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African Development Bank Group and research centres to transform African agriculture and improve food security

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The African Development Bank Group and the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR) committed on Thursday to strengthen their collaboration to increase food production and provide better nutrition for Africa’s growing population.

With 65% of global uncultivated arable land, the African Development Bank believes that the continent can feed itself and the rest of the world.

African Development Bank President Dr Akinwumi Adesina received Africa-based Directors General of CGIAR at the bank headquarters in Abidjan on Thursday to forge ways of scaling up food and agricultural productivity on the continent.

CGIAR centres are located across African countries and focus on enhancing food and nutrition security, reducing poverty, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. They are critical to achieving food security on the continent, just as their counterparts in Southeast Asia and Latin America were also key to accelerating agricultural growth and food self-sufficiency.

Thursday’s meeting was the first coordinated group visit by the four directors-general/regional directors and one deputy director general of CGIAR for Africa to a financing partner and came two days after Dr Adesina hosted a visit from United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during which the head of US diplomacy praised the bank for the exceptional efforts it is undertaking to help Africa feed itself and the rest of the world.

The leaders focused on securing long-term financing for research activities and for CGIAR to enhance its effectiveness across the continent. They also discussed capacity building for country-based national agricultural research services partners, young scientists and extension workers, and private-sector seed growers to produce certified seeds.

The Bank played a key role in the process of reforming CGIAR to make its work relevant and sustainable in Africa.

The Bank President, Dr Adesina, said: “I was pleased with the reforms at CGIAR, and we must ensure that it is held accountable for results which must be at scale. We must unlock Africa’s agricultural potential and deploy technologies to millions of African farmers. CGIAR is central to that.

“I have made agriculture central to the work of this bank and central to the future of our continent.”

Dr Adesina added that the African Development Bank, with the approval of its board of directors, could consider including CGIAR in its long-term lending programme to countries:

“CGIAR leaders have local knowledge, experience and networks and are better placed to work with national institutions to combat climate change and increase productivity and food security.”

The Bank is also keen to work with the consortium to expand its work on capacity development for young scientists and farmers.

The delegation expressed their readiness to assist the Bank’s regional member countries to implement the outcomes of the Dakar 2 Food Summit(link is external), which the Bank, the African Union, and the government of Senegal jointly convened. The January 2023 summit was attended by 34 Heads of State and Government, 75 ministers, and heads of development partners. To date, it has mobilised over $70 billion in an unprecedented global effort.

Leading the delegation, CGIAR Regional Director for Continental Africa and Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr. Simeon Ehui said: “The African Development Bank has been a long-standing partner of the CGIAR in providing technology. We are confident that the African Development Bank’s support will continue and increase.”

The Director General of the AfricaRice Centre and CGIAR Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Dr Baboucarr Manneh, commended the African Development Bank for continuing to support the institution with rice-based technologies for farmers:

“The Bank’s support for the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) varieties has led to the expansion of rice production in some African countries. We now have more than two million hectares of rice,”.

Dr Manneh added that the Bank has also supported AfricaRice through the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Rice Compact, which has greatly impacted food productivity in many countries on the continent.

TAAT is a proven approach to scaling up technology. It is delivering significant results for wheat in Ethiopia and Sudan and for maize in Kenya and southern Africa. Following the success of TAAT phases I and II, the African Development Bank President announced that the Bank plans to roll out phase III.

The African Development Bank, together with the AfricaRice centre, recently launched the $650 million Regional West Africa Rice Development (REWARD) programme in 15 West African countries. The programme will involve one million farmers cultivating up to 750,000 hectares of land to produce 53 million tons of rice over five years.

Regional Director for Central and West Asia and North Africa, CGIAR, and Director General of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aly Abousabaa, spoke about the challenges in the North, where temperatures are rising. He highlighted how his centre is trying out a revolutionary rain induction system to help farmers increase yields.

Deputy Director General for Research and Development – Livestock Genetics and Feeds at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Siboniso Moyo, stressed the importance of increasing livestock productivity in Africa, and the complementary relationship between crops and livestock to ensure animals get good quality feed.

Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR), Dr Eliane Ubalijoro, spoke about the critical contribution trees must make to improving soil health:

“We also want to prioritise how we finance agriculture and transform smallholder farmers, leading to greater food security, improved nutrition, and increased biodiversity”.

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Call for Application: Women for Zero Hunger Program For Women in Africa (Up to €30,000 Grant, 6-months mentorship , Participate in Paris Summit)

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The Women in Africa (WIA) organization invites applications for the Women for Zero Hunger Program, aiming to assist associations in combatting hunger and food insecurity across Africa.

Launched in 2016, WIA Philanthropy is the first international platform dedicated to the economic development and support of African women entrepreneurs. At WIA Philanthropy, they are convinced that Pan-African women contribute greatly, through their actions, to the change and impact they bring to the continent’s progress.

Stop hunger acts locally and sustainably for a hunger-free world. Created 25 years ago by Sodexo employees, Stop Hunger is a global non-profit network mobilized to eliminate food insecurity by leadership activities going beyond food aid, with a priority: empowering women.

The top 7 non-profit organizations will be pre-selected by WIA Philanthropy and Stop Hunger before being presented to the international jury of the program, which will select 3 associations.

Benefits

  • to be visible: to inspire, to be recognized, and to have more impact;
  • Prizes: Each of the 3 non-profit organizations will receive €10,000. At the end of the mentoring period, one of the three finalist associations will be chosen by the jury members on the basis of pre-established criteria and will be invited to the annual Stop Hunger evening in Paris to receive the Stop Hunger trophy. This will give the winning association extra visibility as a crowdfunding operation during the event.
  • Mentoring program: The 3 selected associations will take part in a 6-month personalised mentoring program run by Stop Hunger and WIA Philanthropy. This mentorship will not only help refine their skills and strategies but also strengthen their resilience and ability to overcome specific challenges they may face.

Eligibility Criteria

  • The program is accessible to nonprofit organizations with at least 3 years of experience
  • The association must be African or active in an African country
  • The association must work in at least one African Anglophone and/or Francophone country

Selection Criteria

  • Number of beneficiaries supported by the association
  • Quality of the “solution”
  • Scalability of the “solution”
  • Beneficiaries: the solution must primarily benefit women or girls

Deadline: February 16, 2024

Click HERE to Apply

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Call for Applications: Lead2030 Challenge for SDG13

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Deadline: 1-Mar-24

Applications are now open for the Lead2030 Challenge for SDG13

Deloitte is proud to support the Lead2030 Challenge for SDG13 for the third year in a row. Through this challenge they seek to empower passionate people finding meaningful and innovative ways of tackling climate change.

In line with Deloitte’s ambition to address climate change through ecosystem engagement, the challenge seeks to support scalable youth-led solutions that:

  • Reduce the impacts of climate change, and/or empower others to act on climate change
  • Address root causes of the issue
  • Demonstrate ability to drive impact and potential to scale
  • Collaborate with others to accelerate or broaden impact
  • Utilize innovative approaches.

The challenge is open to young people from social enterprises, non-profits, or community organizations.

They are looking for bold solutions that reduce impacts of climate change and/or empower others to act on climate change. Examples of solutions may include behavioural change, technology solutions or scaling of technology solutions, education, nature-based solutions, community actions or collaborations.

Areas

The solutions should drive impact in at least one of the following areas:

