eastern Region. COCOBOD signed a US$41.8billion loan agreement with some 25 international banks to improve on its operations. The entourage visited the Brekumanso cocoa hybrid seedlings and cocoa farms in Akwadum, and interacted with the farmers on their operations….
Asutuare Rice Farmers Receives Financial Empowerment …as Hopeline Institute Seeks to Bridge Poverty Gulf
Hopeline Institute, a non-governmental organisation, has provided financial enablement to rice farmers in Asutuare in the Shai Osu-Doku district of the Greater Accra Region by mobilising them into savings and loans associations dubbed Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA). The initiative is expected to make available ready-credit to farmers without any collateral requirements. The VSLA programme will also provide insurance, technical support, extension services, health education and basic training in business operations for rice-farmers to enable them take a leap toward escaping poverty. The Project Manager of Hopeline Institute, Ebow Graham, said the programme has a life-span of five years, and within the period would mobilise 3,500 farmers in 15 communities. “….
‘Transform Agric into Business’
The Director General of John Deere-West Africa, Cobus Du Toit, has called for long-term planning to help transform the agriculture sector from being a lifestyle into business treasures. In an interview with the B&FT in Accra, Du Toit noted that the agriculture sector lacks a long-term plan to remain the major contributor to the country’s economy, saying: “We have to put our feet on the ground to make sure we move farming from being a lifestyle to a business, so that our farmers can produce enough food within Ghana. What is happening is that a lot people want to go into farming after retirement. “Farming in Ghana is still not a business, and I find that all over West Africa people don’t see it as a business and therefore don’t take the opportunities which come with. We can look after ourselves! We don’t even to spend a dime to import food into Ghana,” he added.
Rice Farmers In Volta Region Call For Help
Mr. Duncan Reymond Amoah, the 2014 National Best Rice Farmer, has appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to provide the needed protection to rice farmers at Jasikan and Afadzato South Districts. He said if the Ministry do not take urgent measures of making water available for rice farmers in the area, 80 per cent of them would be out of business. Mr. Amoah made the plea in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Jasikan in the Volta Region. He said a first phase of a Rice Sector Support Project funded by Alliance Developmment de Francais of France was started in the region in 2009 to enhance rice farming. He said the second phase began last year and instead of the project developing water valleys for rice farming, it has rather cleared the fertile soil and created huge canals that could not supply water to the farms…
Reports/Articles
Household Perception and Demand for Better Protection of Land Rights in Ethiopia
Hosaena Ghebru, Bethelhem Koru, and Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse
The study assesses factors that explain households’ perceived tenure insecurity and the demand for new formalization of land rights in Ethiopia. We use data from the 2013 Agricultural Growth Program (AGP) survey of 7,500 households from high agricultural potential areas of Ethiopia. The results from a logistic estimation and a descriptive analysis reveal that the demand for further land demarcation is positively associated with higher perception of tenure insecurity. Moreover, disaggregated regression results indicate that ownership and boundary-related disputes characterize peri-urban locations and vibrant communities, whereas perceived risk of government expropriation of land is mainly manifested in predominantly rural communities and areas where administrative land redistribution is a recent practices. Hence, the rollout strategy for the recent wave of the Second-Level Land Certification agenda should avoid a blanket approach, as it can only be considered a best fit
The Nexus of Agricultural Water Use and Economic Development Level
P Doungmanee - Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 2016
For many countries in the world, especially developing countries, the agricultural sector contributes low income to the country. However, this sector consumes the largest amount of water. Water is essential for the production of agricultural goods and services, which generate income and create national wealth. Therefore, this paper studied the relationship of water use for agricultural purposes in 154 countries and their economic development. In this study, the economic development in a country, as indicated by per capita GNI, was separated into 4 income groups, based on the World Bank criteria: (1) high income; (2) upper-middle income; (3) lower-middle income; and (4) low income. The results of the study revealed that water use for agricultural purposes usually takes the highest proportion of water consumption in low, lower-middle, and upper-middle income countries. The study also indicated that the quantity of water used for agricultural purposes ….
A Policy Note on Agricultural Cooperatives in Africa
N Francesconi, M Cook, K Livingston - 2015
The future of agricultural cooperatives (agri-coops) in Africa depends on whether their leaders and managers will be able to anticipate the organizational problems that may arise over time, and take the necessary precautions to ensure that member farmers remain focused and united. This note is the end product of the research and outreach activities carried out during the first year of the EDC project (July 2014–July 2015), which included: An extensive review of recent (last decade) literature on African agricultural cooperatives; The organization of two multi-stakeholder workshops (in Addis Ababa and Washington DC); Two case studies about a large coffee coop in Tanzania and a large maize coop in Senegal; Analysis of data on 500 small and multi-commodity coops from Ghana; The presentation of preliminary findings at three international conferences (International Cooperative Summit-Quebec, ICA-Paris, and IAAE-Milan) and various local seminars across Africa; and …
Social and Economic Aspects of Sea-Based Food and Fisheries
R Chuenpagdee, P McConney, G Munro, B Ferreira… - 2016
Fish are one of the most internationally traded foods, and the value of global fish trade exceeds the value of international trade of all other animal proteins combined (World Bank, 2011). In 2012, international trade represented 37 per cent of the total fish production in value, with a total export value of 129 billion United States dollars, of which 70 billion dollars constituted developing countries’ exports (FAO, 2014). Estimates indicate that small-scale fisheries contribute about half of global fish catches (FAO, 2014; HLPE, 2014). When considering catches destined for direct human consumption, the share contributed by the subsector increases, as small-scale fisheries generally make broader direct and indirect contributions to food security through affordable fish and employment to populations in developing countries. This chapter, in addressing the economic and social aspects of marine fisheries, examines both macro and micro issues. The macro issues considered are …
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