The Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has signed an agreement with a private-sector, cassava extension agency to improve the agronomy and utilization of cassava in Ghana.
Ad article
Heat and drought have ‘significant influence’ on food security and agricultural production, new review argues
Heat and drought are the utmost limiting abiotic factors that pose a major threat to food security and agricultural production, and are exacerbated by “extreme and rapid” climate change, according to a new paper in CABI Reviews.
The team of international scientists suggests that it is critical to understand the biochemical, ecological and physiological responses of plants to the stresses of heat and drought in order for more practical solutions and management.They state that plant responses to these challenges may be divided into three categories: phenological, physiological and biochemical.
Lead researcher Dr. Aqarab Husnain Gondal, of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan, argues that due to physical damages, biological disruptions and biochemical abnormalities, sub-optimal water supplies and unusual temperatures negatively affect crop development and yields.
Supported by colleagues from Yarmouk University, Jordan, the National University of Huancavelica, Peru, and the Citrus Research Institute Sagodha, Dr. Gondal says a distinctive aspect of the phenomenon is comparing fundamental behavior with abiotic stresses.
The scientists, referring to a study examining data from research published between 1980 and 2015, state that drought has reduced wheat and maize yields by up to 40% around the world. They also highlight that projections suggest that for every degree Celsius rise in temperature, this would result in a 6% loss in global wheat yields.Dr. Gondal said,
“This review gives a thorough description of the adaptation of plants towards heat and drought stress with a particular emphasis on identifying similarities and variations. Abiotic stresses are reducing crop yield all around the world.
Heat and drought stress causes plants to respond in a variety of ways—the most notable of which is by altering their development and morphology.
“While the capacity of plants to withstand these pressures differs significantly across species, it is worthy to note that recent advances have been achieved in limiting the adverse consequences—either through the use of genetic methods or by the induction of stress tolerance.
“The scientists maintain that despite the fact that heat and drought stress may have a negative impact on the plant’s growth and development, reproductive growth is the most affected.
Anthesis or grain filling stress may have a major impact on crop production if it is mild while damage to the photosynthetic machinery, oxidative stress and membrane instability are also caused by these forces, they say.
Ad article
Donors supporting about 40% of Ghana’s agric production expenditure is a great threat.
Food security could be under serious threat, with the country increasingly reliant on donor agencies and development partners (DPs) to fund local agricultural production and development. This is despite an expected reduction in donor funding support for the country due to the global economic crisis.
Ad article
COCOBOD offers instant job to the best graduating student.
A 39-year-old man, Abdulai Ismaila, who braved the odds and emerged the overall best student at the maiden graduation and matriculation of the Bunso Cocoa College, has been offered instant employment by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
The college has been affiliated to the University of Cape Coast, and offers diploma programmes in Agronomy and Extension in Coffee and Cocoa Production.
The graduation ceremony, dubbed: “Raising the Manpower for Resilient Tree Crop Sector”, witnessed the passing out of 69 students, 21 of them obtaining First Class, while 14 grabbed Second Class Upper, and a further 31 got Second Class Lower.
Mr Ismaila, who secured First Class in Agronomy, Coffee and Cocoa Production, was given a standing ovation as he walked over for his academic scroll.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, praised Mr Ismaila for his academic performance, and instantly declared him an employee of COCOBOD.
He stated that Ghana’s economy highly depended on primary production of mining and agricultural produce, mainly cocoa, which were exported for foreign exchange.
He said the agricultural sector, which alone accounted for an average of 35 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), would continue to determine the success of Ghana’s development growth path.
Value addition
Dr Boahen said agriculture must, therefore, be seen as business and a value addition venture.
He indicated that the export of cocoa, gold and timber accounted for the bulk of mechanised exports.
He explained that until recently, agriculture, particularly small-scale agriculture, was viewed from the lenses of rural development, and that strategy had used agriculture as a tool to manage rural poverty.
He indicated that agriculture value chain was changing national policies, strategies, and programmes to attract investments, especially in export value chain, and stressed, however, that most small-holder participants in that sector remained under-invested.
Dr Boahen said although successive governments invested heavily in the agricultural sector, such investments had not yielded the necessary impact in terms of propelling the sector to drive the country’s economic development.
Dr Boahen explained that technology and research were the driving force needed for the transformation of the economy, and that the future of the agricultural sector was all about science, technology and education.
While congratulating the students and staff of the college, Dr Boahen stressed the need for the institution to broaden its scope of programmes it offered to include cocoa industrialisation, food nutrition and farm management.
He urged the management of the college to introduce innovative programmes that would produce the next generation of local engineers to transform the local cocoa processing sector through artisanal chocolate manufacturing.
