Personnel of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) last Sunday night intercepted a heavy-duty truck loaded with 200 maxi-backs of cocoa beans at Taviefe, near Ho, speeding towards Togo.
The Mercedes Benz truck, BA 265 V, was said to have travelled from Kede, through Accra, Sogakope and Ho before Customs officers caught up with it at Taviefe.
Subsequently, the driver, Felix Tetteh, 30, was arrested and handed over to the police in Ho while the truck was impounded.
Briefing the Daily Graphic soon after the operation, the Director of Special Services of COCOBOD, Charles Amenyaglo, said the operation followed a tip-off and intelligence gathering.
Concealment
According to him, the sacks of cocoa beans were sprinkled with fishmeal and covered with wheat bran to conceal the smell of the cocoa beans on board.
Mr Amenyaglo said initial investigations revealed that the same truck was involved in a cocoa smuggling case in March, this year.
Apart from that, he said, the colour of the truck was changed three times between March and May this year to avoid detection by the security agencies.
Further, Mr Amenyaglo said the truck, which earlier used the Accra- Ho-Hohoe route for cocoa smuggling, now operated through Sogakope to outwit the security agencies.
“We will get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible and process the driver and all those involved for court,” he added.
The Director of Special Services of COCOBOD appealed to patriotic members of the public to readily volunteer information on the activities of cocoa smugglers in the communities to the security agencies and COCOBOD, in the national interest.
He said the driver of the impounded truck was now on police enquiry bail, assisting in investigations into the matter.
The President of the Republic of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on African leaders to foster intra-trade partnerships to ensure sustainable economic growth for the continent
The World Bank has granted a US$ 100 million facility to boost production and improve the value chains of cashew, coconut, and rubber, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Operations at Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA) Foster Boateng has revealed.
A review panel of the Supreme Court has in a 5:4 majority decision affirmed its earlier judgement to declare as unconstitutional a section of the Narcotic Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019) which allows license to be granted to an entity to cultivate a small quantity of cannabis, popularly referred to as “wee” in Ghana for industrial and medicinal purposes.
Ghana’s cashew export earnings in 2020 fetched the nation $340.7 million, with an estimated untapped potential of more than $660 million.
Raphael Ahenu, the National Convener of Cashew Watch Ghana, said the cashew sector had huge potential and prospects to transform the economy and called on the Government to prioritize the development of the industry.
He made the call at the launch of the “Amplifying the Voices of Cashew Farmers (AVFC)” project at Sampa in the Jaman North District of the Bono Region.
The AVFC is a 15-month project being implemented by Cashew Watch Ghana, with funding support from STAR Ghana Foundation.
It is to help empower cashew farmers to grow more by advocating better prices as well as removing bottlenecks in the growth and development of the sector.
There was the need for the Government to capitalise on the global prospects of the economic tree and put pragmatic measures in place to transform the cashew industry as a vehicle for socio-economic development, Mr Ahenu said.
“Ghana’s estimated annual production of between 110,000 and 130,000 tons of raw cashew nuts is not encouraging,” he said, and that more must be done for the industry to contribute significantly to economic growth, particularly in job creation and poverty reduction.
Mr. Ahenu appealed to the Government to increase technical and financial support for the Tree Crop Development Authority to effectively implement the 10-year National Cashew Development Plan.
Victor Yao-Dablu, the Jaman North District Director of Agriculture, said cashew production in the area was encouraging and urged the Government to supply farmers with processors to add value to the nuts.
He commended STAR Ghana Foundation for funding the project and expressed the hope that its implementation would help fetch the farmers a good price for their labor.
Cashew Watch Ghana is a civil society platform comprising cashew farmers, non-governmental organizations, media, and local processors.
The Global cashew market size is projected to hit a value of US$10.5 billion by 2031, the CWG said.
Currently, the global market size is hovering around US$7 billion.
Undernutrition contributes to up to 45% of child deaths in African countries. At the same time, child obesity rates have doubled between 2006 and 2016. More than 40% of women of reproductive age are anaemic. And 13.7% of infants have low weight at birth. Stunting in the African region is 30.7% – above the world average of 22%.
In 2020, over a fifth of Africa’s population faced hunger; 346.4 million people experience severe food insecurity; and 452 million experienced moderate food insecurity.
