Below are some current developments on agriculture in Africa:
Media Reports
Bridging the Gap between Forestry and Agriculture to Improve Food Security
At the opening of the 23rd Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO), FAO presented its flagship publication The State of the World's Forests (SOFO) and called for better coordination between agriculture and forestry for sustainable farming systems and forest management to ensure food security. The FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva mentioned in his opening remarks that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the Paris Agreement on climate change, recognizes a coherent and integrated approach to sustainability across all agricultural sectors and food systems and forests and forestry have key roles to play in this regard.
FAO Challenges Agric Institutions to Make Research Results more Accessible
Recently the FAO has been meeting various players in the Agric sector to discuss potential mechanisms for improving access to agricultural data. The meetings are aimed at helping increase information and knowledge sharing through open data, and open access initiatives, which the FAO notes will be crucial for food security and good nutrition in Ghana. “In an era of information and knowledge revolution, facilitated by breakthrough in digital technology, we must adopt innovative solutions, including accessing open data, in order to advance transformation agenda of agriculture and the rural economy,” the FAO Representative to Ghana and Deputy Regional Representative for Africa, Dr Abebe Haile Gabriel, said at the opening session of the meeting. Speaking at the meeting, the Director-General for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr Victor Kwame Agyeman, indicated that CSIR would soon adopt an Open Access Policy to disseminate its research results.
Seven WACCI Students Graduate with PhDs in Plant Breeding
Seven students graduated from the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) at the University of Ghana with PhD degrees in Plant Breeding. Dr Adofo Boateng, one of the graduates said that she investigated the development of high yielding and stable maize hybrids tolerant to low soil nitrogen and thereby help provide a solution to produce maize with little fertilizer. Dr. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, Director of WACCI, said the Centre is optimistic that the graduates will make transformative contributions to crop breeding not only in West Africa but across the entire continent. WACCI was established at the University of Ghana, with funding from the AGRA to train 40 students in plant breeders in the West African sub-region at the PhD level.
Volta Region Records Surpluses in Cassava Production
Speaking at a training workshop for stakeholders in Ho, on Inclusive Business Model, Mr. Samuel Kofi Larbi, Regional Director, Department of Agriculture said that the Volta Region has recorded 1,350,633.30 metric tonnes of cassava against a regional consumption of 365,490.85 metric tonnes, resulting in a surplus of 548,088.25 metric tonnes. He added that, cassava is grown all over the region, with the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (Volta north) being the highest areas under cultivation with good yields. The workshop, under the auspices of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), received support from the European Union.
Tree Project Initiated by Forestry Division Driver
Mr. Abdul-Rahaman Abubakari - a driver of the Forestry Division in the Upper East Region planted fifty species of acacia trees four years ago in the yard of the Regional Directorate of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS). Mr. Abubakari, at the event said that, “I decided to collaborate with the Ghana National Fire Service to grow the trees because they are also passionate about the environment. Being a driver does not mean you should be limited to your profession and that is why I learnt the techniques in growing trees besides my usual occupation”. He appealed to audience to grow a tree, stressed that it would help make Ghana green and help prevent desertification.
Africa must have a say in Climate Change Discussions
Speaking at the opening of the 5th Climate Change and Population Conference (CCOP-Ghana) on Africa organised by the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) of the University of Ghana, and the IDRC of Canada, Ms. Nehza Alaoui M. Hammdi, Ambassador of the Royal Kingdom of Morocco, urged the African countries to speak up about climate change and not be forced to choose between development and preservation of the environment. She said Africa and other developing countries are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change as its economy is mostly based on rainfall-dependent agriculture, and thus should have a say in the debate on issues of climate change. She noted that the region is facing unprecedented environmental challenges, which are not just climate challenges but more importantly involves development challenges.
GSA Trains Stakeholders in Food Safety Management
The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) is organising a two-day training on Food Safety Management for stakeholders under the West Africa Quality System Programme (WASQP) to build their capacity on quality management systems. The participants would, therefore, be trained in skills certification, food processing, auditing accounting, requirements of ISO 22000 and the HACCP-tool used to analyse associated hazards in production among other things. The WASQP, being funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by UNIDO, is a support programme that aim at helping implement the quality policy of ECOWAS countries. EU is funding the third Phase of WASQP that was launched in 2015 with €12,000.00 to help organise various training sessions for quality safety personnel in the 15 member states. The first phase of the programme was introduced in 2001 to 2005 while the second phase was launched in 2007 for a period of five years with the aim to strengthen regional economic integration and trade by creating an environment that facilitated compliance with international trade rules and technical regulation. Mr. Michael Seneyah, the Head of Standards at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), during the opening, described the training as very strategic to help train more personnel on food safety.
