Former CEO of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi has slammed President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government over the state of Ghana’s agriculture sector.
Speaking to Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s morning show “Kokrokoo”, Mr. Senyo Hosi stated emphatically that the President’s ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ policy aimed at improving the agriculture sector has failed abysmally.
all these years, show me one agriculture sector that has been well-structured. It’s zero,” he exclaimed.
To him, it shouldn’t be difficult for the government to develop the agriculture infrastructue to assist farmers to be productive and to check the nation’s dependence on foreign imports.
“How much irrigated fields do we have? Have we invested in our irrigated fields to march our needs as a country?
But when you look at the billions we have spent on this Planting for Food and Jobs which we can’t see any particular thing that’s sustaining the industry. I think that it’s a failed project. It’s a totally failed project.”
Mr. Senyo Hosi asked the government to concentrate more of her efforts on improving the agric sector which he believes is the country’s engine of progress.
“We have the capacity to progressively grow and then eventually fully supply Ghana. It’s possible for us to feed our own self,” he stated.
Enabling farmers to adopt climate-smart approaches to farming helps build more sustainable food systems that protect the environment, improve smallholder livelihoods, and create new business opportunities. This is critically important as the world grapples with the combined challenges of climate change and economic crisis.
Climate-smart agriculture helps farmers adapt their farming practices with the goals of:
Increasing their harvests
Building their resilience in the face of climate-related shocks
Reducing their impact on the environment
For the smallholder farmers One Acre Fund works with, climate-smart agriculture includes the introduction of farming methods like composting, mulching, crop diversification and intercropping and box ridges and furrows to capture run-off and keep moisture in the soil – all techniques that help maintain and boost yields while tackling land degradation and improving soil health . Our approach to climate-smart agriculture also champions optimized planting trainings that encourage strategic tree planting and farming drought-resistant crops.
Malawian farmer Handson John has been enrolled with One Acre Fund for five years, growing maize, soya, pigeon peas, ground nuts, and pumpkins. Last year, he experienced climate change-induced extreme weather conditions that caused him to lose half his crop. Despite that, he says he feels encouraged about the next season, because of the new climate-smart practices One Acre Fund recently taught him.
“Making and using compost and planting trees help retain moisture in the soil. I have grown trees before, but compost is new to me. I usually plant with boxed ridges to save soil moisture. It’s a beneficial tactic, especially when there’s drought.”
Building household resilience
Smallholders like Handson contribute significantly to feeding their communities. With the right resources, they can not only produce more, but also higher quality crops.
Learn more about how we’re helping smallholders adopt climate-smart agriculture:
Diversification
Crop diversification increases the number of different crops grown simultaneously, raising productivity and profits by reducing production costs. It also protects against commodity price fluctuations associated with farming one crop, and provides resilience to highly variable weather conditions.
This year in Malawi, we introduced “winter” beans to our offerings as part of a crop diversification trial. Typically smallholders in Malawi, who mostly depend on rain to water their fields, are only able to farm during one season of the year. However, during the winter months, portions of the country at higher elevations receive enough moisture to grow crops like beans through mist and light rains, and less of the moisture evaporates during the colder temperature months. Beans are also well suited for rotation farming with crops like maize, and produce root nodules that fix nitrogen into the soil, which improves soil health.
“I was motivated to do winter cropping because I can sell the beans during a different season, providing me with an extra source of income. The beans are also more tolerant to the weather when compared to maize.”
Composting
Another helpful practice is composting, which recycles organic matter, such as leaves and livestock waste, into valuable manure. Good composting helps restore soil nutrients, and can also help mitigate the impact of droughts by helping retain soil moisture.
In Kenya this year, it has been drier than usual for Julius Ilamiya; the rains came late and were insufficient. “I was trained to make and use compost which helps with soil moisture retainment, enabling the crop to perform well despite reduced rainfall,” Julius says. “My neighbors can’t understand why my farm is doing so well, but I share my knowledge with anyone interested.”
Tree planting
Shifting from crop-only farms to farms that include trees (a practice known as agroforestry) enhances farm resilience by preventing soil erosion, improving water absorption, and raising productivity.
Another Malawian farmer, Lucy Ngungu, says she bore out the difficult 2022 cropping season by adopting the ‘future farm’ method that we’re encouraging farmers to adopt — this method emphasizes combining practices such as intercropping, rotation farming, agroforestry, and composting.
“I planted trees to restore soil fertility and preserve moisture; tree leaves also help with composting. I learned how to use maize stalks and intercropping to boost production. The future farm method improves soil fertility. I now know that maize crops do well with some trees.”
