The oil palm industry has the potential to make tremendous contribution to the development of Ghana’s economy but much attention has not been given to this industry. In this quest, the Artisanal Palm Oil Millers and Out-grower Association Ghana has launched its “One Million” oil palm seedlings project dubbed “Promoting a Sustainable Oil Palm Industry” in Akyem Asuom in the Kwaebibirem Municipality of the Eastern region.
The certified organic label has helped save many generational farms and enabled people like me, who do not come from agricultural backgrounds, to become successful farmers. Organic farming has brought environmental benefits — healthier soils, freedom from toxic pesticides and herbicides — to 6.5 million acresin the U.S.
Organic shoppers are willing to pay a little extra for food that is free from chemical residues. But the organic label is in trouble after reports of fraudulently labeled food made national news. On top of that, agribusiness pressures and National Organic Program (NOP) actions haveweakened standards. Yet at a time when farms are in distress, family-scale farmers need a label with integrity. They need a label that provides public support from people who understand that small-scale farmers are an endangered species.
In the 1980s, I was one of the organic farmers who helped launch organic certification. Farming and non-farming members of the Northeast Organic Farming Association worked together to write standards for a label that identified the real organic food that non-farmers wanted to buy — for which they were willing to pay enough to keep the small farms in business.
In retrospect, it has become clear that we were very naïve. It did not occur to us to consider the many ways our clear, simple statements could be twisted by people who were willing to cut corners to increase their bottom line and steal markets by underselling the farmers who observed the standards faithfully.
To pass the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) in 1990 — which established the NOP for organic food production on farms and in processing plants with a National Organic Standards Board of stakeholders to advise USDA, as well as a process for certification and accreditation — organic farming organizations and consumer and environmental groups allied with the Organic Trade Association, which was dominated by organic processors. At that time, there were few processed organic foods on the market, but since the NOP was implemented in 2002, sales of those foods have grown impressively. Cracks in our united front began to appear, as large conventional food corporations bought up independent organic brands and savvy players figured out how to scam the system.
The NOP standards require outdoor access for livestock, grass for ruminants and dirt for scratching for poultry. Shortly after the creation of the NOP, a chicken farm, where the chickens never walk outside but only access the outdoors by spending time on a porch, applied for certification.Today, most eggs with the organic label come from similar farms.
A bigshot with Organic Trade Association launched the first of the mega-dairies. The milk from these multi-thousand cow dairies is crowding family-scale dairies out of the market, causing heartbreaking farm closures by taking advantage of an obscure loophole that allows them to increase herd size quickly by using conventional (non-organic) heifers. These farms also cut corners on feed. Organic regulations require that 30percent of feed by dry weight comes from pasture. Aerial photos of mega-dairies suggest that they do not have adequate pasture.
Despite clear language in OFPA requiring that organic farming be based on the maintenance and improvement of soil fertility, the NOP allows the certification of hydroponicproduce. Hydroponic operations grow fruits and vegetables indoors, in greenhouses or hoop houses, or even large warehouses where all the light is artificial and the roots of the plant sit in a neutral medium with nutrients provided through the irrigation system. The acreage of hydroponic tomatoes and berries increases steadily, underselling produce from smaller farms and hoodwinking shoppers who have no way of knowing what they are buying
Organic farmers and independent organic processors are deeply upset by these developments and are taking actions that the public can support.
Because family farms are so economically vulnerable, farmers who feel betrayed by the NOP do not want to undermine consumer confidence in the organic label on which so many farms depend
Instead, there are three efforts underway to create add-ons to that label. The Real Organic Project will signal that products were grown in soil or raised on pasture. Regenerative Organic Certification will assure that products come from farms that build soil carbon to fight climate change, treat livestock humanely and use fair labor practices. The Agricultural Justice Project’s Food Justice Certifiedlabel is already on a few products signaling that the farms pay living wages with decent working conditions.
For the health of our planet and agrarian justice — meaning fairness to family-scale farms to ensure their survival — consumers need to become co-producers, learning about why it is such a struggle for smaller farms to thrive, and acting in solidarity by paying fair prices, buying direct or seeking out meaningful labels.
The second HortiFresh business platform meeting with the theme; Exploring Opportunities in the Ghanaian Horticulture Sector – The Role of the Dutch Private Sector, was held in 14th March, 2019 at Accra. The meeting brought together key horticulture actors in the fruit and vegetable sector to focus on emerging challenges and outline solutions to make the sector more competitive.
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Friday that it is lifting an import ban that prevented a brand of genetically modified salmon—dubbed “Frankenfish” by some—from reaching U.S. shopping selves, CNN reported.
