Nigerian Entrepreneur defies experience to succeed with rice in Ghana

By William Wallis

Borrowed from the Financial Times for Discerning Ghanaians

Nigerian-born Toks Abimbola landed in Ghana as he might have done in his previous incarnation as an investment banker: with hand luggage and a room at the Holiday Inn in Accra.
Less than two years later he, his business partner, and the investors backing their start-up, have become the largest commercial rice farmers in the country, with 500 hectares of land under cultivation and another 4,500 hectares still to plant.

USAID Contribution to Ghana’s Food Security

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided $3.9 million to the people of Ghana through the World Food Programme’s Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation.  The funding will benefit 106,000 Ghanaians through nutritional food interventions, food for work, food for training, and income generating activities.  The principal beneficiaries include malnourished children, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and people living with HIV and their families in the three Northern regions.

What the World Bank should know about Ghana’s Success Stories

By Thompson Ayodele, Imani and www.africaliberty.org

Two decades ago, the rest of the world saw Africa as a hopeless continent. Today Ghana is one of Africa’s success stories.  Its economy, spurred by a thriving private sector, has grown on average by over 6 percent a year for the past five years. A significant part of this growth has been fueled by the success of the country’s palm oil industry, with over 300,000 hectares of land currently under cultivation.

Palm oil provides a major source of employment and revenue for Ghanaian smallholders, with 27,000 farmers engaged in the industry. The Ghanaian government recognizes the huge role palm oil plays in the economy, investing more than $3 million in the industry so far, and recently announcing a “master plan” to support expanded production.

African Farmers Get Boost from IFC, Soros Economic Development Fund and Esoko

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Soros Economic Development Fund have both invested $1.25 million of equity into Esoko, a Ghanaian technology firm. The investment in Esoko will give small holder African farmers and businesses timely crop information that can be shared via text messaging, enabling farmers to increase their incomes.

Esoko_s software takes advantage of rapidly growing mobile-phone usage in Africa.  The technology allows farmers affordable and timely access to market information that can help them negotiate better prices and improve the timing of getting their crops to market.

Stakeholders Chart Release of Vitamin A Cassava in Nigeria

By Paul Ilona, www.harvestplus.org

Ibadan, October 13, 2010: Ahead of the World Food Day which comes up on 16 October 2010, agriculture and health experts are holding talks in Ibadan to discuss the progress made in breeding new varieties of cassava that can provide Vitamin A through the diet.

The nutritionally-improved cassava will give more Nigerians access to Vitamin A and help fight ‘hidden hunger.’

Pre-varietal release trials of the varieties across the country have proven that farmers find them irresistible.

Africa needs more seed companies to push out improved maize varieties

From Godwin Atser, www.CGIAR.org

African governments have been urged to encourage the emergence of more seed companies that will multiply, market, and disseminate improved maize varieties to farmers to boost food production.

So far, in the West African region, only Nigeria has a relatively vibrant seed industry with about 12 emerging private sector-driven seed companies. Ghana and Mali have three each, while the Republic of Benin has none.

Researchers say this development needs to change for Africa to taste the much awaited Green Revolution.