Closing knowledge and funding gaps
We know that climate-smart agriculture provides a path to more resilient, responsive agriculture. And more resilient, responsive agriculture is critical if we’re to achieve both food security and more sustainable food systems in our lifetimes. But we need far more investment here. Currently only 1.7% of global climate finance currently targets smallholders (IFAD) even though there are 608 million smallholder farms feeding billions of people around the world (FAO).
Projections show that Africa’s real gross domestic product will stabilize at 4% over 2023–24, then grow at consistently higher rates than other regions.
We may earn a commission from links on this page.In the inaugural release of a report dubbed ‘Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook’ released on Jan.19, the African Development Bank Group reported that “growth across all five African regions was positive in 2022 and the outlook for 2023–24 is projected to be stable.”
The projections are higher than expected global figures (2.7% and 3.2% respectively) for the same period.
Africa’s top five performing economies before the covid-19 pandemic are expected to grow by over 5.5% on average in 2023-2024 and reclaim their position among the world’s ten fastest-growing economies.
Those include Rwanda, which is projected to grow by 7.9%, Côte d’Ivoire by 7.1%, Benin by 6.4%, Ethiopia by 6.0%, and Tanzania by 5.6%.
African countries that will experience positive economic growth
But there is a clutch of other African countries that are also expected to grow their economies by more than 5.5% in the same period. Those include Niger at 9,6%, Senegal at 9.4%, The Democratic Republic of Congo at 6.8%, The Gambia at 6.4%, Mozambique at 6.5% and Togo at 6.3%.
In east Africa, growth is projected to rise from 4.2% in 2022 to 5% in 2023 and 5.4% in 2024, with Rwanda leading the region.
Uganda and Ethiopia are also projected to grow strongly in 2023 and 2024, exceeding 5% due to developments in the oil sector for Uganda and continued infrastructure spending for Ethiopia.
Growth in west Africa is projected to rise from 3.6% in 2022 to 4.1% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2024, with Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal boosting the region’s growth.
Central and Southern Africa projections
Central Africa is projected to see a slight decline from 4.7% in 2022 to 4.3% in 2023 and to stabilize at 4.2% in 2024.
The southern African region, weighed down by economic woes in South Africa, has the lowest growth rates, despite standout performer, Mozambique.
“In the medium term, however, persistent weakness in South Africa will continue to weigh on the region, with real output projected to decelerate to 2.3% in 2023 before rising to 2.8% in 2024.”
Growth in the south will be primarily driven by Mozambique, which will see economic growth boosted by investment in liquefied natural gas and allied industries.
In northern Africa, growth is projected to stabilise at 4.3% in 2023, supported by an expected strong recovery in Libya and Morocco.
‘Africa is the place to invest’
Economist Jeffrey Sachs believes such trends show that “Africa can and will rise to a growth of 7% or more per year consistently in the coming decades.”
Africa will be the fast-growing part of the world economy. Africa is the place to invest,” he noted during the report’s launch.
According to Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank Group president, the overall steady growth witnessed across the board is commendable because it is seen despite “the pass-through effects of global shocks hitting hard and differing by region and by country.
”Like the rest of the world, Africa is significantly challenged by soaring food and energy prices, tighter global financial conditions, and increased domestic debt.
“Household Impacts of Tariffs, a survey, indicates, in 29 African countries, households spent on average 36.3% of their income on food items,” the report reads in part.
Effects of war in Ukraine
A similarly high burden is registered in the case of energy prices amidst supply cuts due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Crude oil prices increased by about 20%, from $93.50 per barrel to $112.40 and averaged $102.80 between March and October 2022,” the report reveals.
Amidst these challenges, the report calls for robust monetary and fiscal measures backed by structural policies to address potential risks.
With inflationary pressures anticipated to heighten between 2023 and 2024, the report recommends various measures depending on the degree of impact and vulnerability in individual countries.
In countries where inflation is most acute, timely and aggressive monetary policies are advised.“Countries with lower inflation will need to undertake cautious tightening of monetary policy so as not to undermine growth efforts while keeping inflation in check.”
African Continental Free Trade Area(AfCFTA)
However, the report underscores the continent’s outstanding opportunities, mainly focusing on the need for countries to accelerate the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
According to the report, the AfCFTA has the potential to create a competitive continental market that will cushion the continent from multiple shocks.
The World Economic Forum projects a growth of 28% in intra-African freight demand thanks to AfCFTA, which will open up a need for nearly 2 million trucks, 100 000 rail wagons, 250 aircraft and more than 100 vessels by 2030.
Development partners have committed US$30 billion to boost food production in Africa over the next five years, the president of the African Development Bank said on Friday at the close of a summit on food security on the continent.
The continent is facing its worst food crisis ever, with more than one in five Africans — a record 278 million people — facing hunger, according to United Nations estimates.
