For the past three years, Nigeria has been leading globally in the production of yam, palm oil, cassava, maize, and rice, the Federal Government has said.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammed Mahmoud, disclosed this at the maiden edition of the National Agribusiness Stakeholders’ and Investment Summit in Abuja on Tuesday.
He told delegates at the summit that Nigeria’s agricultural potential was huge, with over 84 million hectares of arable land of which 40 percent was cultivated, adding that the country’s population of over 200 million had made it Africa’s largest market.
“It is remarkable that in the past three years Nigeria has taken a leading role globally in cassava, yam, maize, palm oil, and rice production,” Mahmoud said,
He added, “We are currently the largest producer of rice in Africa with a production level of over nine million metric tonnes from 2019. The Federal Government is investing in the development of additional 10 large-scale integrated rice mills across the country.
“Their combined minimum capacity is 320MT per day, which when completed will enhance Nigeria’s self-sufficiency in rice production.”
The minister pointed out that the agricultural sector currently accounts for 24.14 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product and 75 percent of the total non-oil exports.
On the impact of the sector in poverty alleviation, the minister said, “It is notable that through various empowerment support initiatives in
production, processing, and marketing of agricultural commodities, we have lifted a total of 4,205,576 Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years.”
He said the government would continue to work for a sustainable and viable economic climate that would attract local and foreign investments.
“The Federal Government has deliberately designed agricultural investment incentives to support high-level private sector participation,” Mahmoud stated.
He noted that while some of these incentives were in form of tax holidays, exemptions and reliefs, there were many that leveraged specific government policies, performances of companies, as well as relevant international investment treaties.
Rainforest Alliance has taken a judicious step by introducing the Community Listening Program (CLP) in the Western North Region of Ghana to help address challenges hampering the cocoa and forestry sectors in the country.
The program was launched in Sefwi Datano and will be implemented in areas where RA operates in the country.
The Country Director of Rainforest Alliance Ghana, Mr. Kwame Osei said the objective of the program is to get the inputs and feedback more systematically from those at the center of their mission.
He explained that the work of the Rainforest Alliance is to cultivate rural prosperity, bring real, measurable benefits for farmers, forest communities, and indigenous peoples around the world.
Mr. Osei said RA works with millions of farmers and forest communities all over the world to promote sustainable and climate-smart practices to improve livelihoods, both of which are critical to building farm and farmers’ resilience, reducing deforestation, and increasing biodiversity.
“We work with forest community members, smallholder farmers, farmworkers, and farm owners to ensure Rainforest Alliance programs reflect their needs and interest on an ongoing basis,” he said.
Chief Programme Officer, Rainforest Alliance, Ria Stout explained that the program will enable them to receive honest and open feedback at the community level in the local language.
She added that this initiative will allow the Rainforest Alliance and its partners to get to the core issues of the farmer.
“Farmers issues are on my heart and I believe that sustainable agriculture, and targeted set of innovations, and the Farm Requirements can help farmers produce better crops, adapt to climate change, increase their productivity, set goals to achieve their sustainability performance, and target investments to address their greatest risks” she pointed out.
The Senior Director Africa for Rainforest Alliance, Rene Magermans indicated that they are introducing this program because it is an essential tool to support sustainable agricultural production and protect the forest.
“Through dialogue with farming and forest communities, we will distill and analyze their feedback on the effectiveness of our mission delivery and incorporate it into all aspects of our work” he indicated.
The Divisional Chief of Sefwi Wiawso Traditional Council and Patron of the Landscape Management Boards (LMBs), Nana Kofi Nkuah II speaking on behalf of the farmers revealed that programs implemented by the Rainforest Alliance have helped reduce rural poverty in the area.
He used the opportunity to thank the Rainforest Alliance for helping build an alliance to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.
“In the area of restoration and preservation of forests and biodiversity, I am very happy that Rainforest Alliance together with its partners and communities raised and distributed over 200,000 tree seedlings from 2018 to 2021.
These seedlings have been planted on fallow lands and agroforestry systems covering an area of over 1,500 hectares.
In addition, four community nurseries have been established in the Sui landscape, and managed by the Landscape Management Boards (LMBs) to supply tree seedlings as a means of contributing to the mitigation of climate change and restoring degraded landscapes” he said.