  • Actively contribute to carbon reduction, carbon sequestration, and/or the transition to clean, renewable energy
  • Support or empower local people who are undertaking climate action to improve their community, strengthen resilience and limit the effects of climate change
  • Promote meaningful collaboration across stakeholder groups such as communities, businesses, and governments, to advance climate change solutions and resilience measures
  • Support initiatives that develop job skills, improve educational outcomes, and provide access to opportunities within the green economy
  • Limit the negative human, environmental, or societal impacts brought on by climate change
  • Prize
  • The winning solution will receive:
    • Sponsorship to participate in the One Young World Summit 2024
    • A US$50,000 grant from Deloitte
    • 12 months of mentorship from a team of Deloitte professionals and partners. The mentorship team will work to accelerate your solution based on the needs of your initiative or organisation, such as:
      • Business strategy
      • Best practices for data collection
      • Monitoring and evaluation
      • Product design
  • Challenge Criteria
  • Aligned: Evidently aligned with the SDG13 challenge.
  • Youth-led: Founded by a person aged 18 – 30.
  • Focused: Well-structured time horizon, identified key stakeholders and beneficiaries, and proposed outcomes that are reasonable and well thought out.
  • Proven: Solution is readily available, being piloted, implemented, or scaled
  • Impactful: Solutions must have a positive social impact, for example, generating educational outcomes, employment opportunities, or developing skills.
  • Measurable: Solution’s impact in society must be adequately measured and/or be measurable.
  • Financially viable: Must be able to achieve efficiency and to survive independently through the resources they generate and/or the investments and donations they attract.
  • Scalable: Potential to grow impact after expanding in scope or size and/or into other regions.
  • Technologically feasible: Must rely on proven or readily available technology (if technology is relevant to the solution).
  • For more information, visit One Young World.

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The country that produces the most cocoa in the World: Ghana loosing her heritage.

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Cocoa and chocolate production is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s a driving force behind some of the world’s most powerful food companies, including Nestlé, Mars, and the Ferrero Group.

These massive brands have made chocolate an everyday item that most of us take for granted, but the very existence of the chocolate industry is nothing short of remarkable when you consider its origin.

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, the fruit of cacao trees. These trees can only grow in very specific conditions; they need hot temperatures, high humidity, and lots of water. This type of tropical climate is only found within a narrow stretch of the planet, around the equator.

The taste of cocoa varies by country, but you’re unlikely to experience that variety because it mostly comes from the same place. While you can get some cocoa from Central America or South Asia, it’s West Africa that dominates the industry.

The world’s leading cocoa-producing country by far is Côte d’Ivoire (frequently anglicized as the Ivory Coast).

According to Statista, Côte d’Ivoire produced 2.2 million tons of cocoa beans in 2022, nearly three times as much as the world’s second-largest producer — neighboring Ghana — which put out 750,000 tons.

Over a quarter of Côte d’Ivoire’s population relies on cocoa for a living, but they reap just a tiny fraction of the chocolate industry’s colossal profits.

Now, a growing movement is fighting for farmers’ rights, and it could drastically change the cocoa industry.

Côte d’Ivoire runs on cocoa
It’s impossible to overstate how important cocoa is to the people of Côte d’Ivoire.

In an interview with The Guardian, N’Zi Kanga Rémi — who governs the Adzopé Department just north of the nation’s largest city, Abidjan— explained that virtually every aspect of life in Côte d’Ivoire is dependent on a robust cocoa industry.

“My education was funded by cocoa! Our houses are built with cocoa! The foundations of our roads, our schools, our hospitals is cocoa! Our government runs on cocoa! All our policy focuses on sustaining cocoa!” he declared.

Farmers in Côte d’Ivoire grow and harvest raw cocoa beans, but they’re largely excluded from the chocolate production process. Although cocoa is the defining ingredient in chocolate, some giant brands often undercut its value.

The actual cocoa percentage of chocolate can vary significantly, and manufacturers may use minimal amounts to stretch their supply for the most products (and profit). Ultimately, it’s the companies that sell the finished product that reap the real rewards.

Most of the cocoa produced in Côte d’Ivoire gets exported to Europe, where the largest producers are located. Few people in Côte d’Ivoire even get to eat the fruit of their labor.