A major theme of the three-day summit in the Senegalese capital Dakar was that African countries need to boost their food production capacity rather than relying on imports that have left them vulnerable to price spikes and shortages.
The meeting brought together African leaders, development banks and international partners including the United States, the European Union and Britain to mobilize funding and political commitment.
Around 40 countries from across the continent presented agricultural development plans to the bank and other partners, who pledged support for the plans over the next five years to enable the countries to increase food production.
“We’re going to invest in markets, we are going to invest in infrastructure, energy, we’re going to invest in roads, we’re going to invest in storage, all the things that you need to make agriculture work,” African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina told Reuters in an interview.
“We must make sure that agriculture allows people to feed themselves. That’s the core of what we are doing here. It’s embarrassing that Africa is not able to feed itself,” Adesina said.
Heavy debt burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which raised prices of fuel, grain and edible oils, have added to long-term causes of food insecurity such as climate change and conflict, experts say.
The Ukraine war also disrupted the supply of fertilizer to the continent, pushing prices beyond the reach of farmers.
The bank last year reached a deal and got assurances from fertilizer manufacturers on the continent including Nigeria’s Dangote and Indorama, and Morocco’s OCP that Africa will not be marginalized in the fertilizer supply chain, Adesina said, adding that the bank had made investments in the manufacturers.
“I think we will not have a fertilizer crisis in Africa. The challenge we’re going to have is affordability problem,” he said, adding that governments would have to put support measures in place to make fertilizer affordable for farmers.
As part of Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen’s vision to Transform Ghana into an export-based Economy, he has laid emphasis on the role of Agriculture in attaining that goal.
Farmer Anthony Morrison, the CEO of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana.
Following the resignation of the Agric Minister, Dr. Akoto Afriyie, some of the farmer groups have recommended some individuals to the President to be appointed as the Minister for the agric sector.
The University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U) with Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) to implement the KIC AgriTech Challenge Program at the regional level by training students in enterprises under the KIC mentorship program.
The partnership will see students from the university and youth of Bono Region get trained and exposed to vast opportunities in agri-entrepreneurship and innovation. The aim is to foster job creation, enhancement in agriculture and economic growth for the youth in the long term.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, the Executive Director of KIC, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, expressed his excitement about the collaboration, saying it is as an opportunity for the parties to leverage on their respective strengths, experiences, and resources to create impact in generating youth interest and changing mindsets while creating job opportunities.
“UENR provides leadership and management of energy and natural resources and is also a center of excellence in these areas. The signing provides KIC with the opportunity to connect with more young people in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation as our core mandate suggests,” the Executive Director of KIC said.
The Vice Chancellor of UENR, Professor Elvis Asare-Bediako, mentioned that the university was committed to partnering with relevant stakeholders who have the necessary tools, skills to assist students at the university and the youth of the region to secure their future.
The partnership with UENR is for a period of 3 years, starting from 2023 to 2025 but renewable on yearly basis. In this collaboration, KIC and UENR will join efforts to create job opportunities and empower vulnerable groups to aid a resilient agricultural sector.
KIC will be signing similar agreements with 4 more universities in 4 different regions this year, bringing to a total of 10 regions covered from last year. These Universities are Ho Technical University-Volta Region, Koforidua Technical University-Eastern Region, Takoradi Technical University-Western Region and Bolgatanga Technical University-Upper East Region.
Universities signed on the KIC program last year include University of Ghana-Greater Accra; University of Cape Coast-Central Region, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)-Ashanti Region, University for Development Studies-Northern Region and University for Business Integration and Development Studies (UBIDS)-Upper West Region.
As part of KIC’s collaboration with Mastercard Foundation, the program is expected to extend its impact across all the regions of Ghana by 2025, ensuring more young people with interest in entrepreneurship and agriculture are supported. The program also works with Agri-MSMEs in all the regions by supporting them to accelerate.KIC will be signing similar agreements with 6 more universities in the remaining regions of Ghana in 2024 as part of the program expansion.
The National Service Secretariat (NSS) also signed an MOU with KIC to develop the entrepreneurial skills of graduates under the KIC mentorship program where these graduates are assigned to KIC businesses to work and learn entrepreneurship the practical way.
KIC remains committed to focus on empowering young men and women to drive innovation in agriculture, the country’s largest employer, and training them to lead sustainable, successful businesses. Since its inception, KIC has trained more than 1300 young people with business skills and entrepreneurship through participation and have nurtured some of the most promising youth-driven, agri-tech startups in Ghana today and 127 agri-MSMEs have been Trained
The cost of seasonal fruit and vegetables is expected to drop in the coming weeks, according to growers and retailers.