The FDA originally cleared AquaAdvantage salmon, which is genetically engineered to grow year-round and thus reach the market twice as fast as unmodified salmon, in 2015 following a lengthy, years-long review, CNN wrote. However, Congress passed a law in 2016 mandating the formation of labeling guidelines informing customers that the fish was genetically modified—standards that weren’t finalized until late last year.
CNN reported:
In December, the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] issued the standard, requiring manufacturers, importers and certain retailers to disclose whether a product was bioengineered using either text, a symbol, a electronic or digital link, and/or a text message.
On Friday, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said because of the 2016 law and the USDA’s standard, his agency “no longer has the authority to issue labeling guidance.”
“However, the FDA believes this Congressional mandate has been satisfied by the USDA’s issuance of final regulations implementing that law in late 2018 because the law and regulations require that human food containing GE salmon bear labeling indicating that it is bioengineered,” Gottlieb said in a statement.
According to the Star Press, the company behind AquaAdvantage, AquaBounty, has a fish farm in Albany, Indiana that was awaiting regulatory approval to begin importing fish eggs from another company facility on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Seafood industry publication IntraFish reported that AquaBounty’s worth exploded by $50 million almost immediately following the FDA announcement. (While it was trading in the range of $2-2.25 for much of the week, its stock briefly broke $5 late on Friday.)
The FDA found that AquaAdvantage salmon pose no risk to human health, are healthy themselves, and would have no significant impact on the environment. As the Washington Post noted in 2017, the fish are designed to be exclusively female as well as sterile, though the process is not entirely effective, and AquaBounty’s Prince Edward Island facility is surrounded by salt water, where it believes the eggs cannot survive. The fish is already available in limited qualities on the market in Canada, where labeling is discretionary and up to grocers, the Post added.
As the Associated Press reported, however, a “coalition of consumer, environmental and fishing groups” filed a lawsuit asking for the FDA’s approval of the fish to be overturned. That suit is still pending.
We think a remedy in our case would stop sale of the fish before they’re allowed to be sold,” George Kimbrell, a legal director for the Center for Food Safety, which is opposing the approval in court, told the AP.
Kimbrell told the AP that his organization had concerns that the fish could escape and breed with unmodified salmon in the wild, as well as that disclosure rules only mandate the use of the relatively unfamiliar term “bioengineered” and can hide even that language behind a scannable QR code on the package. The labeling implementation won’t start until 2020, and compliance won’t be mandatory until 2022, the AP wrote.
“A loophole has now been created that will allow the first genetically modified animal engineered for human consumption to enter the US market: GMO Atlantic salmon,” the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations executive director Noah Oppenheim told the SF Bay Area Independent Media Center. “Fishermen have been fighting against the possibility of these Frankenfish entering our waters and our markets for years, and we won’t stop now.”
The salmon is the only genetically modified animal approved by the FDA to be sold as food to humans, though many other products are likely to follow in Aqua Advantage’s wake. According to the AP, Aqua Bounty says that it expects its Indiana farm to soon receive final certification, and the salmon will take about 18 months to grow to a harvest size of 10 pounds after they arrive.
Source: CNN/ Star Press/AP
Serendipalm Company Limited, an organic crude palm oil miller and cocoa beans producing company in Akyem Asuom, has procured six brush cutters for the farmer associations the company works with. The various communities are Akyem Asuom, Bomso, Ntronang, Abaam, Abodom and Pramkese. This comes in an effort to help reduce the drudgery in controlling farm weeds by the farmer associations in their oil palm and cocoa plantations.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Women in the Driving Seat
Training women in tractor Operation, Maintenance and Management
Background
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), through the Agricultural Engineering Services Directorate (AESD) and in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, is organising five (5) weeks training course for prospective female tractor operators, female farm managers, female tractor owners and female farmers at the Agricultural Mechanisation Training Centre at Wenchi Farm Institute. The training is expected to start from 6th April-10th May, 2019.
The training forms part of the African Union Development Agency’s (AUDA-NEPAD) Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training for Women (ATVET Women) project. GIZ supports the implementation of ATVET for Women in Ghana and 11 other partner countries to strengthen the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
Training overview
The ‘Women in the Driving Seat’ training programme seeks to develop women’s skills in managing agricultural machinery and equipment for enhanced agricultural productivity in Ghana. The overall objective is to increase women’s employability and earning potential, particularly in the field of mechanised agriculture
The course targets prospective female agricultural machinery operators and female farmers. Trainees will acquire the requisite knowledge and practical skills to operate, manage and maintain tractors and related equipment. The training centres with support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Government of Ghana and GIZ, have been stocked with a range of agricultural machinery as training materials.
Trainees will be required to undergo a three-month industrial internship with various commercial farms and other industry players specifically in the field of agricultural mechanisation to enable them have enough practical field experience.