The average citizen eats only about a pound of chocolate per year, while the Swiss, who are the world’s leading chocolate consumers, eat about 22 pounds annually (via World Population Review). The average American eats 10 pounds per year

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Entrepreneur seeks to boost agribusiness sector with technology

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Isaac Sesi posing for a picture while holding the GrainMate moisture meter in Accra Ghana. Photo Courtesy: Richard Akakpo

Sesi Technologies, an agricultural technology firm, focuses on creating cost-effective, technology-driven solutions for farmers. The company’s flagship product, the GrainMate, is a grain moisture meter designed to help those handling grains effortlessly gauge the moisture content, thereby minimising post-harvest losses.

Isaac Sesi picks up a small bucket of maize to demonstrate the latest iteration of his moisture-measuring device. After powering the device with batteries, he presses a button, bringing up a white screen that displays various grain options for testing. He chooses the maize category and presses another button to initiate the reading. Sesi is demonstrating the most recent model of the GrainMate moisture meter, a device he developed to combat food loss in rural farming communities.

“Moisture content is one of the physical quantities that are essential in determining the quality of your end product, so we have come up with the GrainMate to make it easy to know how much moisture content you have in your product,” Sesi explains.

As a young man from a farming community in the Ashanti region of Ghana, Sesi became familiar with the challenges of storing grain the hard way, witnessing the difficulties his parents and other farmers experienced when trying to store their farm produce. He dedicated his academic career to finding a solution to this food loss.

His first iteration of the device was completed in 2018. The idea was to help farmers, aggregators, feed producers and anyone in the grain value chain to easily measure moisture content in their grain before storage, feed preparation or processing.

“One aspect of food security is in the process of being able to reduce or mitigate post-harvest losses because 30% of the food that we produce is lost … If we can cut down on these losses, that will bode well for our food security because the food that is being lost is food that can feed other people,” Sesi says.

Currently, Sesi Technologies’ GrainMate is less expensive compared to other, imported, moisture meter brands.

Sesi’s company offers two models. One is for regular grains, which is sold at 800 Ghanaian cedis (about US$65) while a second model extends to high-value commodities such as shea nuts. That version costs 1,000 Ghanaian cedis (about US$83).

Sesi graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and used his final year research project to come up with the GrainMate.

“In Ghana, with research, you just finish and put it on the shelf so you move on with your life but we thought that we developed something pretty good so we wanted to make it beneficial to farmers so I started Sesi Technologies to commercialise the output of my research at KNUST,” Sesi says.

The company’s breakthrough came with a sale of 150 of the devices. “Sesi Technologies was initially financed through a large pre-order by an international non-profit. This gave us the funds we needed to produce our first 150 units and hire our first employee,” the entrepreneur said in a previous interview.

Since then, Sesi has depended on revenue from sales of moisture meters and other services, while his company has received funding from a range of sources.

“We started with no money, absolutely no money. We just started by trying to commercialise this technology. How we were able to manufacture our first batch was that we got some pre-orders so we asked the client to pay for 70% so that we could use it to finance the initial inventory,” he says.

Determined to reach as many farmers as possible, Sesi participated in various start-up support programmes. He emerged as the overall winner of the GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize, an award for African agri-food innovators and entrepreneurs who are developing solutions for the agriculture value chain, in 2019.

“We won the overall US$50,000 prize.”

This prize helped him to scale both production and human resources.

“We have about 25 people in our team and that tells you that our wage bill every month is substantial and we’re making progress. We also have our field team who are in charge of providing services that we provide to farmers,” he explains.

Over 5,000 farmers have now tried out the device, although uptake has been slower than Sesi and his young team anticipated. “There’s very slow adoption to new technology and so we have not seen the kind of rapid adoption that we are looking at.”

However, feedback from the current pool of users keeps Sesi and his team motivated.

“For instance, poultry farmers use our device to check the moisture content of the different components of the feed before they put it together. When they do that they tell us that once they know the moisture content they see the quality of the feed is high, productivity is high and their birds don’t suffer from diseases because our device helps them.”

In an earlier interview with How we made it in Africa, Sesi said his biggest mistake was underestimating how long it would take to build the product. “We were new to building commercial hardware products and we didn’t anticipate all the challenges we would face along the way. This led to us overpromising our biggest customer who had made a huge bet on us. It almost caused our downfall. Now we know better.”

