Irish Fair Trade Network to provide €15 million for African farmers

Funding of €15 million has been announced for the Irish Fair Trade Network to support more than 435,000 east African farmers. The funding will support fair and ethical trading systems in east Africa between 2008 and 2012, with a particular focus on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Announcing the funding, Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power said: "Poor farmers in east Africa need support to sell their agricultural produce and access markets in countries like Ireland."This assistance is about helping people to help themselves, he added.

The executive director of Fairtrade Mark Ireland, Peter Gaynor, said the funding would not go to companies, but would be distributed among the small farmers and workers of eastern African countries.

The money will go toward coffee co-ops, tea estates and the provision of agronomy training and marketing support, he said.

"Agronomy training is important in helping farmers to produce products that companies in Ireland and Europe would buy, while marketing support is vital for farmers to understand the market needs of Europe," he explained.

Irish Times

Botswana to invest $1.5 billion in agriculture over next seven years

Botswana will invest 10 billion pula ($1.5 billion) in its agriculture industry over the next seven years to secure food supplies and boost farming's contribution to the economy, Agriculture Minister Christian De Graaf said.

The money will be spent on improving farm infrastructure and securing water supplies for irrigation, De Graaf said in an interview in the capital, Gaborone, today.

"The underlying principle is that we want to produce enough crops for the nation,'' he said. "We want to steer the agricultural sector, but we don't want this to be government driven.''

The contribution of agriculture to Botswana's gross domestic product has fallen from more than 80 percent when the southern African nation gained independence in 1966 to just 2 percent today. The country produces just 15 percent of its national cereal requirement, De Graaf said, and the government wants to increase this to more than 50 percent.

As much as 400,000 hectares of new or underutilized land will be brought into production between April next year and March 2016, the minister said. Subsidies will be introduced to encourage farmers to take part.

Under the plan, known as Integrated Support for Arable Agricultural Development, De Graaf said the government will also ensure water for irrigation.

One of the major water projects being undertaken is the Zambezi river project, which aims to construct a 3 billion pula ($442.5 million) pipeline from the Chobe River to the Pandamatenga district in northwestern Botswana. The pipeline will irrigate as much as 40,000 hectares of land, De Graaf said.

"Another 2 billion pula will be used on the development of infrastructure,'' he added.

Botswana wants to source 2.8 million cubic liters a year from the Chobe for the project, and is in discussions with neighboring Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe about securing water rights, De Graaf said.

Bloomberg

Mars chocolate company sets up 'best practices' farm centre for cocoa in Phillipines

A 10 to 15-hectare "best practices" farm center has been set up in Malagos, Davao City by the world’s largest chocolate maker Mars Inc. in an aim to raise Philippines’ cocoa value to $ 300 million.

Called center of excellence found at the Fuentespina family’s Malagos Garden, the Mars Cocoa development center (MCDC) aims to set up a foundation for teaching farmers the know-how in maximizing yield.

"While the Philippines currently produces 5,000 tons of cocoa, it has the potential to produce 100,000 tons by 2020, making it the second biggest farm export-earner, next to coconut. Mars’ unique expertise in ‘adaptive research’…makes it qualified to demonstrate cocoa sustainability," said Howard Shapiro, Mars global director of plant science and external research.

Best practices components that will be imparted to farmers through the MCDC are germplasm evaluation and breeding, farm rehabilitation methods (such as through side and chupon grafting), good agricultural practices, integrated pest management, cocoa quality management, and post-harvest practices (including drying and fertilization).

Peter van Grinsven, Mars sustainability cocoa supply manager, said cocoa price in the world market has been constantly increasing by three percent yearly as emerging economies like China and India have increased consumption for cocoa luxury goods.

On the other hand, supply has been constricting as production from good producers like Africa has been declining.

A contributor to increasing chocolate consumption is consumers’ recognition of the anti-oxidant content from flavanols in cocoa which makes it ideal for cardiovascular health.

Van Grinsven said the Philippines has a ready market in its Asian neighbors that have cocoa processing plants including Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia which import a combined 220,000 metric tons of good quality fermented beans from west Africa, source of 70 percent of world’s cocoa.

The Philippines has competitive advantage over Africa in this trade considering its proximity to these countries that require less shipping cost.

A multi-sector supported program called the Sustainable Cocoa Development in the Philippines targets increased production through intercropping of cocoa with coconut on a total of 2.4 million hectares of presently monocropped land.

"With each cocoa tree yielding an average of 1.5 kilos at a farm gate price of $ 2.4 per kilo, a farmer tending one hectare of coconut inter-planted with 600 cocoa trees can earn an additional $ 2,160 a year or 400 percent more than from coconut alone. This answers the rural population’s need for a cash crop," said Shapiro.

One farmer is expected to maintain efficiently two to three hectares of cocoa land intercropped with coconut. Mixed cropping also offers more income stability to farmers compared to mono-cropping.

If at least 10 percent of mono-cropped coconut lands are planted with cocoa, farmers can produce more than 200,000 metric tons for cocoa export which can generate $ 300 million in export earnings.

A 2.4 hectare farm can support a family of six members which will in turn support 600,000 people with their increased income, according to Mars.

Manilla Bulletin

World Bank reiterates new emphasis on local food security versus export agriculture

World Bank President Robert Zoellick told Africa's leaders the World Bank wanted to expand its "efforts to help countries produce their own food, instead of relying on imports.”

During his first visit to Africa since becoming World Bank President, Robert Zoellick attended the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, marking the first time a World Bank head has addressed the pan-African body.

Zoellick focused on increased global food prices as an argument for increased spending on agriculture.

This would represent a reversal of course for the World Bank, which has spent much of the last 25 years encouraging countries in Africa and elsewhere to devote more of their land and resources to growing commodities like cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, and flowers for export, and to rely on international markets to purchase the food they were no longer growing.

Indeed, this shift from self-sufficiency to dependence on international trade is the foundation of the contemporary model of globalization that has been so heavily, and effectively, promoted around the world.

