Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his second term by expanding an income support program for India’s small farmers, increasing the initiative’s annual cost to $12.5 billion for the new government that’s facing an economic slowdown.
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Uganda Defies Odds, Crop Volumes Rise.
Maize, beans and cassava production has increased over the past three years.
IN SUMMERY
• A report released this past week notes that production and export volumes of the three food crops has increased over the past three years.
• The report says government prioritised maize production “due to its high potential for food security and contribution to export earnings.”
• In the financial year 2015/16, Uganda’s maize production stood at 2.26 tonnes, with the country exporting 308,911 tonnes worth $102.2 million.
Production of food particularly maize, beans and cassava has increased over the past three financial years in Uganda, even as the region lives in fear of looming food insecurity due to unreliable rains and adverse weather.
A report released by the country’s Ministry of Agriculture this past week notes that production and export volumes of the three food crops has increased over the past three financial years.
The report says government prioritised maize production “due to its high potential for food security and contribution to export earnings.”
In the financial year 2015/16, Uganda’s maize production stood at 2.26 tonnes, with the country exporting 308,911 tonnes worth $102.2 million.
In 2017/2018, production increased to 3.2 million tonnes and the country exported 1.36 tonnes of maize worth $352.1 million
Government programmes like the Operation Wealth Creation saw over 14.6 million bags of maize seeds distributed to both commercial and small scale farmers in 104 districts since 2016.
The volume of beans—which are grown mainly by household farmers—was 1.1 million tonnes in the financial year 2016/2017, with exports at 144,925 tonnes worth $71.8 million.
The following financial year, according to the report presented by Agriculture Minister Vincent Ssempijja, the volume of beans increased to 1.21 million tonnes.
Cassava which is also used to make flour, animal feeds and alcohol, saw an increase from 3.02 million tonnes in 2015/16 to 3.4 million tonnes in 2017 /2018 but authorities say the crop has potential to do better.
“The ministry has developed programmes to promote research in high yielding and climate resilient varieties which are now being disseminated in the area with the best production capacity,” the report notes
Other food crops whose production volumes increased are rice and fruits.
Food insecurity
The increase in production comes at a time regional governments are predicting food insecurity and possible famine after intense droughts, rainstorms and flooding in parts of Kenya and Uganda.
Because of increased drought and unpredictable rainfall, the Office of the Prime Minister projects that harvests from the country’s first farming season this year will fall by 50 per cent compared with the first crop season of 2018.
The country has also reportedly budgeted for Ush40 million ($10.5 million) for emergency procurement of food items and Ush39 billion ($10.2 million) for fast maturing seed varieties of food crops like maize and beans.
Agriculture junior minister Christopher Kibazanga said that the ministry has submitted a request for a supplementary budget to purchase fast growing seeds to fill the predicted food gaps this year
In recent years, Uganda has experienced food shortages in areas like Karamoja, Teso and Nakasongola which lie within the cattle corridor, but the country enjoys food availability in the central and western regions throughout the year.
The discrepancies, Mr Kibazanga said, are due to a lack of interest from the private sector and the absence of market linkages both locally and internationally.
“Farmers and vendors in parts of the country experience food rotting while there is no food in other parts,” he said.
“There is a need for the private sector to exploit the distribution chain and identify regions where food is in plenty and take it to where it is needed most.”
To mitigate the ripple effects of climate change which threatens the region’s food security, government is supporting agriculture modernisation and research, as well as better agronomical practices like the use of improved technologies, provision of extension services, control of pests, vectors and diseases, mechanisation, and investment in irrigation.
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Government suspends export of some vegetables.
The National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) has suspended, indefinitely, the export of Capsicum, Solanum, Luffa and all leafy vegetables to any international market.
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The Ghana Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable on Sustainable Development Goals (GYERSDGs) Launched.
The Presidential advisor on SDGs to the president of Ghana, Dr. Eugene Owusu has urged the youth to make agriculture an integral part of their lives and see it as a profitable business Avenue for job creation and poverty reduction.
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Adopt climate-smart measures to improve coffee production – Deputy COCOBOD CEO
A deputy Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in charge of Agronomy and Quality control, Dr. Emmanuel Dwomoh, has urged farmers in the production of coffee in the African continent to adopt Climate-Smart options in their day-to-day farming practices in order to boost their yield so as to increase production.