Sesi is optimistic about growth and is eyeing a local manufacturing facility employing skilled engineers to increase production capacity and push mass adoption of the GrainMate device.

“In the end, the goal is to be able to produce and assemble more,” he says.

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Rice imports to Ghana fell 45.34% between 2021 and 2023 – Agric Ministry

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Rice imports to Ghana fell by about 45.34% between 2021 and 2023, data from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has revealed.

In 2021, the total rice import was estimated at 805,000 metric tons (MT). It fell to 650,000 MT in 2022 and subsequently to 440,000 MT in 2023.

This reduction, according to various stakeholders in the industry, could be attributed to increases in import taxes and the reversal of the benchmark value discount policy on some selected imported products including rice into the country.

Farmers over the years have lamented about the lack of buyers for harvested rice in warehouses across the country and price disparities on the market as a result of cheap smuggled foreign rice brands.

To make up for the shortfall in the overall national rice supply, the report said Ghana must produce 1.0 million metric tons of rice locally to be self-sufficient.  This will help save the nation about $500 million in import expenditure annually.

To empower local production, the government decided to ban cereal exports from September 2021 to September 2022, which was to ensure price increases and market availability of local rice.

This was after Ghana’s import bill exceeded $10 billion annually (comprising of rice, fish, poultry, and palm oil).

According to Agriculture Research for Sustainable Development (CIRAD,2007), Ghana’s rice self-sufficiency ratio declined from 38% in 1999 to 24 percent in 2006, but increased to about 43% in 2020.

This discovery, the report said, calls for more efforts to make the local rice value chain competitive to drive growth and economic transformation.

Government launched PFJ in 2017

In 2017, the Government of Ghana launched its flagship policy, the Planting for Food and Jobs which was to modernize agriculture, improve production efficiency, and achieve food security, and profitability for farmers. The second Phase of the policy was further launched in July 2023 to leverage information technology to avoid the key pitfall in the phase one of the PFJ.

The PFJ summarily targeted a significant increase in agricultural productivity and pursued a value-addition strategy, aimed at rapidly ramping up agro-processing and developing new and stable markets. However, critics say the programme has been a failure as food inflation rose to over 50 percent last year forcing the Ministry to transport food from rural areas to cities to mitigate the impact.

The government plans to provide 34,682 metric tons of seeds to farmers in 2024.

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Forest reserves as large as 30 football fields destroyed by illegal miners at Anhwiaso 

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Illegal miners have cut down vegetation covering more than forty acres of land in the Anwhiaso-Bibiani Municipality of the Western-North Region. 

This vast amount of space, comparable to thirty football fields, included several farmlands in the Aboabo community, the Anhwiaso River and portions of the Anhwiaso East Forest Reserve. 

Residents of the Aboabo community are however unperturbed by the destruction as they are ready to trade more farmlands to the miners.

The unlawful mining activities in many areas of the country, especially in the Ashanti and the Western regions continue to wreak havoc on land, forest reserves and water bodies in mining communities.

Trees have been felled, cocoa farmsu and important economic crops have been cleared, either illegally or willingly by farmers for galamsey to thrive. 

At Aboabo, a small farming community in the Anwhiaso enclave, illegal miners have subdued farm lands spanning several acres.  

The Anwhiaso East Forest Reserve, which is one of 8 forest zones of the Anwhiaso-Bibiani municipality, have also seen portions intruded by illegal miners in their quest for gold.

The Aboabo River and Aframpie River have been heavily impacted.  

The Aboabo river, which leads to the Ankobra river, has been blocked to supply water for the illegal mining activities.

Despite the intervention by the Rapid Response Team of the Forestry Commission in 2019, the situation persists as farmers and community members connive with illegal miners to harm the forest. 

Theophilus Kofie, a resident, says the community is willing to lease all lato illegal miners.

“The presence of Galamseyers have brought us development. They have given us a road, helping with the construction of our school block. We are in support of what they do here,” he said.