Agricultural reforms were among the Bank’s main foci throughout the 1980s and 1990s in Africa, with great efforts made to liberalize markets, reduce and eliminate subsidies, and restructure or do away with state marketing boards. As a report by the Bank’s internal watchdog, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), released in 2007 makes clear, the World Bank’s agriculture policy impositions had a dubious track record at best in Africa.

At the AU, Zoellick also spoke of the controversial “Green Revolution” for Africa - the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) - supported most visibly by an initiative of the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations, which aims to replicate programs in Asia and Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s that increased crop yields.

Those earlier programs’ successes were offset, however, by environmental damage and crowding out of small farmers who could not afford the expensive inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, water) demanded by the high-tech Green Revolution methods. AGRA has sparked an outcry from African civil society organizations who fear it will damage small farmers’ livelihoods and serve as a vehicle for introducing genetically-engineered seeds on the continent. Zoellick said an African Green Revolution “would need to be different from that of Asia,” but provided few other details.

Bank Info Center

Required: A new agriculture for a new Africa

by Chido Makunike

Africa is a continent in rapid flux in many spheres. The systems that served it in the pre-colonization era still have deep roots, but those systems are often found wanting in serving the needs of a new era.Yet many of the new systems imposed since the advent of the colonial era have also not always served the continent well.

One of Africa’s greatest challenges is therefore to find compromises between the old and the new that work for it. There are great debates raging across Africa about how to find such compromises in the political, economic, social and many other arenas, where the Africa of today is a sometimes awkward mix of the old/new and the imported/ indigenous.

It is in Africa’s self-interest to ask the awkward questions and unravel the inconsistencies which the promoters of various ideas about the continent’s agriculture might be quite happy to sweep under the carpet. Not being critically analytical enough is how Africa has been the testing ground for all sorts of schemes which have not significantly improved the continent’s fortunes. They often simply ignore questions that their stances do not adequately address, or for which the answers are awkward.

Being critically analytical is not necessarily the same as automatically rejecting anything. It is merely to try to make the most informed choice of compromises which offer the best prospects of achieving the desired goals.

Some agricultural NGOs oppose fertilizer use on environmental and other philosophical grounds. Struggling African farmers are out of necessity motivated in their decisions by mainly immediately pragmatic considerations. Therefore, if a way is found to make fertilizer relatively cheap and available, such as through a government subsidy like Malawi’s, farmers enthusiastically avail themselves of it. In such cases, the NGOs’ opposition to fertilizer merely makes them appear as if they are churlishly unwilling to give credit to an innovation that works simply because it flies in the face of a central underpinning of their whole reason for existence.

It might be far more effective for them to say, “we concede the role fertilizer can play and we congratulate Malawi for its maize bumper harvest, but we wish to contribute to sustained bumper harvests by pointing out some of the pitfalls of over-reliance on fertilizer.” Acting as if there is something inherently evil about fertilizer, and refusing to admit its benefits along with its problems, simply makes it easier for “mainstream” agriculturalists and government officials to dismiss these NGOs as fringe groups.

Instead of making it easier for them to make their valuable contributions, they in effect contribute to their own further marginalization. It is to choose a sense of self-righteous ideological purity at the expense of effectiveness at contributing valuable perspectives to what African agriculture needs. The issue is not one of compromising their beliefs, but being more nuanced in communicating them in order to be listened to better.

On the other side are those who talk of fertilizer as if it were a panacea for Africa’s soil fertility woes. The obvious issues of its high cost and polluting effects are what are most often discussed. But not discussed often enough is the issue that apart from the problems of costs and environmental effects, fertilizer only addresses the symptom of a problem, not its causes.

No matter how much more widely and affordably it is made available to African farmers, fertilizer cannot be an answer to the basic problem of soils that are losing the structural and chemical properties that make them agriculturally fertile. At best, therefore, fertilizer can only be a partial or stop-gap measure to the issue of soil fertility. There is no option but to also pay attention to more natural means of restoring and maintaining that fertility.

Without that, the soils that are producing bumper harvests with the aid of fertilizer today are being so stripped of their remaining nutritive properties that they require more of that fertilizer every year. This in effect is creating a type of fertilizer-demand pyramid scheme that will inevitably collapse on economic, agronomic and environmental grounds. It is therefore vital for the many countries that position fertilizer centrally in their plans for improved agro-productivity to try to make it a fertility-supplementation measure, instead of as the main or only answer to poor soils. Where it is possible to eliminate its use altogether, that would be even better, but there are many situations where this is not realistic.

In making arguments against green-revolution technologies, the NGO Grain recently lamented what it said was the attempt to “industrialise” Africa’s agriculture. One example of this they gave was the effort to introduce cassava varieties more suited to large-scale than smallholder farming, painting this as part of an elaborate conspiracy by global agri-business to control African farming. The argument went on to cite how the new varieties had generally been rejected by smallholders in favour of traditional varieties they continued to find more suitable on the basis of several criteria.

This example of the rejection of new strains of cassava does not in any way mean there is anything intrinsically wrong with scientific research into new varieties well-suited for commercial farming. African agricultural concerns have longed moved beyond only being concerned about household food security to being an engine of economic growth.

In some countries, for example, “new” varieties of hybrid maize have been enthusiastically embraced over “traditional” varieties by even smallholders. So whether a variety is accepted or rejected by farmers is far more complex than if that variety is new or traditional. When new varieties offer a mix of properties attractive to farmers they will be accepted, just as new varieties that do not will be rejected.

Grain says, “African farmers have created a rich and dynamic agriculture which was gravely wounded by the continent's history over the last few centuries and, now, by the domineering multinationals and their allies to extract the remaining resources and knowledge.” That rich traditional agriculture which was wounded is not going to ever return in its original form.