This cocoa-growing settlement was all but destroyed last year by Ivorian forest agents, leaving farmers to rake through their beans amid broken concrete and other remnants.
Sellers of gari and beans popularly called ‘gob3’ or ‘Red Red’ in the Ashanti Region especially in Kumasi are no more selling the dish at one cedi.
A bowl is now going for one cedi fifty pesewas at the cheapest.
This is because the price of beans has shot up by 100% since October and consumers have started feeling the impact.
22-year-old Godbless Nuamah loves gari and beans. That is his go-to meal every day before the day ends. A day without eating this food means he has to spend more.
“Beans is one of my favorite foods because it’s less expensive as compared to the other foods,” he said.
His daily budget has been affected due to the price increase. As a student, the meal sustains him through the day at a minimal cost but the situation is different now.
“With four cedis I used to get satisfied but now I have to buy more than four cedis or I have to go for a second round to get fully satisfied,” he bemoaned.
Afia Mansah carefully pounds this quantity of beans in a mortar. This activity is to easily separate the chaff from the beans properly before she cooks it.
She then pours the beans on a perforated wooden tray, rubs her hands on the beans to get rid of the chaffs.
This is meant for her “gob3” food joint at Ayigya in Kumasi. Though a sack of beans is expensive, Mansah complains “the sack is full of chaffs”.
Just like other “gob3” sellers, she has increased the price of her beans to stay in business.
“I have stopped selling the beans at 1.00 cedis, it’s now 1.50pesewas or 2.00 cedis. Though I have increased the prices I hardly make profits like I used to,” she lamented.
Beans in retail are often sold in locally measured cups, container bowls, and sometimes bags for wholesale.
A cup of beans in the Kumasi Central Market was sold at 2.50p between January and September. It has suddenly shot up to 5.00 cedis per cup.
“The price of the beans keeps going up, that is why we have increased the prices and our customers complain about the new price,” she noted.
A bag of imported beans from neighbouring French-speaking countries sold between 300 cedis and 400 cedis at the beginning of the year, is now sold at 600 cedis.
Alhaji Baba is an importer of staple food. He attributes the increase to the CFA and the high cost of fertilizer prices.
“We import the beans from most of the French countries, unfortunately, the CFA keeps increasing. Most of my colleagues have stopped importing the beans,” he said.
Meanwhile, Baba’s customer, Comfort, says “she is unable to buy beans in large quantities due to the high price coupled with an increase in fuel prices.
“I can only afford to buy two sacks of beans with an amount of 2,000 cedis,” she said.
Well, it is evident that until the Ghana cedi stops depreciating and fuel prices are reduced, food prices will keep going high.
Chief Executive Officer for Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA), Williams Quaitoo, has said the minimum fixed price for cashew in the 2021-2022 season will be announced by the agriculture ministry in December this year.
Indigenous oil palm producer Benso Oil (BOPP) has continued its fairytale run on the local bourse, leading the gainer’s table as its shares price grew by 74.83% from GH¢2.86 to GH¢5 in the month of October.
The rally, which began in June with the share price at GH¢2, has since gained 203% on that price valuation – bested only by FanMilk on the GSE for year-to-date performance. This has been sustained largely due to investor confidence in the firm’s performance beginning 2020 and an appreciation of the global price of palm oil, which has grown from an average of US$471 in 2018 to US$1,061 in Q2 of 2021.
A perusal of BOPP’s financials shows that its revenue grew from GH¢79.09million in 2018 to GH¢95.6million in 2019. FY2020 saw revenue reach GH¢123.8million, representing a 29% growth, and GH¢104.4million at the end of June this year – with the oil palm producer on course to meet its projected revenue target of GH¢194.5million by year-end. At the end of the third quarter, it had attained GH¢150.9million in revenue.
Commenting on the company’s performance when it met investors during a ‘Facts Behind the Figures’ session organised by the GSE, its Director, and General Manager, Samuel Avaala said: “2H2021 topline growth of 63% is attributable to the bullish world market crude palm oil prices, coupled with higher crop productivity from both the nucleus plantations, smallholders and out-growers. Operational efficiencies have also seen sustained high levels and continue to improve while cost discipline practices have ensured that unit production costs remained controlled in line with plans.