Some political leaders in the area are alleged to be owning illegal mining sites.

Christopher Agyedu says he is ready to resist attempts to restore the wreckage, saying the galamseyers obtained the lands lawfully. 

”Galamseyers did not force anyone. They came into agreements with owners of these ones and they willingly leased them,” he said.

Whilst their resistance has been fierce, some concerned community members are appalled by the looming health and environmental hazards of illegal mining. 

Chem Samuel, a farmer in the Aboabo community, observed that strong political hands make the fight against illegal miners difficult. 

He is therefore appealing to the Minerals Commission and anti-galamsey institutions to intensify measures in curbing the menace in the Anhwiaso enclave. 

”Those in support of this menace at Aboabo even said, it would not go anywhere. And an individual like me has no strength, fiance, or military. I would appeal that the government and mineral commission take this up and intensify the fight,” he said. 

Municipal Chief Executive, Paul Andoh, however believes the authorities in the municipality have been proactive in the fight against illegal mining. 

He says lack of jobs and quest for development should not be an excuse for the devastating of lands, forests and water bodies through illegal mining. 

“When we got the Intel, we gathered the municipality’s security force to halt the exercise. We seized four excavators, although the owner is still unknown. And so we have been proactive about the situation. 

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Consumers pay more but farmers’ earnings constant

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Kenyan farmers have consistently earned less even as consumers pay more for food products, a new report has revealed.

The report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (Fao) dubbed the World Bank and Agriculture Statistical Year Book 2023, compares annual changes in prices received by farmers against inflation in food consumer prices.

The data shows a persistent disparity between the increase in consumer food prices and the prices received by farmers through to the end of 2022.

For example, inflation in food consumer prices stood at 12.9 percent against a lesser increase in prices received by farmers at 7.1 percent.

In 2021, inflation in food consumer prices was recorded at 8.9 percent against a 3.8 percent increase in the prices received by farmers over the same period.

The disparity in earnings to consumer prices was at its widest in 2020 when the annual change in prices received by farmers contracted by 44.1 percent against a 6.4 percent jump in food consumer prices inflation.

Prices fetched by Kenyan farmers are usually influenced partly by an inefficient market structure that features a multitude of intermediaries, driving down value for farmers.

Middlemen dictate what a farmer gets with the actors including corrupt police and county officers manning roadblocks, contributing to the divergent wholesale and retail prices.

It is believed that manipulation of pricing right from the farm gate to the retail outlet, with the middlemen allocating profit margins in the value chain, largely to their advantage.

The Fao report traces the spike in food consumer prices, mainly to periodic shocks to global demand and supply chains.

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Global food production at risk as rising temperatures threaten farmers’ physical ability to work – Research.

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The future of global food production is under threat as temperature rises will impact farmers’ physical capacity to work, a new study has revealed.

The research—which brings together Loughborough University, Australian and U.S. universities—predicts that by the end of the century labor productivity could fall as low as 40% in key food production regions like Pakistan and India.

While other important crop-growing regions in Southeast and South Asia, West and Central Africa, and northern South America are expected to see physical work capacity reduced to 70%.

“Assessments consistently conclude that climate change will reduce crop yields making food security challenges worse,” says study lead Professor Gerald Nelson, of the University of Illinois.

“But it’s not only crops and livestock that are affected. The agricultural workers who plant, till, and harvest much of the food we need will also suffer due to heat exposure, reducing their ability to undertake work in the field.”

Published in the journal Global Change Biology, the study, titled “Global reductions in manual agricultural work capacity due to climate change,” involved using computational models to predict the physical work capacity (PWC)—defined as “an individuals work capacity relative to an environment without any heat stress“—under different predicted climate change scenarios.

The models, developed by Loughborough University, are based on data from more than 700 heat stress trials—which involved observing people working in a wide range of temperatures and humidities, and differing weather conditions, including sunshine and wind.

The maximum work capacity achievable by individuals in a cool climate was used as the benchmark for the study—representing 100% physical work capacity.