For better and for worse, Africa has been irreversibly changed by the “grave wounding” alluded to by Grain. It is struggling with how best to adjust to the new realities that have resulted from that wounding, but a return to a romantic past of pre-colonial innocence is clearly not one of the options, nor even a desire. The changes wrought by the wounding are difficult, but we see innumerable examples of how Africans have accepted the idea of incorporating new and old more than some NGOs who would presume to speak on behalf of them!

To say, as Grain does, that “If African farmers are organised, if they rediscover and value their cultures and their knowledge, this is where Africa will have its real strength for change” sounds vaguely pro-African. But this mushiness, and the implication that “rediscovering and valuing their cultures and knowledge” necessarily means being afraid of and automatically rejecting new innovations is simply another of the many negative stereotypes. That this one is being used in an ostensibly pro-African context makes it no less offensive.
It is no longer desirable, nor is it any longer possible, to consign Africa to a romantic traditional past that simply can no longer meet the needs and desires of today. All across Africa, farmers and their children are flocking from the countryside to towns, often to live lives of destitution, because the traditional farming sometimes spoken of so dreamily by some NGOs can no longer sustain them. The economic, environmental and social costs of that present-day crisis may be just as severe as the calamities alarmists claim await Africa if it takes this or that new risk.
In agriculture or in any other sphere, the challenge for Africa is to find successful ways to mix old and new, traditional and modern, imported and indigenous. It is thinking and approaches which help Africa meet these challenges while being realistic about the compromises that are unavoidable that are urgently needed. Many of the good ideas being thrown about are compromised by the rigidity with which their promoters present them. 


African Agriculture

Liberian agriculture begins to stir after civil war

"Before the War" is a phrase woven into the very fabric of Liberian life, repeated countless times as a way to define how far the country has fallen and its infrastructure effectively destroyed as a result of its traumatic 14-year civil war. The economic, education and social sectors were all terribly battered.

But perhaps no sector was more badly hit than agriculture and it mirrors both the country's problems and its vast potential for advancing production and processing as well as reducing poverty.

War also took a devastating toll on the government's agriculture ministry, which is in the process of rebuilding. Agriculture Minister Chris Toe acknowledges that government depends heavily on external help in getting reconstruction plans off the ground, and that collaboration with national and international partners is critical to getting help to farmers who need it most.

"A number of projects are being directly implemented by donors and the NGOs—they are actually doing some of the work. We are trying to focus government's limited financial as well as human resources on those things that we believe we can do well, and that is to regulate and monitor what is happening within the agricultural sector and to coordinate activities that are going on," Toe explains. "We don't think that only the Ministry of Agriculture is going to develop agriculture."

James Logan, Deputy Agriculture Minister for Planning, adds: "From the onset the government was clear that what was needed to kick start this economy was to pay keen attention to the agriculture sector. Agriculture will provide the export income and the basis for taxation that the government can use to sustain development. Agriculture is very important for employment, for getting the refugees who are coming back started, for getting the internally displaced back on the farms, and for training the youth who participated in the war."

Many Liberians say fixing the roads is one key to reconstruction. Before the war, roads in Monrovia and those leading to the main cities were well made with asphalt. The dirt roads in the rest of the country were well maintained and usable in the dry season although impassable during the worst of the rainy season. Now, traveling anywhere in Liberia—city or upcountry—can be equally treacherous in both rainy and dry seasons.

Richard Tolbert, Chairman of the National Investment Commission and, as economic adviser to the President, sees agro-industry on the horizon. But he says that before it can take off the nation's basic infrastructure must be rebuilt, particularly roads to enable farmers to get their produce to market. It is the number one priority, Tolbert says.

Before the war, most rural people depended on traditional subsistence farming and were virtually untouched by mechanized and other modern farming methods. The country came nowhere near achieving its agricultural potential. The post-war Liberian government hopes to advance an agricultural sector much more productive than it was during its best days before the war.

To make that happen, the government is tackling the challenge of changing the way traditional farmers think. Lwopu Kandakai, Deputy Minister for Regional Development Research & Extension Services, explains, "We are encouraging farmers not just to grow crops behind their home to eat, but to grow enough so they will have some to eat, some to sell and some seed for the next planting season. If we do that for the next four or five years we could get back up near 70 percent self-sufficiency in food during this administration. And in order to be competitive, adding value through processing is key," Kandakai says.

When it comes to agricultural potential, Liberia is blessed with rich soil, which easily grows most tropical agricultural products. Ninety percent of the land is arable. Before the war, the economy was based on agriculture and the great majority of Liberians made their living on traditional farms, each averaging perhaps five acres in size. They concentrated on growing edible crops like rice and cassava, with some growing cash crops including rubber, coffee, cocoa and oil palms. Some grew vegetables and fruit and kept chickens, goats and sheep.

Liberia's staple is rice and today government oversees the spending of millions of U.S. dollars annually to import it to sell at about U.S. $25 per 100 lb bag. This is already changing. This year's harvest produced a surplus of rice and President Johnson-Sirleaf has suggested the government should consider a plan to buy the surplus from the farmers.

With six million rubber trees, Liberia has the world's oldest and largest rubber plantation, owned and operated by the Japanese and American-owned company, Firestone. According to Tolbert, rubber is the number one export commodity, accounting for 90 percent of national earnings. There are many smallholders who sell rubber to Firestone, making the industry a big employment generator as well as a major income earner for the country.

Although Liberia has produced rubber for nearly a century, it has never converted the latex into finished products. But now a Chinese company is building a huge factory which plans to produce products for both the Liberian and export markets.

And the production potential for palm oil is huge. Oil palm only grows within a narrow band around the equator. With 90 percent of oil palm land in Malaysia and Indonesia already used, investors and major international companies from these countries are looking to help Liberia expand oil palm operations. The National Investment Commission is also talking to three investors who could pump in hundreds of millions of dollars to convert palm oil into bio-fuels as well as food products and cosmetics. The government is looking for the capital and the know-how to develop this sub-sector.