“This performance comes on the back of sustained operational efficiencies, strong production volumes, and the recovery of world market crude palm oil prices which began in early 2020. Benso Oil Palm Plantation PLC is set to maintain the strong profit trend by the end of the year by leveraging on its core competencies for production and taking advantage of the bullish world market price trend.
“The company is committed to conducting its business in a socially responsible and ecologically sustainable manner, through using internationally accepted best practices which deliver sustainable stakeholder and shareholder value.”
The share price of BOPP had soared to GH¢6.05 at beginning of the second trading week in November, as investors appear to have pitched their camp with BOPP – also based on its extensive community-wide social responsibility programmes, including its clinic.
Rest of the pack The market is guaranteed its highest return in half a decade with the Composite Index (GSE-CI) returning a favourable 47.52% year-to-date (YTD). The equities market was also driven by the appreciation in theshare price of Fan Milk Limited (FML), Republic Bank Ghana (RBGH), Enterprise Group (EGL) as well as Total Ghana, which realised about 39.75%, 39.53%, 9.13%, and 7.96% rise in share prices respectively.
Per the October 2021 data released by the Exchange, the main market’s cumulative performance from January to October 2021, in relation to the comparable period in 2020, shows there was a marginal dip in the volume of shares traded by 3.53% from 439.39 million last year to 423.91 million in 2021. Yet, in value terms, there was an increase of 39.26% from about GH¢341.71million to GH¢445.26million – indicating a continuous rise in the value of shares on the local equities market.
Accordingly, the year on year, market capitalisation and primary index, the GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI), shot up 21% and 55.90% respectively, with analysts anticipating further bullishness on the local bourse.
The media is one of the most important institutions in every country that educate, inform and relay information to the general public, however, some journalists do arm-chair journalism that jeopardizes the credibility of the institution.
To have in-depth knowledge of the Rainforest Alliance Certification and its activities, two days capacity workshop with the theme “Ensuring People and Nature Thrive in Harmony” has been organized for the agricultural journalists in Accra.
At the workshop, journalists were urged to critically examine facts when discharging duties especially on Rainforest Alliance Certification and activities to farmers.
Agriculture is a noble and skillful sector, however, working with the sector needs comprehensive knowledge and understanding for good and efficient output.
“Any time the media is reporting on Rainforest Alliance Certification programs, it will actually be something the media should understand; the way the schemes work, the requirements that the farmers need to follow, the benefits farmers gain for joining the scheme”, Mr. Joseph Yaw Mensah, the Senior Associate Training and Certification of Rainforest Alliance said.
He acknowledged the tedious work the media is performing for the country, yet there are some technicalities in the agriculture sector especially, certifications that the media need to have in-depth knowledge when reporting on them.
He mentioned that Rainforest Alliance has customer services that are ready to respond to every question and clarification that any media house needs in the discharge of its duties.
Reuben Nana Yaw, the National Coordinator of Ghana Agriculture and Rural Development Journalists Association (GARDJA) commended the Rainforest Alliance for such a workshop to educate the journalists on expectations from the media as certitude reportage is a concern.
He entreated the organizations to avail themselves of the media houses for clarification on typical issues. Some of the organizations or institutions become adamant to provide research clarifications, therefore, making the report vague.
He called on other institutions and organizations to follow suit to train the journalists to abreast them on the current technical advancement of their institutions or organization.
The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization working at the intersection of business, agriculture, and forest to make responsible business the new normal. The organization is all about changing the way the world produces, sources, and consumes.
The core interventions of the Rainforest Alliance are Landscapes and Communities, Reimagining Certification. The supporting interventions are Advocacy and Tailored supply chain services.
“With this price of 825 francs and the costs of production, we’re going to find it difficult to feed our families, to look after ourselves, and to invest in the farms,” Doumbia said via video call. “We accept the price because we have to.”
But she said higher prices also created headaches for cocoa producers, as chocolate makers allegedly resist paying higher market values.
In 2019, Ivory Coast and Ghanaian authorities introduced a Living Income Differential, which added $400 to the price of a ton of cocoa in a bid to protect farmers from poverty.