Reductions in capacity mean people are limited in what they can physically do, even if they are motivated to work. This may translate as farmers needing extra workers to do the same job, or if these are not available, then reducing their crop sizes.

Agricultural workers are already feeling the heat, the study reveals, with half the world’s cropland farmers estimated to be working below 86% capacity in “recent past” (1991–2010) climate conditions.

As a next step, the study considered potential adaptations to mitigate the impact of climate change on agricultural workers.

Switching to nighttime or shade work to reduce direct solar radiation, was shown to lead to a 5%–10% improvement in worker productivity.

A second investigated option is to increase the global use of mechanical machinery and equipment, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where agricultural practices largely involve hard physical labor.

Of the importance of the study, Loughborough University’s Professor George Havenith said, “This research demonstrates once again the large impact climate change will have on life in various regions around the world, and quantifies the effects on agricultural productivity.

“Understanding the full impact of climate change on worker productivity enables us to predict the economic impact of climate change and guide mitigation efforts that ensure we keep workers safe while limiting productivity losses.

“We hope the suggested adaptations can help guide investments to support agricultural workers and food security as climate change makes the outdoor working environment increasingly inhospitable.”

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Olam Agri Re-certified as top employer in Ghana for the fourth consecutive year

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The Top Employers Institute has recognised Olam Agri as a Top Employer in Ghana as well as in seven other countries including Australia, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Olam Agri is also recognised as a Top Employer in the African continent for the 3rd consecutive year. This recognition reflects the company’s position as a global employer of choice as it strives to give its 9,600 employees the freedom to flourish personally and professionally in a purpose-driven organisation that supports diversity, inclusion, and collaboration.

The Top Employers Institute, the global authority on recognising excellence in People Practices, recognises an organisation’s dedication to a better world of work through excellent Human Resources (HR) policies and people practices. The programme has certified and recognised over 2,300 Top Employers in 121 countries/regions across five continents. The survey covers six domains including People Strategy, Work Environment, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Wellbeing, and more.  

In addition to the Top Employer recognition, Olam Agri has recently received the Great Place to Work® certification for Brazil, India, and Singapore, as well as the Kincentric Best Employers Award for China and Thailand.

Mr. Stephen Adeakye, Head of HR at Olam Agri in Ghana, commenting on the company’s certification in Ghana, said,  

“As we celebrate our fourth consecutive Top Employer Certification, we acknowledge the dedicated efforts of our employees and reaffirm our commitment to nurturing a workplace that inspires excellence and innovation. This recognition motivates us to continue our journey toward setting new standards in employee satisfaction and engagement. By consistently investing in employee development, welfare, and satisfaction, we aim to create a workplace that fosters growth and prosperity.”

Olam Agri’s commitment to building a high-performing organisation and an inspiring workplace is supported by 3 Cs of Culture, Contribution, and Career:

1.    A culture of excellence: a culture that encourages collaboration and teamwork, rewards meritocracy and entrepreneurial spirit that allows intelligent risk-taking, and a diverse and inclusive workplace built on trust and autonomy. Easy access to senior leadership further empowers employees, eliminating bureaucratic hurdles and fostering agile decision-making.

2.    Making a difference: a purpose-driven workplace that has sustainability at its heart. It allows playing our part in strengthening global food security, improving access to better nutrition, enhancing the livelihood of communities, as well as tackling climate change.

3.    Opportunity to Flourish: A global footprint allowing truly global careers. This allows people to take on challenging assignments that broaden their experience and help shape and guide their careers matching their aspirations. Everyone feels valued, recognised, and supported to reach their full potential.  

Top Employers Institute CEO David Plink says: “Exceptional times bring out the best in people and organisations. We have witnessed this in our Top Employers Certification Programme this year: exceptional performance from the certified Top Employers 2024. These employers have always shown that they care for the development and well-being of their people. By doing so, they collectively enrich the world of work. We are proud to announce and celebrate this year’s group of leading people-oriented employers: the Top Employers 2024.”

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