The weather remains a wild card for food price inflation, with adverse weather events hitting New Zealand growers over the summer.
Food prices have risen at their fastest annual rate in 32 years, with fruit and vegetables increasing by 23 percent year-on-year.
Countdown supermarket commercial director Pieter De Wet said growers were now delivering more seasonal products.
“We’ve got over 100 direct relationships with growers and they actually want to bring prices down as well because they want to move volumes as soon as they get it,” De Wet said.
Customers could expect to pay less at the checkout when more produce was available next month, he said.
“It looks like we’re already getting into a better space and hopefully next week will be the same.
“Gisborne looks like it’s going to be dry for the next week as well so we expect prices to come down”.
Major Gisborne vegetable grower LeaderBrand said the cost of seasonal fruit was expected to drop in the coming weeks.
The constant rain in August last year meant that planting was delayed and consistent rain throughout January, as well as lower sunshine hours, has impacted harvesting schedules.
New Zealand-grown watermelons had recently come into season, but wet weather meant much of the crops did not make it.
De Wet visited LeaderBrand in Gisborne last week and said up to 30 percent of watermelon crops were “under water”.
“It was quite intense to see what’s going on down there,” he said.
“The entire watermelon field we looked at was literally under water from the rain, I’d say about 20 or 30 percent of those watermelons were rotting in the water”.
LeaderBrand executive Richard Burke said growers were feeling the pinch of inflation as well.
“We know that watermelon is quintessentially summer on a plate and beloved by Kiwis both young and old. So, the pressure to grow the sweatiest and juiciest melons has been keeping me up at night.
“Our team has been watching the watermelon patch daily and the first harvest is this week and will be available until the end of March.
”The company was desperately holding out for some decent sunshine this summer, Burke said.
“There’s nothing worse than getting home and cutting a watermelon in half and it’s not that full red colour you’re looking for.
“We’ve got plenty of truck loads packed and ready to be dispatched today or tomorrow and we should see reasonably consistent numbers as we move forward.
”Supermarket giant Foodstuffs also said it was working to put a lid on inflation.Foodstuffs owns New World, Pak’N Save and Four Square supermarkets.
In December, the average cost increase from suppliers to the Foodstuffs co-operatives on the same products measured in the Food Price Index (FPI) basket was 12.2 percent.
“Domestically, input cost pressures are continuing for suppliers who are facing higher costs to grow, pick and pack produce for market, with adverse weather events still the wild card this year. It’s been a pretty tough summer so far for growing produce,” Foodstuffs NZ managing director Chris Quin said.
“Our co-operatives will stay laser-focused on helping customers fight inflation and find value within their household budgets this year.
”There was still plenty of uncertainty about how strong the economic headwinds would be this year.
“Most are predicting that 2023 will be tougher for households, but we’ll be looking towards the second quarter of this year to see whether a clearer picture has emerged.”
Stakeholders meeting with the press to address their grievances to the Finance Minister.
The delay of the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in granting tax exemptions to agricultural commodities as requested by the Minister of Food and Agriculture has a dire consequence for the sector which is already fragile due to global Price increases in agricultural machinery and agro-input leading to the high cost of production and could further worsen the food security situation in the country.
JoyNews is learning that monies paid to investors who purchased cocoa bills on maturity on Thursday, January 19 th, 2023 have been withdrawn from individual investors’ accounts without their consent.
COCOBOD has issued the bill to raise funds. Many had bought the bills expecting to be paid back their monies with interest on Thursday.
JoyNews understands the monies were actually paid on Thursday only to be reversed on Friday, January 20th, 2023.
Reports say, the banks have all day been under pressure from affected customers.
The banks have pointed to a directive from the Bank of Ghana ordering them to unilaterally roll over the bonds without first seeking the consent of investors.
In an interview with JoyNews, one of the affected investors shared his ordeal.
“It is cocoa bill and matured yesterday [Thursday]. When it matured, the funds were deposited into the account and I decided to go to the bank today [Friday], when I went there today, the money had been taken out of the account,” he said.
According to him, when he queried about the withdrawal, he was informed that “it is a directive that has come for all the funds to be automatically rolled over for the next 6 months.
”The affected investor expressed shock at the development since the money was rolled over without his consent.
“We were told that T-Bills were not going to be touched. If T-Bills were not going to be touched Cocoa bills were even safer because they are cocoa bonds instruments so I was just shocked.”
He added that he was surprised that COCOBOD will default in payment.
He noted that he had plans for the money.“I don’t know what I can even do about it because it is something that I had planned that I was going to pay my wife’s fees with it. Now I don’t even know how to go and break the news to my wife, because I told her that it was going to happen,” he said in a disappointed tone.