Training shall include the following:
UNIT NUMBER UNIT TITLE
1.0. Introduction to farm tractors, the operating systems and the components
2.0. Environmental health and safety management in tractor operations
3.0. Understanding tractor controls, instruments and driving
4.0. Agricultural machineries and tractor operations
5.0. Maintenance and storage of farm tractors and implements
6.0. Tractor operation business and management
Selection Criteria
• Women between the ages of 18 – 40 years
• Access to tractor
• Basic literacy and numeracy skills
Interested prospective female tractor operators and farmers are requested to apply by writing through the Regional and District/Municipal Agric. Departments to The Director, Agricultural Engineering Services Directorate, MoFA, Accra or to submit their details to the Headmaster, Wenchi Farm Institute in the Bono East Region.
Successful applicants will be required to report to the training centre on Saturday 6th April, 2019 at Wenchi Farm Institute.
Deadline for submission of application is 20th March, 2019.
FOR ENQUIRIES, you may contact EUGENE M. ABIO (AESD) on 0208953510 or eugeneabio@hotmail.com and MICHAEL BOATENG (GIZ CAADP ATVET Women Project) on 0244830565.
CHIEF DIRECTOR
MOFA
Graduates from the various Agricultural Colleges in the country have expressed their displeasure over the government’s failure to honour their contract to engage them under the Youth Employment Agency Agriculture Module.
In a press release, the graduates recounted the promises the government made to them, which promise will allow the graduates to serve as Agriculture Extension Agents to augment the services of agriculture extension for farmers in the commencement of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
The graduates debunked the claim by government that it has employed 1700 graduates in February, 2017 as agriculture extension agents. According to the aggrieved graduates, only 570 graduates are currently in the service, and not 1700 as announced by government.
An unemployed graduate who spoke to Agric Today vented out his frustration about the development. According to him, even those that have been issued appointment letters are not part of the already agric extension agents under the Youth Employment Agency.
They are calling on the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and the government in general to remember the agreement they reached before the commencement of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme and recruite them with urgency.
Press release……
20/02/2019
Breach of contract
The entire membership of the agric extension agents under Youth In Agric Extension module of the YEA from all the Agric colleges in the country, wishes to register and announce our displeasure to the general public and the minister of agric, the unfulfillment of the agreement and the promise given us before the commencement of the government’s flagship program PLANTING FOR FOOD AND JOBS.
Even though we the agric graduates were the first to work under the Youth Employment Agency as graduates, we accepted the offer based on the agreement between us and the Hon. minister of agric. These agreements were;
1. After the exit from the IMF program and clearance given, we would be the first to be given appointment into the service.
2. We shall be given all the benefits given to our senior officers such as provision of protective clothing, TnT, wellington boots.
1700 agric graduates have accepted to work for the nation based on the above agreements for two years, out of which only 570 were at post till date.1130 decline the offer due to unfavorable working conditions we face on daily basis. We buy our own wellington boots, commute ourselves to the field on daily basis without our TnT, non-regular and refusal of payments of our monthly stipend of ghc 350.00, which has caused some of our members to be highly indebted to their landlords and other service providers of their homes, and non-provision of our protective clothing.
Our lips were full of joy when we were called for interview in November, 2018 at the institute of local government, for the recruitment exercise, which we all honored with joy.
We are left into suspense, dismay and dilemma when in the beginning of February till date, our colleagues who openly and vehemently rejected the Planting For Food and Jobs because of the unattractiveness of the conditions of services and the meager monthly allowance involved (GHC 350.00) were now called for appointment letters, just in the name of protocols, leaving those of us who are already on the field working and having the requisite working experiences.
We see this behavior as inhuman and a complete cheat to we those who sacrificed our life, time, energy and resources for the nation and therefore calling the appropriate stakeholders and the minister of Agriculture, Hon. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto as a matter of urgency remember his promises to us and come to our aid.
SIGNED…..
(Concerned Members)
Cc: All media houses
Minister of Agriculture
All stakeholders
Reporter: Abass Iddrisu – AgricToday News.
Cocoa is one of the raw materials that give high foreign exchange to the government of Ghana. Ghana’s cocoa is one of the best in the world. Due to the high foreign exchange accrued by the government from Cocoa, government of Ghana normally support the cocoa farmers by providing them with fertilizers, cocoa seedlings and other materials needed to boost cocoa production. The story is however different in Asikesu Odumase, Aburi and Asikesu.
In a quest to promote the involvement of the youths in the agricultural value chain to curb unemployment and to support and promote Ghana Beyond Aid, the Ghana Agribusiness Centre (GABC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and Business Development and Association of Ghana is to organize a monthly seminar under the theme ‘Demystifying the Building Blocks of Agribusiness, A Real Definition for Ghana Beyond Aid’.
Young farmers believe that the incubation hub would decrease post-harvest losses by bringing innovation for food security and adding value to traditional crops to turn them into cash crops.