The government plans tax and tariff incentives to entice the private sector into developing and sustaining agriculture. Italian investors are planning a $3 million project to develop key crops, storage and processing. In the two years since the Johnson-Sirleaf government took office, it has received hundreds of investment visitors from around the world, including China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S., says Tolbert.

Despite the high hopes, the government has some serious constraints.

"Even though the government is credible and there are those who want to lend it money, it is unable to borrow money because it wants to settle existing debts," Tolbert says.

allafrica.com

Mavuno Capital Alliances, helping Africa create businesses out of farming

Africa has seen countless agricultural projects of all shapes and sizes over the decades. Many have been funded by bilateral or international donor agreements, often implemented by governments or non-governmental organizations.

The failure rate of these agricultural projects have been high for a variety of reasons that are increasingly being studied with a view to correcting them for the future. One recurring reason for the high failure rate of development projects, in agriculture in particular, is said to be the lack of a sense of "ownership" in the projects by participants.

The interventions have traditionally been conceived away from Africa, and presented as a pre-packaged "aid project." Local priorities, conditions and sensibilities have often not been central to either the conception or implementation of such projects, with rather predictable results.

Apart from the fledgling efforts to make the necessary corrections to the traditional model of agricultural projects in Africa, there are also quiet attempts to structure projects quite differently from the decades-old model that has had such poor results. Among these are the search for business agricultural models suitable to Africa, rather than the conventional approach of seeing the continent as a basket-case only suitable for charity projects.

As well meaning as such aid projects may be, there are increasing discussions in Africa about whether that charity approach to Africa is not part of the reason for the low success rate of many such projects. As the debate rages, there is more interest in approaches that are more oriented towards profit, and that require a deeper commitment from participants than just providing warm bodies for projects designed and funded from afar.

Mavuno Capital Alliances is an example of a company that has been spawned by the new thinking that is emerging out of the raging discussion about why so many agricultural projects in Africa have either failed out right, or do not continue to thrive after the "donor" pulls out.

Mavuno company representative Michael Swanich says, "Our philosophy is that Africans themselves should develop agriculture in Africa. More than 60% of all economically active people in Africa are employed in the agricultural sector and Africa will never be a successful continent unless people are empowered in agriculture."

Identifying one impediment to achieving this which his company hopes to address, Swanich says, "Many agricultural project promoters in Africa have very good business ideas, but they simply do not know how to put these projects together, raise capital and manage the businesses."

All of Mavuno's projects are based on the BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) principle. The company has a clear exit strategy for all its projects to enable local people to become agricultural entrepreneurs in their own right. Mavuno's vision is to develop projects for food security and local markets, typically involving crops such as maize, sunflowers, soybeans and wheat. It also is involved in projects for export and bio-fuel production.

The company provides a comprehensive service covering all aspects, from feasibility study to actual operations on the farm. The feasibility studies include a proper technical study of intended farming operations as well as marketing and logistics.

Mavuno also assists project promoters with whom it works to raise a part of their financing requirements on international markets. Specialized mentors, usually from South Africa, are provided to assist with operations and training for a period.

In other cases, Mavuno identifies high value projects for future development. In these cases, the company takes up part of the equity and manages the business operations with the intention to nurture local entrepreneurs for training and management buy-out after a period.

Asked about the genesis of the idea of setting up Mavuno, Swanich replies, "In the 17 years of my involvement in agriculture in Africa, I have been thinking about how to get agriculture really going on the continent. One of the solutions is to mobilize the wealth of experience of commercial farmers in South Africa to assist with development elsewhere in Africa. This is why the company has particularly developed systems to bring commercial farming to the small-scale farmer."

Started in early 2007, Mavuno's first concrete development is close to a town called Oranjeville in the Free State in South Africa. "We are assisting an emerging farming community to establish an irrigation project producing wheat, maize and vegetables. The project will be fully operational in May 2008," Swanich says.

They are also at an advanced feasibility and business plan stage for self-promoted projects in Tanzania, DRC and Zimbabwe.

Swanich says, "In addition, we are assisting outside project promoters with feasibility studies and business plans in several countries. Among them are projects for biofuels from cassava in Kenya, as well as tea packaging and marketing. In Cameroon we are evaluating a project for the extraction of biofuels from palm oil and in Nigeria we are exploring the setting up of storage facilities for onions."

Mavuno Capital Alliances is in the process of establishing its own investment fund to participate in financing of agricultural projects in Africa. Plans are for the fund to be operational by early 2009.

Project promoters are welcome to contact the company at info@mavuno.biz

SA's Kwazulu-Natal to encourage black agro-entrepreneurs

South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs is to increase black entrepreneurs in the agricultural business sector by 10 percent in the next two years.

Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said,"We will also increase agricultural production by 10 to 15 percent. Finally we are going to increase the agricultural trade by 10 to 15 percent."

According to the studies conducted by the department, an estimated 200 000 people are already active in the agricultural sector and 50 000 of these are in the agribusiness industry. Based on the three million hectares already redistributed, it is estimated that approximately 6,750 targeted beneficiaries have already been introduced to the agribusiness industry, she said.

All these targeted beneficiaries will come from new primary producers, farm dwellers, communal farmers and from the new and existing black agribusiness entrepreneurs from the rural, urban, and peri-urban areas.

BUA News

Ghana honors farmers

Alhaji Abdul-Salam Akati, a 54- year old farmer based in Ghana's Ashanti Region, emerged as this year's National Best farmer and received the symbolic key to a three-bed room house to be constructed at a location of his choice by the Agricultural Development Bank from the Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama.

Among several attributes contained in the citation accompanying the award; he has so far spent about 15,000 Ghana cedis ($15,000) in sponsoring poor students to continue their education.

As in previous years, the presentation ceremony was the highlight of this year's farmers' day celebration which took place at Wa in Upper West Region under the theme: 'Ghana at 50, progress and challenges of sustainable Agricultural Development.'

Alhaji Akati also had five thousand Ghana cedis insurance cover and in addition, he would be sponsored to participate in the Royal Agricultural show in the United Kingdom.

