Increased capital use in agriculture, including mechanization, is considered an integral process of agricultural transformation. However, mechanization remains low in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA), especially among smallholders, despite increasing pressure from rapidly growing population and increasing labor cost. Supported with funding from Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, IFPRI researchers, Yanyan Liu and Hiroyuki Takeshima, use […]
Ghana Agricultural News Digest – October 12, 2015
Below are some current developments on agriculture in Africa: Agricultural Issues John Deere, Yara Ghana Demonstrates Successful Farm Mechanisation John Deere and Yara Ghana Limited (YGL), have demonstrated to farmers and agribusiness students a successful results of using farm mechanisation and the right chemicals to plant and harvest crops. The demonstration exercise which was held […]
Agricultural Mechanization and South-South Cooperation – Workshop Synopsis
The Asian experience with agricultural mechanization has been market with major successes over the past four decades. Farm mechanization has recently emerged in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) despite limited experiences in the past. Exchanging different regional experiences on how mechanization has evolved, especially in Asian countries, can help identify alternative approaches and design […]
MoFA Program Evaluations
Four programs implemented by MoFA (AMSEC, fertilizer subsidies, block farms, and NAFCO) account for the bulk of the Ministry’s expenditures. Upon recommendation from the Joint Sector Review, the Ministry asked a team of researchers from IFPRI, GIMPA, and Smartteam to carry out an assessment of these 4 initiatives to guide government policy and improve their […]
Last Week in Accra
We have been assessing the effectiveness of four of MoFA’s programs that account for the bulk of its annual expenditures: fertilizer subsidy, block farming, national buffer stock and the establishment of mechanization centers (AMSEC). The assessments are being undertaken in collaboration with two local consulting firms: GIMPA Consulting Services (on fertilizer subsidy, block farming and […]