New Technologies Boost Rice Production
The adoption of the “Feed the Future Ghana Agricultural Technology Transfer (ATT) project’s” Urea Deep Placement (UDP), rice transplanting, the provision certified rice seeds, free fertilizers and planting on rolls technologies had helped rice farmers at the Daffiama and Sankana irrigation dams in the Upper West Region to increase rice production during the dry season compared to the traditional indigenous broadcasting system known to the farmers. The interventions also allowed more rice to be planted and made weeding and harvesting easier and faster as well as helped to reduce cost and promote maximum utilisation of fertilizer than the traditional broadcasting system. A plant could develop about 25 to 30 tillers as compared to the traditional method of broadcasting, which produced about 14 tillers. The project’s goal is to increase the availability of appropriate and affordable technologies to sustainably improve the competitiveness of maize, rice, and soybean value chains in Northern Ghana. It focused on integrated soil fertility management, seed sector promotion and upscaling of high quality seeds, capacity building in research.
Olam Supports Farmers with US$22m
Local farmers benefitted from US$22 million interest-free short-term financing under the Olam Livelihood Charter (OLC), according to 2015 results announced by global agri-business giant, Olam International. The Olam Livelihood Charter, Olam International’s flagship smallholder sustainability initiative, caters for 31,722 Ghanaian farmers in the cashew and cocoa sectors, cultivating a total of 73,968 hectors of land. Some 57% of these farmers are women. Launched in 2010, the OLC is a global initiative which aims at bringing prosperity to farming and rural communities, building long-term relationships based on fairness and trust, and transferring skills and knowledge through partnerships. The initiative now covers some 344,466 farmers in 17 countries worldwide, including Ghana. The initiative is based on the principle that supporting smallholders with agri-training and seeds or fertiliser is not enough. Initiatives must be holistic in approach and tackle wider social, economic and environmental challenges to achieve mutually beneficial impacts in the long-term. Besides enjoying access to short-term financing under the OLC in the course of the year, Ghanaian farmers were supplied some 155,500 quality seedlings and benefitted from 23,177 training days in Good Agricultural Practices.
USAID Dicusses Sanitary Export Certification System
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) convened local stakeholders in Accra to discuss Ghana’s sanitary and phytosanitary export certification system. USAID/Ghana Acting Mission Director Steven E. Hendrix and the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Crops), Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, opened the discussion with 25 stakeholders. Hendrix said, “There is a direct link between Ghana’s economic health and the safety of its fresh produce. Ghanaian farmers produce some of the best horticulture products in the world, products that, if exported, could bring in millions of dollars to feed families, create jobs, and build the country.” He added that the lack of adherence to standards of food exports has blocked an influx of revenue into Ghana. The U.S. government, through the Trade Africa Expansion Initiative, is committed to working with the Ghanaian government and the people of Ghana to improve its trade regime. The Improving Food Safety Systems Programme (IFSSP) in Ghana is a USAID programme that aims to fortify the plant health and protection compliance system for fruits and vegetables; boost public and private sector collaboration for active growth in exports; and encourage greater quality and profitability for key horticultural value chains in Ghana.
SERVIR West Africa to Mitigate Impact of Climate Change
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have announced a five-year program, SERVIR West Africa, in effort to help to address the threat of climate change on agriculture and others in the sub-region. This program will promote the use of satellite imagery to help improve the West Africa region’s resilience; lessen negative impacts of climate change; ensure that land use management is sustainable; and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. SERVIR West Africa will be funded by USAID and NASA and implemented by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) subsidiary, the Agriculture, Hydrology and Meteorology (AGRHYMET) Regional Center. AGHRYMET will implement this program together with a consortium of West African partners serving the region with support from Tetra Tech, Inc. The program will help governments and other key decision-makers take advantage of publicly available satellite imagery, geospatial data and maps to make more informed decisions in four areas: food security and agriculture; water and disasters; weather and climate; and land use, coastal zones and forest management.
Expansion work on $17m Sekondi Fishing Harbour begins
Expansion work on the Albert Bosomtwi-Sam Fishing Harbour at Sekondi in the Western Region has begun with a Japanese grant of 17 million US dollars. The second phase of the expansion project which is being carried out by the “ECOH CORPORATION”, a Japanese Consulting Engineers, is expected to be complete in December 2017. The project component involves the construction and upgrading of roads, berthing space, breakwaters, drive way to cart and push trucks, offices, ice plant, pavements, and walkways. The first phase which had completed years ago involved the construction of a canoe jetty. Speaking at a durbar held at the fishing harbour to mark the beginning of the work, Mr. Richard Anamoo, Director General of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) said the project has been delayed due to the EBOLA virus that affected parts of the Western African countries. He appealed to the workers, fisherfolks and the entire community to support and cooperate with the contractors to execute the work to complete as planned devoid of accidents.