However, some chocolate companies reportedly tried to avoid complying with the LID. Mondelez International was accused by authorities of failing to pay the premium — an allegation it denied — while U.S. candy giant Hershey turned to futures exchanges to avoid paying the additional cost, Reuters reported. Hershey said in a statement at the time that it would not discuss details of its specific buying and hedging activities. The company told the news agency it bought cocoa “from a variety of suppliers and sources,” including some that saw it pay Ghana and the Ivory Coast’s LID premium.
“A year ago, when the price was 1000 francs, we were struggling to sell our cocoa because Big Chocolate thought it was too expensive,” Doumbia told CNBC. “So yes, it’s difficult to accept a lower price, but now we might actually be able to sell all of our cocoa.”
Doumbia said she has seen soil fertility decrease over the years, which she attributes in part to climate change, prompting her to dedicate four hectares of farmland to rubber instead of cocoa.
“Producing cocoa is a culture in Ivory Coast, we produce the most in the world so it’s not going to disappear overnight,” she told CNBC. “At least every family has a person that produces cocoa – it’s what we love to do, it’s our job, it’s in our hearts.”
But she added: “People are abandoning cocoa for rubber. With such painful work and such a low price for cocoa, you’re going to see that more and more for sure.”
According to a 2018 report on the industry from the VOICE Network — a global network of NGOs and Trade Unions — large chocolate companies increased their profits after the Ivory Coast’s cocoa prices dropped significantly in mid-2017.
Dutch chocolate maker Tony’s Chocolonely pays a premium on top of the farmgate price when it purchases its cocoa. It recently announced plans to increase that premium from $462 per metric ton – 26% above farmgate price – to $793 per metric ton – 54% above farmgate price – for the 2021/22 season.
Paul Schoenmakers, head of the impact at Tony’s Chocolonely, accused so-called Big Chocolate of “turning a blind eye” to the plight of African cocoa farmers “in quite a terrible way.”
“For decades, they’ve come up with all these fancy programs and the reality is that they haven’t yielded any results,” he told CNBC via telephone. “And that’s mainly because they still pay too little for cocoa.”
He added that paying the price suggested by Tony’s would cost around 0.7% of annual global chocolate revenues.
“Given that this sector is super-rich, they’d still make massive profits every year,” Schoenmakers said. “This is about shipping part of the value to the first part of the supply chain, the cocoa farmers, and it’s the right thing to do.”
According to Fairtrade, the average cocoa farming household in the Ivory Coast is made up of eight people and has an annual income of around $3,000. But Fairtrade’s research concluded the average cocoa farming household should be earning about $7,500 a year to cover their full cost of living.
“Price matters,” David Finlay, senior supply chain manager at The Fairtrade Foundation, told CNBC in a phone call. “We see this price drop as problematic, not just because we think it will lead to reduced incomes for cocoa farmers, but because we think those lower incomes will exacerbate other social and environmental problems, like deforestation.”
Chocolate giants weigh in. Mars Wrigley, which makes M&Ms and Snickers bars, told CNBC in a statement that today’s supply chain was “not in line with our ambition that everyone — especially cocoa farmers — should have the opportunity to thrive.”
“Through our Cocoa for Generations strategy, ongoing support for the LID, and disclosure of our progress publicly, we remain focused on the critical issues that need to be addressed for cocoa farming families to thrive and be sustainable,” a spokesperson said via email.
Meanwhile, confectionery giant Ferrero said it had been working to improve the livelihoods of farmers in the Ivory Coast for years, adding that its objective was “to build value chains and work to maintain them.”
Cadbury maker Mondelez International told CNBC it was committed to boosting farmer incomes, noting that it had developed and invested $400 million in the sustainable cocoa sourcing program Cocoa Life.
A spokesperson for Nestlé told CNBC in an email that it began rolling out its cocoa sustainability program more than a decade ago. The company announced in September that it would implement new living income programs for farmers.
Meanwhile, Lindt & Sprüngli – which sources its West African cocoa beans from Ghana – told CNBC it had initiated a program in 2008 aimed at improving the quality of life for farmers.
Agricultural Manufacturing Group (AMG) Ghana, a leading fertilizer marketing and technologies manufacturer is supporting the development of student entrepreneurs at the University of Ghana.