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United Nations IDO (UNIDO) presents Farmcrowdy with Disruptive Innovation in Agribusiness International Award.
Farmcrowdy Group, Nigeria’s first Digital Agriculture Company, yesterday received theDisruptive Innovation in Agribusiness Awardgranted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in Rome, Italy.
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Over 1000 Dynamic Agro Forestry Dynamic Farms to be Established in Eastern Region.
Over one thousand (1,000) Dynamic Agroforestry farms covering a land area of 2,500 hectares are expected to be established by farmers in the Kwaebibirem Municipality of the Eastern region by 2021.
This is an initiative of an Organic and Regenerative Agriculture company in Akyem Asuom, Serendipalm Company Limited with funding from AgDevCo through its Small-holders Development Unit programme in Ghana.
Commencing the first phase of the programme, thirty (30) dynamic agroforestry farms have been established by farmers as a measure to curb the depletion of the climate and to create multiple streams of income from their farms.
Dynamic agroforestry is an ecologically-friendly farming system or technique of growing different types of crops on the same piece of farm lands with respect to the conservation of the natural biodiversity.
The farms were established with different crops with different economic values grown on the same piece of land. Some of the crops established by the farmers were cocoa, oil palm, avocado, plantain, cassava, cocoyam, orange, maize, pigeon peas, cowpea, ginger, tumeric and other vegetables.
Timber species such as “Emire”, “Ofram”, “Gmelina”, “Acacia” and “Denya” and “Avodale would be grown as well.”.
The farmers were from Akyem Pramkese, Asuom, Bomso, Abaam and Abodom who are working with the Serendipalm Company Limited in its effort to regenerate the depleted ecosystem.
Speaking with the beneficiary farmers at a Workshop and Training session on the installation and management of Dynamic Agroforestry field, the experts and consultants from Eco-Top Bolivia, Mr. Bastian Dreher and Mr. Joachim Milz introduced the farmers to the techniques and practices of the farming system which has been adopted in other parts of the world and making a positive effect to the environment.
The farmers were encouraged to practice farming systems that will conserve the biodiversity and to ensure sustainable environment and food security.
The Managing Director of Serendipalm Company Limited, Mr. Safianu Moro on his part encouraged the beneficiaries to co-operate in the effort to establish a system that would help conserve the environment for our present and future living. “The Dynamic Agroforestry system of farming is definitely the future and we must all direct our effort to make it a reality” Safianu Moro said.
He also expressed appreciation to the Dr. Bronners the founding sister of the Serendipalm, the workers, farmers and the consultants from Eco-Top for their various role towards sustainable agriculture in the Ghana.
The farmers were full of joy and are in the position to commit themselves to the conservation of the environment for the present and future generations through sustainable farming. They said “The farming system would ensure a continuous stream of income for our home management and food security”.
Aborbi Boateng, a farmer from Akyem Asuom said “Serendipalm since its inception in the area has made a greater impact in our lives through its sustainable activities and I believe this farming practice introduced to me today is here to improve upon our lives”.
Dynamic Agroforestry system of farming has become necessary as result of the destruction of the natural biodiversity for large scale crop production, mining and other degrading activities on the environment. To ensure sustainable farming system there is the need to practice a dynamic cropping system that supports the ecology.
Abass Iddrisu/agrictoday.com.gh
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€50m EU aid fund agreed for Irish beef farmers.
The European Commission has agreed a €50 million exceptional aid fund for Irish beef farmers.
The money is to compensate farmers for the fall in beef prices suffered as a result of Brexit.
The Government will be allowed to top-up the fund to bring the total amount to €100m.
The Irish Farmers’ Association had complained that some of its members were facing financial ruin on foot of what they said was a horrendous loss of €101m suffered by beef farmers due to Brexit- related uncertainties, changes to the value of sterling, and price cuts since the Brexit vote.
The European Commission examined the case and agreed that Brexit has indeed caused a substantial market disturbance for beef farmers in Ireland that exceptional aid is justified.
