While smallholder palm oil farmers risk living in poverty, the US$282billion palm oil industry creates huge profits for companies. The pivotal role of smallholders in the palm oil sector, currently contributing to around 30 percent of global production, is often overlooked in the sustainability agenda as policies tend to...
as agitation increases over prices
Amid calls for a review of the producer cocoa price ahead of the upcoming cocoa season, ostensibly to adjust it upward from the current rate of GH¢10,560 per metric tonne that was used for the 2021/2022 crop season, the Licenced Cocoa Buyers Association...
estimated 2000 farmers affected
cereal, grain farms in ruin
About 3,000 hectares of farmland has been damaged and ruined, with an estimated 2,000 farmers being negatively impacted by the ongoing spillage of the Bagre Dam, monitoring done by the Peasant Farmers Association (PFAG) has confirmed.
“Our current observation indicates...
Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), says management has resolved to reduce the huge debt burden. The huge chunk of debt accumulation - approximately GH¢12.30billion as of September 2020 - emanates from short-term cocoa loans of about GH¢8.49billion, accounting for 69.02 percent of total...
Climate change is intensifying food insecurity across sub-Saharan Africa, where Russia’s war in Ukraine and the pandemic are also adding to food shortages and high prices.
Climate events - which destroy crops and disrupt food transport - are disproportionately common in the region. One-third of the world’s droughts occur in sub-Saharan...
…say inorganic ones yield better produce
Even though organic fertiliser is being championed and encouraged for use by farmers, especially in this period where the Russia-Ukraine war has made inorganic fertilisers expensive, farmers in the Bono East capital, Techiman, have still not embraced this advocacy, saying the latter yields better...
Ghana is hoping to become the number-one teak producer in the world as it seeks to explore and develop new strategies and initiatives to further grow its teak production, the Minister of Lands and Natural resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has said.
The country has an estimated 200,000 hectares (ha) of...
Olam Food Ingredients Ghana Limited (ofi), a supplier of cocoa ingredients and the foremost exporter of cashew in the industry, has held its annual Managers’ Conference - bringing together key stakeholders and players to discuss industry dynamics and best practices for a sustainable cocoa industry.
The 2022 edition of the...
The Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, has raised concerns about the Ghana Cocoa Board’s (COCOBOD) increasing debt burden - which stood at approximately GH¢12.30billion as of September 2020.
The debt accumulation emanates from short-term cocoa loans of about GH¢8.49 billion; BoG 10-year loan of almost GH¢1.4billion; medium-term loan in a total...
Substandard pesticides are said to be penetrating the agro-input market in Ghana on the back of rising costs for authentic crop nutrition products globally. Global prices of quality fertiliser and pesticides are getting more and more out of the reach of ordinary farmers, a situation that industry players say...