The First and Second runners-up awards went to Mr Dominic Kwame Ampofo from the Western Region and Daniel Ayitey Kumi from the Greater-Accra Region.

Mr Ampofo drove home a Nissan Double-cabin pick-up vehicle worth 25,000 Ghana cedis donated by Stanbic Bank Ghana, while Mr. Kumi got a tractor and its accessories as his prize.

In the Fisheries sector, Mr Sarfo Quainoo from the Central Region took home a Ford double cabin pick-up vehicle for emerging as the Best National Fisherman for this year with the first and second runners-up positions going to Mr Lucas Dan Kobla and Mr Daniel Armah Mensah from the Volta and Greater-Accra Regions respectively. Each of them received a deep freezer and an outboard motor and assorted fishing inputs as their prizes.

Fifty-six other award winners, including ten extension staff of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and one from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research received bicycles, sewing machines, Wellington boots, machetes and tape recorders.

Modern Ghana

Ghana holds National Farmers' Day

Mr. Ernest Akobuor Debrah, Ghana's Minister of Food and Agriculture, has said the government would continue to pursue policies that would modernize agriculture and make that sector more rewarding to attract the youth. He said this at the National Farmers' Day celebration held during which 62 people including 51 farmers were honoured.

In line with this commitment, the ministry has provided two 2.5 million dollars to support 326 Farmers' Based Organizations to undertake value-addition and income generating ventures alongside entrepreneurial training.

Mr. Debrah said 33,000 rice farmers were being supported with improved high-yielding varieties of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA). In addition, the Ministry has made available 23 sets of small-scale rice processing equipment for processing and packaging of high quality rice.
He said this year the ministry also supported 20,000 farmers across the country to demonstrate best practices in maize production.


Mr. George Hikah Benson, Upper West Regional Minster, said vast arable lands in the region were appropriate for various agricultural investments in both the crops and livestock sectors. He said Guinness Ghana Breweries had taken the lead in this direction by promoting the cultivation of "kapaala" a new variety of sorghum through TechnoServe and this was bringing financial rewards to farmers who have taken up the challenge to adopt the new crop for cultivation. He said last year about 800 metric tonnes of the crop was produced for sale to GGBL.

Benson said through interventions by MOFA, the incidence of livestock diseases have been minimal and as a result, cattle production increased from 21,070 in 2001 to 337,812 in 2006.
During the same period, sheep production increased from 431819 to 805,049 while goats went up from 682,398 to 1,630554.

Modern Ghana

Niger, Mali source $400 million for dams

Niger and Mali have secured more than $400 million from mainly Islamic donors to build dams on West Africa's Niger river to generate power and help grow food for the largely desert countries, officials said.

Donors at a summit organised by the Islamic Development Bank last week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, pledged $236 million to build a dam in Niger, and nearly $200 million for a similar project in neighbouring Mali, the two countries' governments said.

Home to one of the world's poorest and fastest-growing populations, Niger stretches deep into the Sahara desert.

It suffers frequent hunger crises exacerbated by widespread poverty and desert encroachment onto traditional farmland, and its economy depends largely on uranium mined in the arid north by former colonial power France.

"Funding for building the Kandadji dam and associated projects has been secured," Prime Minister Seyni Oumarou said after returning from Jeddah.

The government has been talking about building the Kandadji dam upstream from the capital Niamey for nearly four decades, but the Islamic donor funds should allow the first phase of the huge development project to begin in mid-2008.

The Niger river, crossing the extreme southwestern corner of the country on its way to Nigeria and the Atlantic, has a fertile flood plain ripe for irrigated agriculture and potential to reduce the country's huge dependence on imported electricity.

"Building the dam will allow us to solve at least three problems: firstly regenerating the natural environment, secondly improving food security through water-based agriculture or irrigation, and thirdly to provide electricity," Oumarou said.

However, the donor funding will cover barely a third of the projected 300 billion CFA franc ($670 million) cost of the broader Kandadji project, and Oumarou said the hydropower station itself would be financed through a public-private partnership. He said a dozen potential investors had expressed interest in the project, which would reduce Niger's dependence on neighbouring Nigeria's National Electric Power Authority, from which it imports much of its electricity needs.

Niger's economy depends heavily on uranium mined in the north, where Tuareg nomads have rebelled against government forces this year, killing dozens of soldiers. The government dismisses the rebels as drug traffickers and bandits. The dam site at Kandadji around 180 km (110 miles) northwest of Niamey, near Niger's borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, has not been affected by the rebellion.

Mali, whose economy is in better shape than Niger thanks to significant gold reserves and greater stability in recent years, plans to start work in 2008 on access roads and the following year on building a dam at Taoussa on the Niger river between the ancient Saharan trading cities of Timbuktu and Gao.

It too will provide hydropower and irrigation.

"In the first place, the Taoussa dam was a dream, but we have entered an era of ambition and today it is becoming a reality," President Amadou Toumani Toure said on Malian radio on Monday.

Reuters

Gates Foundation funds $13 million CGIAR program to train African women agricultural researchers

There is a disparity between the role of African women in farming and their limited presence in the agriculture sciences. To confront it, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Gender & Diversity Program has launched a $13 million effort that will support the fast-tracking of careers of at least 360 African women in agricultural research.

The Nairobi-based African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) program is being funded with a four-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Participating countries include Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Women farmers produce 60 to 80 percent of crops critical to feeding the people of Africa. Yet women comprise less than 20 percent of agricultural researchers.

“We cannot fight hunger and poverty in Africa, particularly in the struggling regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, unless women have a strong voice not just on the farm, but in the lab,” said Vicki Wilde, head of the CGIAR Gender & Diversity Program. “It is urgent that we increase the number of African women in agricultural research. We are thrilled that the Gates Foundation is funding our work in this area.”

“Women bear much of the responsibility for cultivating crops in Africa and they face challenging and changing conditions,” said Rajiv Shah, director of agricultural development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “African women scientists can help bring practical, sustainable improvements to the African farm sector so smallholder farmers - most of whom are women - can build better lives for themselves and their families.”