Ghana Government Launches National School Feeding Policy
Government has launched the Ghana School Feeding policy as part of measures to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and achieve universal primary education. The policy provides broad guidelines, strategies and institutional framework for the operationalisation of government policy towards reducing poverty through improved household income and effective local economic development. The goal of the policy is to deliver a well-organised, decentralised intervention providing disadvantaged school children with nationally adequate, locally produced food thereby reducing poverty through improved household incomes and effective local economic development. Mr. Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, the Minister of State at the Presidency, said the policy envisioned rapid national socio-economic development through a co-ordinated, integrated and accountable national school feeding programme delivering improved nutrition for disadvantaged school children. He said the policy objectives included the provision of sustainable social development support to children in deprived Ghanaian communities, strengthened collaboration and coordination between national and sub-national; and fostering local economic development in food production.
An Archaeological Mystery in Ghana: Why Didn't Past Droughts Spell Famine?
In the Banda district of west-central Ghana, July is the hungry season. This year's sorghum, yams and millet are still young and green in the rain-fed fields, and for most farmers, last year's harvest is long gone. People survive on cassava. They grind the roots and cook a polenta-like porridge called tuo zaafe and they stir the leaves into a soup. But there isn't enough to go around always, and the meal lacks protein. It's hard to know whether autumn will bring more food: Rains in Banda have been erratic lately and harvests sparse. The region has been in the midst of a 40-year drought. It's easy to think that life has always been this way in Banda — a poor, mostly agricultural district, a 10-hour drive from Ghana's thriving capital, Accra. But according to Northwestern University archaeologist Amanda Logan, the hungry-season gap likely didn't exist in the past. In fact, her research shows that before the mid-19th century, people here usually had enough to eat — even when rains failed.
New Project to Boost Innovation in Agric Sector
The Deputy Executive Director of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Mrs. Elizabeth Adetola, has reiterated the need to adhere to quality standards in the agricultural sector. That, she said, would ensure that food production is increased to meet rising demand for quality foods produced. Speaking at the opening of a workshop on quality infrastructure services for innovation in the agricultural and food sector in Accra, she said, “the demand for food is rising higher and higher due to increasing population. To be able to overcome this one may argue that food production would need to be increased.” She added, “the tenants of the Quality Infrastructure, namely, Accreditation, Standardisation, Conformity Assessment and Metrology, especially Legal Metrology, will play a significant role in the activities related to the agriculture and food sector. It is important that standards are used in the agricultural sector to ensure that foods produced are of quality.” Mrs. Adetola explained that increasing food production must, however, be complemented by other activities such as improvement of analytical testing of seeds, soil, commercial movement of food and agricultural product and inputs, improved storage facilities and the development of other activities that could generate employment and incomes in order to ensure that people have both physical and financial access to food.
Scientists Worried about Ghana's Limited Resources for Agric Research
Speaking at the congress of the International Federation of Agric Journalists in Germany, international Scientists have expressed concern about limited resources for agricultural research in Ghana which they say threatens the country’s food security. It came to fore that less that 0.3 percent of Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expended on agriculture annually. This is considered to be one of the lowest in Africa, meanwhile, countries with higher GDP's including Africa like Nigeria are spending almost 2 percent of their GDP on research. Ghanaian senior researcher at the University of Bonn, Germany, Dr Justice Tambo has called on government to sit up. "For example, in Nigeria, they have developed a lot of innovations in the agricultural sector like using of fertilizer seedling because formerly the former minister was a researcher, so he facilitated the process," Dr Tambo said. He said in the case of Ghana, there is limited support for research in the Agric sector because the results from researchers are not utilised and "when they are used, it is only to a limited extent not so much.”