Nutrition programmes have been supporting families in Africa for decades. But many of these programmes have inconclusive results.
As health psychologists and behavioural scientists, we believe this is because the programmes don’t focus on fitting into families lives. Doing so would also make nutrition interventions sustainable. Understanding the behaviours of the people being targeted by nutrition programmes could improve their nutrition status.
Our recent research looked at the outcomes of studies that had behaviour change embedded within programmes to improve nutrition for mothers and children in sub-Saharan Africa. Our findings show that nutrition programmes that focus on family and community behaviour change have better health outcomes for mothers and children.
The World Health Organization has outlined the importance of behaviour change to support mother and child health and help address barriers in current nutrition programmes. Our study goes a step further to show how to use behaviour change models to design better nutrition programmes.
Behavioural science
Health psychologists and behavioural scientists developed the COM-B model. It suggests that a person’s Capability, Opportunity and Motivation can change their Behaviour. Our study showed that this model can be used to consider what is happening in the lives of people when designing nutrition interventions including what barriers there might be to eating healthy food.
“Capability” from the COM-B model refers to a person’s physical capability, such as their skill sets, and psychological capability, such as knowledge about a behaviour. If a person doesn’t know what foods to be eating to be healthy or doesn’t feel they have the skills to cook healthy foods, they can’t change the behaviour. Programmes need to support people to know what the healthy local foods are and how to cook these foods, potentially through community-led cooking demonstrations. Our findings show that simply educating people isn’t enough. Making lessons interactive and practical in people’s daily lives increases the likelihood of behaviour change.
“Opportunity” from the COM-B model refers to a person’s physical opportunities in their environment, and their social opportunities such as their family and wider community. For example, if communities don’t have apples and bananas growing in their environment, or for sale, then they simply won’t be able access these foods. Programmes therefore need to support the foods that are already available to buy in people’s environment. If possible, they should also support the wider community to grow food. The people around us influence what we do and what we eat. Programmes should try to encourage key community and family figures to support nutrition practices.
“Motivation” from the COM-B model refers to a person’s habits and things they do without realising it (automatic motivation). One of the habits or norms in many communities is to prioritise men, then children, to eat first. Women often get the leftovers, even when they are pregnant. This means that pregnant women don’t get the nutrients they need. Programmes need to work with women, men and wider communities to motivate them to prioritise women’s nutrition, while respecting culture and tradition. This would encourage reflective motivation where people can consciously make decisions about food within social structures.
Building nutrition programmes
When designing nutrition programmes, the best way to learn about people’s motivations is to ask them directly about the issues they are facing and the solutions they want. Once you know their issues and potential solutions, you can use behavioural science models such as the COM-B model to categorise the issues and solutions, and start designing programmes to address these gaps.
To go a step further, the same behavioural scientists also developed the Behaviour Change Wheel, which helps us to think of different methods.
The Behaviour Change Wheel, with the COM-B at the centre and the intervention functions in the outer circle. Michie et al
Our study shows that applying the Behaviour Change Wheel to nutrition programmes may also increase their impact. The wheel suggests:
giving participants incentives
using persuasive communication
modelling healthy diets
restructuring the environment
educating on nutrition, in an interactive way
supplying resources such as tools and seedlings (enablement)
training communities in cooking or agricultural methods.
Using simple behavioural science models can help programmes to understand people’s lives and how to design nutrition interventions that directly benefit them, even when the funding ends.
The minister of food and Agriculture, Hon. Bryan Acheampong has revealed that the government in June will roll out a strategic plan to ensure food security and availability for the next five (5) years.
The Deputy Minister in charge of livestock, Hon. Alhaji Hardi Tufeiru, has revealed the relevance of the Agrihouse initiative “the Ghana Chicken Festival as a means of enhancing local poultry consumption, dependence on imported chicken to enhance the country’s self-reliance.
The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Hardi Tufeeiru, has stated that government plans to support smallholder farmers in climate-resilient agriculture through various initiatives and policies.
He said the government is considering fostering partnerships with international development agencies and donor organizations to provide training and technical assistance for smallholder farmers on climate-smart agriculture practices: especially farmer-led irrigation development schemes, water management, crop diversification for high-yielding ones, and pest management.