The AWARD program will address many of the barriers—including a lack of role models and mentors, and institutional biases—that in the past have prevented African women from playing a more active role in agricultural research.

“It is a plain fact that the young woman scientist continues to face a scary and tormenting situation in deciding whether she should pursue her career as a scientist or maintain her family,” said Miriam G. Kinyua, Associate Professor of Agriculture at Moi University. “I believe it should not be so. I believe that with the right balance, she can succeed in both.”

While other programs provide academic support, AWARD is different. The program nourishes the African talent pool with a career development series designed to strengthen both science and leadership skills of women in agricultural research at three critical career junctures – upon completion of their BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees.

Specifically, the program seeks to achieve a:

25 percent increase in African women with BSc degrees participating as members of research teams in at least 20 agricultural institutions in sub-Saharan Africa; 50 percent increase in African women with masters degrees managing research teams and producing improved farm technologies at these institutions; 50 percent increase in African women PhDs serving in influential leadership roles and as role models and mentors to younger women; Significant increase in the number of African girls and young women inspired to pursue careers in agricultural research and development; and Significant increase in the number of men and women aware of the importance of women’s voices and contributions to agriculture in Africa.

CGIAR

Efforts to revive Angola's coffee sector under way

Angola was once the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world and oil exports have helped to bring about economic recovery after almost three decades of civil war. But while oil generates much needed foreign exchange, it is the coffee sector that the government and supporting organisations are looking to as a means of restoring rural livelihoods.

The Angolan coffee industry was once dominated by large plantations, which supplied about 70 per cent of the annual coffee harvest. They had their own processing facilities and were mostly run by Portuguese settlers. After independence the majority of the plantations were nationalised but, with the departure of the Portuguese, the experience of new farm managers was limited and a combination of mismanagement, loss of labour and poor supply of essential inputs led to a significant decrease in yields.

Privatisation of the state farms during the 1990s led to the plantations being subdivided. But most owners found rehabilitation of their coffee farms increasingly difficult due to insecurity and civil strife. Many of the larger farms were abandoned during the war and some remainland mined . Large areas of coffee still grow unattended, the berries are never harvested. Most plantations are also old, pests and disease seriously constrain yields, crop husbandry is poor, and inputs are either unavailable or too expensive. In addition, essential support services, including research, extension and credit facilities, no longer exist.

Compared to more than US$180 million at its peak in 1974, coffee exports currently amount to only around US$250,000. During the harvesting season, the flow of coffee to exporters is often erratic and coffee frequently has to be blended from different sources and stored for long periods in order to accumulate sufficient volumes for shipping. In order to rehabilitate the coffee sector, and for its export potential to be realised, significant investment is needed. However, the banking system in Angola remains risk-averse. With only four exporting companies working in a difficult environment, reviving the coffee sector has so far proved a challenge.

To address some of the current constraints and assist in improving the coffee sub-sector, CABI is coordinating a pilot project funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) and the Angola Government through the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) UK. The three-year project, which began in March 2006, aims to provide 4,000 previously displaced families with two-to-five hectare plots from the subdivision of abandoned coffee estates. The acquisition of title deeds by each farmer collaborating in the project is also being facilitated, as well as other forms of social support including the construction of houses, schools and clinics.

In contrast to colonial times, smallholders now account for almost 90 per cent of coffee production in Angola. They achieve relatively good yields: but the lack of processing facilities restricts them to selling their coffee as dried cherries. To improve production, over three million coffee seedlings have been raised, mainly on farmers' fields, although a supplementary nursery has been established at a research station. Over 2000 farmers,extensionists and scientists have been trained in various aspects of coffee production, processing and marketing.

In collaboration with a local bank, an effective micro-credit system has been set up and another partner... has trained them in effective management. So far, over 30 business entities have been legally constituted. The creation of farmer cooperatives and associations will also be encouraged to enable value-added processing.

Despite the success of the project so far and government efforts to address the problems of poor infrastructure, changing attitudes has been testing. Many farmers had become accustomed to handouts and provision of assistance from aidNGOs that distributed free relief during the prolonged years of civil strife. But farmers are now more understanding that financial assistance is available - as loans that have to repaid.

New Agriculturalist

Nigeria receives over $15 million annually in US aid for agriculture

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) spends over $15 million annually on Nigeria's agriculture, the agency's mission director has said.

Sharon Cromer said USAID is investing the money as Nigeria's development partner to improve the livelihoods of the citizens.

She said the USAID MARKETS Project, which focuses on improving rural livelihood by expanding economic opportunities in the agricultural sub-sector, is investing over $25 million between 2005 and 2010 to support private sector investment in agriculture, complementing government efforts.

"Post harvest loses are high, appropriate processing and value adding technologies are not available, a commercial orientation is lacking and market information and linkages are weak," she said.

Cromer said USAID spends roughly $3million a year on policy development and capacity building in a number of ministries, agencies and departments.

"USAID sponsored National Stakeholder Workshop on Fertilizer Policy and Strategy Implementation as well as the African Fertilizer Summit which eventually led to adoption of a National Fertilizer Policy, approved by the Federal Executive Council in June 2006" she said.

The Mission Director also said USAID has been the major donor towards addressing Avian Influenza in Nigeria with more than $1.6 million invested during the first year of the outbreak. "In 2007, another $4 million has been committed towards supporting Nigeria to containing and eradicating the disease," Cromer said.

She said the Cassava Enterprise Development Project, an $11.7 milion five - year partnership between USAID/Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Corporation and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture has yielded positive result.

The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma, thanked the USAID on their efforts. "Nigeria despite being the highest producer of cassava has poor processing and storage facilities," he said.

allafrica.com

Food security depends on use of modern farming methods

by Eddie Owedhi

Kenya, like many developing countries, has witnessed famine, causing a lot of suffering and death.