Report/Article
Modeling Ghanaian cocoa farmers’ decision to use pesticide and frequency of application: the case of Brong Ahafo Region
EK Denkyirah, ED Okoffo, DT Adu, AA Aziz, A Ofori… - SpringerPlus, 2016
Pesticides are a significant component of the modern agricultural technology that has been widely adopted across the globe to control pests, diseases, weeds and other plant pathogens, in an effort to reduce or eliminate yield losses and maintain high product quality. Although pesticides are said to be toxic and exposes farmers to risk due to the hazardous effects of these chemicals, pesticide use among cocoa farmers in Ghana is still high. Furthermore, cocoa farmers do not apply pesticide on their cocoa farms at the recommended frequency of application. In view of this, the study assessed the factors influencing cocoa farmers’ decision to use pesticide and frequency of pesticide application. A total of 240 cocoa farmers from six cocoa growing communities in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana were selected for the study using the multi-stage sampling technique. The Probit and Tobit regression models were used to estimate factors influencing farmers’ decision to use pesticide and frequency of pesticide application, respectively. Results of the study revealed that the use of pesticide is still high among farmers in the Region and that cocoa farmers do not follow the Ghana Cocoa Board recommended frequency of pesticide application. In addition, cocoa farmers in the study area were found to be using both Ghana Cocoa Board approved/recommended and unapproved pesticides for cocoa production.
Linking Smallholders to Profitable Markets: A Case Study of Selected Cassava Value Chains in Ghana
S Asuming-Brempong, AA Boakye, JKM Kuwornu… - 2016. Prepared for Michigan State University and Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture: Strengthening Regional Agricultural Integration Project, Phase 2 (SRAI 2)
The objective of the study is to examine the linkages, opportunities, benefits and challenges, amongst others, in three key cassava value chains in Ghana as a case study. These are: (a) Guinness Ghana Brewery Limited (GGBL) – Ayensu Starch Company Limited (ASCo) – Aggregator (MAXPO Transport Services) – Smallholder farmers; (b) Accra Brewery Limited – DADTCO-Ghana Limited –Smallholder farmers; (c) Accra Brewery Limited – Caltech Limited – Smallholder farmers. The analysis of the linkages in each of the above value chains is based on transaction-cost economics, and examines key issues that include asset specificity, degree of uncertainty and risk of transaction, frequency of transaction, and externalities/opportunism in contracts underpinning these linkages. Investments made by brewery firms (Guinness Ghana Brewery Ltd and Accra Brewery Ltd) in the value chains indicate high asset specificity in that their processing plants are specifically designed for the production of beer (including Ruut beer and Eagle beer, which are produced from processed cassava). These assets cannot be redeployed at minimal cost for the production of other products except other beer brands. Like the processing plant, almost all the employees of GGBL are trained specialists in the brewery industry and as such cannot be redeployed without cost (cost of training them for other sectors).
Assessment of Rice Market Competiveness Using Horizontal Price Transmission: Empirical Evidence from Southern Region of Nigeria
SB Akpan, SJ Udoka, VP Inimfon - Assessment, 2016 Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Akwa Ibom State University, Nigeria
The study examined the horizontal price transmission and market integration between the local and foreign rice market in the Southern region of Nigeria by using the average monthly prices of local and foreign rice in the rural and urban markets from January 2005 to June 2014. The findings show that, prices of local and foreign rice in the rural and urban markets have constant exponential growth rate of 0.60%. The Pearson correlation coefficient revealed a strong positive relationship between prices of local and foreign rice in both rural and urban markets. The cross-product Granger causality test revealed bidirectional relationship between prices of local and foreign rice in the region. The results of the cross co-integration test revealed the presence of co-integration between prices of the two products. The coefficients of the price variable in the cross co-integration equations for the local and foreign rice markets converge to the law of one price which connotes instantaneous price adjustment and competitiveness. The result of the cross - product error correction model also confirmed the existence of the short run market integration between the two markets. The study established the fact that, price of local rice competes favorably with its foreign counter part and thus a perfect substitute especially in the rural area. Based on the finding, it is recommended that, short term policies should be used to intervene in the rice sub sector in the region.
Functional Forestry Extension: Amissing Link in Promoting Forest Plantation Development in Ghana
SK Nketiah, EM Kumeh, O Owusu-Addai - Journal of Global Resources Volume, 2016
Ghana has over the years initiated various programmes and schemes aimed at promoting plantation development. The success rate of these programmes and schemes has not been as expected, particularly, but not exclusively due to the absence of a functional forestry extension system. There is considerable dearth of the technical backing to support investors and smallholder farmers who take to plantation development. While some private investors have put in place their own structures to respond to this need, the majority of farmers and investors do not have access to this crucial input to make their drive for plantation development a success. This paper examines the situation on the ground based on a field survey, and discusses the need and options for addressing this missing link. It concludes by recommending pragmatic solutions, including institutional alignments that could result in a functional forestry extension system that promotes forest plantation development.
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