Employment
The acting Rector of the Bunso Cocoa College, Dr Mercy Asamoah, encouraged companies, organisations and individuals, as well as the business community interested in developing the tree crop sector, especially cocoa, to offer employment for the graduands.
She also appealed to COCOBOD to consider offering employment either permanent or on contract basis to the graduands.
Dr Asamoah said the college’s infrastructure such as lecture rooms, constructed in 1950, had become old and inadequate, along with the boarding facilities. Other challenges, she stated, included staff bungalows and the lack of a fitting library.
She also appealed to COCOBOD to offer scholarship for graduands intending to further their education.
Ad article
Carry out these tests before cooking foreign rice, this is real.
Take a spoonful of rice and set it on fire. What happens next will make you tick.
China remains the largest rice producer in the world. The Middle Empire harvests more than 200 million tons of rice a year and a large number is exported all over the world.
Ad article
Appoint Nana Oboadie Boateng Bonsu as the Agric Minister – Farmers call on the President.
Farmers group has called on the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to consider a young relentless farmer as the Minister for the sector following the resignation of Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Agric.
In a statement released by the group, they mentioned that the young farmer could not be any other person than Nana Oboadie Boateng Bonsu who has the interest of the farmers at heart.
The statement reads:
It has come to our notice that Minister of Agric has resigned to join the Npp Presidential race and we wish him good luck for taking such a bold decision. We also thank the minister for his hard work and the initiative: Planting for Food and Jobs and Rearing for Food and Jobs.
we want to use this medium to inform the President to consider we the farmers when appointing new minister to such a prestigious office.
The collation of all the farmers in Ghana is proposing Nana Oboadie Boateng Bonsu who is the president of the Concerned Framers Association of Ghana to President to appoint him as the Minister of Agricultural.
Nana Oboadie Boateng Bonsu has been in the agric sector for the past 25 Yeats and have work with various farmer groups in Ghana.
He is very hard working ,voice for the farmers, he has tour the breath and length of this country and know the challenges the sector is facing and he has converted thousands of galamsey youth into farming .
He is the farmers choice and we believe that he will deliver .
we are therefore asking the President to appoint him to be the Minister of Agric.
Try and tested.
Gustav Annor
Communication Director
Ad article
The Agric Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto resigns.
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto has resigned.
He tendered his resignation to President Akufo-Addo a while ago.This comes four days after Trade Minister, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, resigned from the government.
JoyNews Presidential Affairs correspondent, Elton Brobbey, in an interview on News Night on Joy FM, Tuesday said the Minister had a meeting with President where he submitted the letter.
Our correspondent said the President accepted Dr Akoto’s resignation and wished him well in his endeavours.
Ostensibly, this is to enable Dr Afriyie Akoto concentrate on his presidential ambition.
Dr Afriyie Akoto is one of the NPP stalwarts eyeing the flagbearership position of the party for the 2024 elections.
Besides he and Mr. Alan Kyerematen, Mr. Kwabena Agyapong, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, Mr. Joe Ghartey and Mr. Boagye Agyarko have all declared their intention to contest the flagbearership of the NPP.
Meanwhile, the party is yet to come out with a date for the presidential primaries.
Speaking on the same show, Henry Nana Boakye, National Organiser of NPP, said a date will be set for the election “in accordance with our constitution.”
Ad article
20% of local foodstuffs supplied to schools ahead of school reopen.
The National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited have been tasked to get in touch with local foodstuffs suppliers to deliver about 20 per cent of food needs to each school.
The remaining 80 per cent of the food items are expected to be in the schools a week or two after the arrival of the students to enable the government to settle part of its more than GH¢300 million indebtedness to suppliers.
The President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Rev. Fr Stephen Owusu Sekyere said, he is aware some schools had taken delivery of food items such as maize, rice and beans, saying the rest were yet to receive theirs.
He indicated that per the information CHASS had received, food supplies are on their way to the various regions and the schools should take delivery of them by the close of today.
Food getting in the schools
From the Upper East Region, school authorities in SHSs are ready to receive first-year and continuing students to begin the new academic year.
However, checks indicated that many of the schools had not yet received food supplies ahead of the commencement of academic work.
The Chairman of the Upper East Regional branch of CHASS, Richard Akumbas Ayabilla, said only two out of the 26 SHSs in the region had received some food items from local suppliers.
“Since the schools owe local suppliers huge sums of money, the suppliers are not willing to supply more food items, especially the perishable ones, on credit,” he said.
He called on the government to urgently make funds available to enable the schools to pay local suppliers, while awaiting food items from the Buffer Stock Company.
The Headmistress of the Bolgatanga Girls’ SHS, Patricia Agoteba Anaba, said although the staff were ready to receive the students, food items were not yet in.
However, she said the school expected to receive food items from the government by the close of yesterday.