With irrigation identified as one of the solutions to promoting climate resilience in agriculture, he revealed that out of the country’s 1.9 million hectares of irrigation potential, 224,000 hectares are under informal and small-scale irrigation systems used by about half a million smallholder farmers nationwide, hence the need for more support.
The move is aimed at improving food security, enhancing the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices.
The deputy minister hinted that government will also consider providing incentives and funding support to smallholder farmers for the adoption of climate-smart agriculture technologies and purchase of climate-resilient farming inputs.
Additionally, investment initiatives toward the development of rural infrastructure such as roads, silos, and warehouse storage facilities under the Planting for Food and Job (PFJ) will continue. This is to enable smallholder farmers to access markets and reduce post-harvest losses.
“The solution to climate-menace in food production, especially in Africa, is irrigation. Unfortunately, over the past years government intervention in this challenge was on a large-scale basis, but the strategy has changed to targetting smallholder farmers.
“We all know the role agriculture plays in our economy, especially for smallholder farmers. The importance of supporting smallholder farmers in climate-resilient agriculture in this era of global warming and climate change cannot be overemphasized, because by investing in resilient agriculture we are not only securing food and nutrition for our citizens but also contributing to the global efforts toward mitigating climate change,” he said.
He added that the Ministry for Agriculture has a dedicated body, the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), with the mandate to oversee all forms of irrigation operation, management, and maintenance initiatives in the country; in line with the Africa Union’s (AU) water management and irrigation development framework 2020.
The investment will be targetted at communities that are prone to climatic shocks such as droughts and floods, which have a significant impact on agricultural production.
Some dams which were constructed under the One Village, One Dam (1V1D) programme will undergo rehabilitation, for irrigation systems to increase the availability of water for agricultural activities in rural communities.
The government’s commitment to supporting smallholder farmers in climate-resilient agriculture is a clear indication of its determination to promote sustainable development and improve the lives of its citizens. In addition, the government will be investing in research and development to develop drought-resistant crops and improve soil fertility.
While world’s biggest chocolate companies see their profits soar, they fail to keep their promises to improve the wages of the farmers who grow cocoa in Ghana, one of the main producing countries in the world, NGO Oxfam has denounced in a report.
In a report published recently, Oxfam said earnings for US companies Hershey, Mars, and Mondelez in addition to Italy’s Ferrero and Swiss peers Lindt & Spruengli and Nestle had increased since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, a period when inflation had skyrocketed.
The world’s four largest public chocolate corporations, (Hershey, Lindt, Mondelēz, and Nestlé] together made nearly $15 billion in profits from their confectionary divisions alone since the pandemic broke. This amount was up by an average of 16 percent since 2020.
The giants paid out on average more than their total net profits (113 percent) to shareholders between 2020 and 2022.
At the same time, an Oxfam survey of more than 400 cocoa farmers in Ghana — the second-largest global producer of the commodity — found their net incomes had fallen by an average of 16 percent since the same period with women cocoa farmers’ income dropped by an average of 22 percent, it added.
“There’s big money in chocolate — but definitely not for farmers,” said Oxfam International’s interim executive director, Amitabh Behar worded plainly.
“Cocoa farmers work extremely hard, under grueling conditions, yet can’t always feed their families.”
The charity claimed that up to 90 percent of Ghanaian cocoa farmers do not earn a living income, “meaning they cannot afford enough food or other basics such as clothing, housing, and medical care. Adding that “many of the 800,000 farmers in the country survive on just $2 a day.”
The NGO also noted that while Ghana produces about 15% of the world’s beans, it receives only about 1.5% of the sector’s estimated $130 billion annual global earnings.
Giant Nestlé said that while it “cannot influence the farm-gate prices due to the cocoa-trade structure in Ghana” the company does “everything to help cocoa-farming families close the living income gap”.
It told AFP that it strives also to help improve incomes for farmers in Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer of cocoa.
Ivory Coast and Ghana, both located in West Africa, together produce about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa.
Ferrero said farmers in the countries receive a cash premium on top of the commercial price for cocoa and have been among the first companies to fully support the Living Income Differential (LID),” it said in a statement.