Food security is crucial as it determines the stability of a nation. A malnourished, food-deficient society cannot engage in any meaningful development. Governments should, therefore, strive to ensure that food is available for all through increased agricultural production.

However, the methods championed by the government and NGOs cannot match the times. They have been calling for use of low input techniques, which are traditional, rudimentary and cannot produce enough food for the rapidly growing population.

Today, Kenya cannot afford to rely on small-scale agriculture. Human labour, hoes and rain-fed agriculture are inconsequential in the struggle to provide sufficient food today. This calls for the adoption of modern agricultural practices, as has happened elsewhere in the developed countries.

The government and stakeholders should champion “agrarian revolution” in Kenya, just as occurred in Britain in the 18th century. This revolution entailed use of machines and high yielding crop varieties that propelled Britain and most of Europe to their current industrialised status. Large-scale agricultural production led to flourishing of manufacturing and service industries that created jobs as urban centres developed.

In as much as the climate may not favour us, scientific discoveries have proved that harnessing scientific principles and technology could be of great significance. Israel, a desert country, exports fruits and vegetables to countries with more favourable tropical climates.

The government and stakeholders, including NGOs, should back full-scale adoption of modern agricultural techniques. These should include intensifying agricultural production by managing land and water. Here, modern irrigation infrastructure is needed. Farmers ought to embrace irrigation instead of relying on rain-fed agriculture. Besides enhancing mechanisation, marginal lands should be improved by adding fertilisers.

The other practice, though controversial, is the use of high-yielding and genetically modified varieties. Genes are available that could help in food production if transferred into poor people’s crops. This practice is not restricted to the US and Canada, but has been practised in developing countries such as Argentina.

Pest control is of great concern. Despite the debate on the effects of pesticides on the environment, many industrialised countries continue to use these chemicals to increase food quantity. However, farmers should know how to purchase, transport, store, apply and dispose of these chemicals to avoid environmental damage. This calls for integrated pest management, which involves cultural, biological and mechanical practices that reduce the pest population.

To achieve food security, farmers should be encouraged to diversify agriculture. Current opportunities include rearing fish and growing water vegetables and forage production to supply livestock farmers. Urban agriculture could assist populations in towns which can’t afford to buy food. Horticulture, poultry-keeping and agro-forestry are apt opportunities for urban dwellers.

The government should revamp extension services and credit to farmers to expand their enterprises. There is need for viable credit schemes to guarantee economic stability of farmers in their effort to provide surplus food.

With the rapidly increasing population, unpredictable climatic patterns and continued land degradation, it is only through the application of modern agricultural practices, and science and technology principles, that food security can be sustained.

Daily Nation-Kenya

African public sector spends only 4% on agriculture: World Development Report

The latest World Development Report calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries and warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realised.

Titled 'Agriculture for Development', the report says the agricultural and rural sectors have suffered from neglect and under-investment over the past 20 years. While 75 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas, a mere 4 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture in developing countries.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, a region heavily reliant on agriculture for overall growth, public spending for farming is also only 4 percent of total government spending and the sector is still taxed at relatively high levels.

The World Bank Group is advocating a new 'agriculture for development' agenda. According to the WDR, for the poorest people, GDP growth originating in agriculture is about four times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth originating outside the sector.

"A dynamic 'agriculture for development' agenda can benefit the estimated 900 million rural people in the developing world who live on less than $1 a day, most of whom are engaged in agriculture," said Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank Group President. "We need to give agriculture more prominence across the board. At the global level, countries must deliver on vital reforms such as cutting distorting subsidies and opening markets, while civil society groups, especially farmer organisations, need more say in setting the agricultural agenda."

According to the report, agriculture can offer pathways out of poverty if efforts are made to increase productivity in the staple foods sector; connect smallholders to rapidly expanding high-value horticulture, poultry, aqua-culture, as well as dairy markets; and generate jobs in the rural non-farm economy.

"Agricultural growth has been highly successful in reducing rural poverty in East Asia over the past 15 years," said Francois Bourguignon, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics. He said the challenge is to sustain and expand agriculture's unique poverty-reducing power, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the number of rural poor people is still rising and will continue to exceed the number of urban poor for at least another 30 years.

For its part, the Bank intends to continue increasing its support for agriculture and rural development, following a decline in lending in the 1980s and 1990s. Commitments in FY07 reached $3.1 billion, marking an increase for the fourth straight year.

The Tide - Nigeria

Africa needs more investment in farming: IMF official

Africa needs more investment in farming to cope with soaring food prices due in part to growing biofuel production in the West, but it could profit from rising demand for alternative energy, an IMF official has said.

The explosion of biofuels production from food crops, subsidised by some Western countries as a less environmentally damaging alternative to fossil fuels, has contributed to a surge in food prices with grains and other crops at record highs.

"The priorities for Africa are adapting to this new situation," said Charles Collyns, deputy director of the International Monetary Fund research department. "The reality is that food prices are going to be higher going forward than they have been in the past. This creates both problems and opportunities," he said.

African governments should focus more on developing farming, which not only provides food but helps improve incomes in rural areas where many of Africa's poor live, Collyns said. "It's important to build up infrastructure, to build up institutions to allow these people to participate in the global economy, to take benefit from the higher prices that are coming from agricultural goods to produce new products, both for domestic consumption but also for export," he said.

Collyns criticised Western governments who subsidise biofuels production, saying some operations did not significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and hurt poor countries by contributing to food price rises.

"In the IMF we are also worried about the impacts of policies to produce biofuels. A third of the increased demand for grains in recent years is coming from the use of grains for biofuels. This is very inefficient because in fact there are other ways of producing biofuels ... using lower-tier agricultural crops," he said.

With adequate investment, African countries could benefit from new biofuels technologies by growing sugar or possibly the jatropha plant, Collyns said.

He urged Western governments to open up their markets to biofuels imports rather than subsidising domestic production.