Ms Anaba expressed the hope that while the students would start arriving from this morning, the food items would be received in time to feed them.
The Headmistress of the Kongo SHS, Gifty Ayamba, noted that the school was ready and had put in place measures to receive the students.
From Koforidua in the Eastern Region, Daily Graphic checks indicate that two schools, the Ghana SHS (GHANASS) and the Oti Boateng SHS, were fully prepared to receive continuing students.
The Headmistress of GHANASS, Patience Naki Mensah, said at least 20 boarding students had arrived as of yesterday and the kitchen staff were ready to provide them with meals.
She said under normal circumstances, such students should have waited for today to be fed along with other students who might have arrived on the opening day.
At the Oti Boateng SHS, the situation was the same and the Headmaster, John Hawkson Arthur, said adequate preparations to make boarding students feel at home on their arrival had been completed.
“We have made all the necessary arrangements to make the arriving boarding students happy to stay without any hindrance. “Those responsible for the provision of food are also ready to play their part,” Mr Arthur said.
Buffer Stock.
The Buffer Stock Company started supplies last Wednesday and would continue until bulk suppliers in charge of delivering 80 per cent of the food needs of the schools stepped in, a source at the company told the Daily Graphic.
The strategy, it said, had been adopted since it took some time for the bulk suppliers to reach the schools.
“So while waiting for that bulk to come in, we asked our regional managers to liaise with local suppliers, so that they will handle 20 per cent of supplies,” the source said.
It added that “so far the items are trickling in at the various schools”
.The source at the Buffer Stock Company added that its information collected from across the country indicated that food items were reaching the various schools.
Ad article
Over 100 cocoa farmers give a stern warning to mining company.
Over one hundred (100) cocoa farmers in Denkyira Breman in the Central Region have issued a stern warning to Perseus Mining (Ghana) Limited (PMGL), underscoring that the company risks having its equipment destroyed if they find them on their farmlands.
According to the visibly livid farmers, who say they have not given out their lands to Perseus Mining, any move by the company to ‘forcibly take over their lands’ grown with cocoa and other food and cash crops, “would incur their wrath!”
Addressing a press conference in Denkyira Breman in the Central Region recently, the Chief Farmer of the town, Emmanuel Boapong (aka Bojers), who acted as the Spokesperson for the farmers, cautioned that they will “set ablaze any mining equipment of Perseus found on their farmlands,” especially when they have not leased out their lands to the company.
He stressed that the over 100 farmers in Denkyira Breman who have no reason to sell their lands to Perseus cannot fathom why the mining company was hell-bent on taking possession of their lands.
“Our warning to Perseus is that we will burn any of their machines found on our farmlands. We have told them time without number that we will not give our lands to them for mining, and that we are content with our farming business, yet their machines are often found on our lands” the chief farmer stated.
According to the chief farmer, they have already informed both the Police Commanders at the Diaso District Police Command and the Dunkwa Divisional Police Command about their resolve to do everything humanly possible to protect their lands from the prying eyes of Perseus.
He questioned the motive behind the recent deployment of about 17 armed police officers from the Central Regional Police Command to the farmland of a widow, Madam Esther Konadu, who is also a farmer.
“In fact we have reason to believe that Perseus is ready to go the extra-mile to take the lands of especially farmers who are unwilling to lease out their lands to them,” he noted.
As a result, Mr. Boapong called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, to, as a matter of urgency, cause an investigation into the incident that saw staff members of Perseus drive their excavator, a drilling machine and other machines to the farmland of the widow.
Furthermore, he called on the Akufo-Addo administration to step in before the matter becomes messy!
Ad article
Reduce LPG prices now to reflect latest pricing window – COPEC tells marketers.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) Ghana is demanding a significant reduction in the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), after prices of some petroleum products fell in the recent pricing window.
The Chamber’s call is coming at a time prices of diesel and petrol went down by about 8% on January 1, 2023.
However, prices of LPG remained unchanged. The LPG Marketers Association of Ghana has blamed the situation on high taxesBut speaking to Joy Business, Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah said there is no justification for LPG prices to remain unchanged.
“LPG should have seen the highest decline in terms of price per kilogram which should be around 20% in the past windows. We don’t think there is enough justification at this point that they are not going to reduce the price of LPG at this point”.
He added that his outfit will soon be engaging the LPG Marketers for a possible reduction in the price of the product.
“We will try to engage them forthwith to ensure that what is due the consumer now is not denied them simply because of the call for taxes to be reduced on LPG”.
Vice President of the LPG Marketers Association of Ghana Gabriel Kumi had earlier indicated prices of LPG will fall only when there is a cut in some taxes.
According to him, prices of LPG should not be determined by the demand and supply in the market, but government should implement policies key to support players in the industry.
Ad article