European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan says he expects the €50m in EU assistance will be topped up to €100m by the Government to fully compensate the farmers.
The full details of how the fund will be operated will be finalised as a matter of urgency between his own officials and those at the Department of Agriculture.
The commissioner said the timing of the announcement was not linked to the Local and European elections.
He said there are ten national elections in the European Union, three presidential elections, as well the European Parliament elections and if the commission had to wait for a time with no elections they would never make any announcements or any decisions.
He said the fund is a recognition of the particular difficulty that Irish beef farmers have experienced due to events beyond their control and that the European Commission concluded that the sector needed an immediate response.
The financial support for Irish farmers is an emergency measure provided for in the Common Market Organisation Regulation, under the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.
It is similar to other measures taken by the European Commission in response to other specific problems, whether arising from the introduction of the Russian ban or particular difficulties in the European diary sector in recent years.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also rejected suggestions around the timing of the aid package to beef farmers.
“If we could have got it over the line a few weeks ago, we would have been very happy with that”, he said.
IFA President Joe Healy said every advantage must be used to ensure the agriculture industry is protected.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Mr Healy said the IFA has been pushing for this for some time.
“We know there’s an election, and you use every advantage you can to ensure you safeguard an industry that’s worth €3 billion to Ireland. We’re always lobbying, it just so happened that this coincided with an election. We’re a lobby organisation, we make no apologies for that.”
He said the agriculture sector has suffered more than others due to Brexit, and that the anger from farmers who have seen beef prices fall is “palpable”.
“There was anger, frustration and despair. We’ve highlighted the losses that farmers have incurred since the onset of Brexit, because no country has been as badly affected as Ireland since the Brexit referendum, and no sector as badly as agriculture.”
Mr Healy said that although Brexit has not yet happened, it was the uncertainty surrounding the situation that was causing problems.
He said Ireland exports 90% of its beef, and 52% of that goes to the UK and any uncertainty around currency can have an effect.
He said now that they have the fund, they need to ensure that it is paid out to farmers as quickly as possible and with as little red tape as possible.
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SCORES OF FARMERS TO BENEFIT FROM FREE COCOA SEEDLINGS IN KWAHU EAST DISTRICT.
In an effort to improve and boost the agriculture base of the Kwahu East District of the Eastern region, farmers are to be benefit from free cocoa seedlings distribution from the District Assembly for planting in the 2019 crop season.
The District Assembly is to distribute fifty thousand (50,000) quality and high yielding cocoa seedlings to farmers across the district to enhance cocoa production in the area.
The free cocoa seedlings distribution is in line to support the government of Ghana’s flagship programme dubbed “Planting for Export and Development (PERD) under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) of which cocoa is an integral crop in the implementation of the programme.
Speaking with the media in Kwahu Abetifi, the District Chief Executive Hon. Isaac Agyapong said the cocoa seedlings project is the vision of the Assembly to support the farmers across the district to expand, develop and rejuvenate their old cocoa farms to boost the internally generated revenue of the district.
Cocoa is a key crop cultivated by the gallant farmers in the district and supporting them with viable and high yielding seedlings at no cost is an incentive to encourage more people into the agriculture sector and to add up to the district funds for development – Hon. Isaac Agyapong said.
The beneficiaries of the free distribution of the cocoa seedlings would also benefit from free modern trends, skills and management of their cocoa farms through the District Department of Agriculture to enhance and improve the farm’s productivity. Cocoa production has the potential to create jobs and also help expand income generated qualities for all farmers who cultivate it.
The District Chief Executive urged the teeming unemployed youth and the indigenes of the Kwahu East district to involve themselves in the various agriculture policies outlined by the government so far to create jobs and some considerable income for their living.
Hon. Isaac Agyapong also said “The government of Ghana is committed to enhance a better economic standard of living for all citizens and this has been through various programmes and we must all take them seriously and become the greater beneficiaries”.
Abass Iddrisu/agrictoday.com.gh
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Anti-GMO Forces in Nigeria Have Abandoned Reason and the Nation’s Best Interests.
Anti-GMO forces in Nigeria are ratcheting up their opposition to the commercial release of the nation’s first two genetically engineered crops – versions of cotton and cowpea designed to resist a devastating pest.
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