Reuters

Zimbabwe imports $100 million farm machinery from China

A consignment 1,000 tractors and an assortment of other farming implements worth US$100 million from China is expected to arrive in Zimbabwe in three months’ time.

The implements, which include combine harvesters, irrigation pumps, disc harrows, planters and electricity generators, among others, went onto the sea last week, after undergoing compliance inspection tests from a team of Zimbabwean Government officials.

Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China, Frederick Shava, said the consignment was the last batch of equipment procured from a US$200 million Chinese government loan.

"The equipment might get home way into the summer farming season but we are sure that it is compliant to our needs because our inspectors who came here recently approved the consignment after carrying out tests. By the end of November or beginning of December, we should see the consignment starting to arrive home but by mid-farming season, the entire consignment should have landed."

The Herald

New airport cold storage facility ups Kenya's horticultural export capacity

The development of a cold storage at Kenya's Eldoret International Airport with a capacity to handle 230 tonnes of produce is expected to turn the airport into a major hub for of horticultural products.

The facility to be commissioned in early November, has been put up by Canken Ltd and the Kenya Airports Authority and it is being promoted by the Horticultural Crops Development Authority (HCDA) to tap into the region’s rich horticulture sector.

“The lack of facilities at the Eldoret airport has been major hindrances in making the airport fully functional particularly in the cargo handling areas.” said the chief executive officer of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya, Dr. Stephen Mbithi.

The HCDA is recruit farmers to ensure the availability of the volumes of fresh produce required to make the project viable.

Canken MD, Ahmed Magan, said the facility gives the airport an opportunity to become a major cargo hub for East Africa, since neighbouring countries can now use it as an import and export point. For example, the airport is close to Uganda, which despite having an improving fresh flower sector, lacks modern cargo handling facilities.

Kenya’s horticultural production continues to grow at 14 per cent per annually, fuelled by a lucrative export market and growing local consumption. Amid this growth however, the traditional production regions of Central and Eastern Kenya have reached optimum levels and attention is shifting to the fertile North Rift. The region produces summer flowers, french beans, garden peas, baby corn, carrots and Asian vegetables at unit costs lower than in central Kenya occasioned by lower pest and disease loads, fresh soils, lower irrigation costs, and economies of scale.

The development of the Eldoret Airport to cater for direct exports from the area is considered a major catalyst for the fresh produce sector, since access to markets had been a major headache. Several cargo carriers, including Emirates, Egypt Air, DAS Cargo, and Cargo LUX operate from the airport with destinations to the Middle East.

The development of the cold storage facility comes at a time when horticulture is experiencing a boom in the international markets, especially the EU, where Kenya’s share of the flower market has surged to 40 per cent, giving the country a clear lead of 20 per cent over its competitors Columbia and Ecuador which both supply 25 per cent to the same region.

The project is also one of the efforts Kenya is making to stave off growing competition from other African countries, notably Senegal and Egypt, which are quickly gaining presence in Europe due to their proximity.

ANAFE examines curriculum changes needed to stimulate African agriculture

Subsistence agriculture remains the backbone of the African economy, with more than two-thirds of all Africans living in rural areas and depending entirely on agriculture and natural resources, even as those resources are eroding. Soils and landscapes are degraded and rural poverty is on the rise. This situation persists despite major investment during the early years of African independence in tertiary education that focused on agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry as separate entities.

August Temu, who coordinates the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) from the headquarters of the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, says that early investment has failed to move African agriculture forward. “Farmers are still doing things just as their parents did, functioning on the ground as if we were in the 1950s. The smallholders have not received new skills, and we needed to see why not.” So, in 2002,Temu says ANAFE , along with 124 partner institutions in 34 countries, began an in depth study of tertiary education in natural resource management and agriculture on the continent.

The study...culminated in a symposium organized by ANAFE at Kenyatta University in Kenya in April 2003. The 55 papers presented there have now been published in a new book, ‘Rebuilding Africa’s capacity for agricultural development: the roles of tertiary education’. A companion document was also produced, primarily for policy-makers and managers: ‘Improving agriculture and natural resources education in Africa — a stitch in time.’

According to Temu, these publications provide a veritable manifesto for change in how agriculture is taught in African universities and training colleges, highlighting weaknesses in existing programmes and ways to remedy them. Curricula in African universities, for example, have been largely adopted from the countries that once had colonies in Africa. University texts on agriculture emphasized an imported philosophy and policy that aimed to produce cash crops for consumption by — and processing in — those former colonizing countries, denying Africans the crucial income from locally added value to farm and forest produce.

“Little of what was taught was grounded in African reality,” says Temu, “especially the reality of smallholder farms on the continent, where farmers integrated and managed complex farming systems incorporating crops, trees and livestock that stressed food security through diversity.”

He points out that structural adjustment programs in the 1970s and 80s brought cutbacks to government involvement in agriculture and extension sectors, on the assumption that the private sector and non-governmental organizations would step in and fill the gaps. “Thatdidn’t happen...there was a deterioration of knowledge with the retrenchment of technicians...”

‘A stitch in time’ makes it very clear that a transformation in education is needed if Africa’s farmers and educational institutions are to meet the many big challenges of our times. To start that transformation,ANAFE has joined forces with various other insitutions , including universities and research centres, to create a new initiative known as BASIC — Building Africa’s Scientific and Institutional Capacity.

ANAFE itself has already taken a few ‘stitches in time’ to start that reconstruction process, by establishing learning centres for farmers, where young people can see for themselves which farming systems can work for them, how they can produce more with less labour, and then add value to whatever they produce.

Temu says Ethiopia has already begun a major transformation of its approach to agricultural education and training, by creating 15,000 farmer training centres at which 45,000 Ethiopians are already being trained as resource persons. In Uganda, the government has developed a unified extension system that integrates all aspects of agriculture and value-addition for agricultural produce.

“Our aim now,” says Temu, “is to get policy makers and funding institutions on board and to convince them that investment is crucial in making agricultural education in Africa both useful and enticing.”

World Agroforestry Center