Yam farmers exposed to smart technologies to be climate resilient

Yam farmers in parts of Ghana have been exposed to smart technologies needed to build a resilient cropping system in order to increase yields to at least 30% over current yields.

With climate change thwarting the efforts of yam farmers, researchers have emphasized that having a technology packaged with fertilization, seed treatment, minimum staking and ridging does not only help farmers to be competitive in meeting  yam export standards but further reduces their production cost.

Ghana’s Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI), in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria, has trained and disseminated good agronomic practices to more than 250 yam farmers from Ejura, Atebubu and Kintampo between 2014 and 2016.

This is under the 5-year Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Speaking to farmers at a field day to harvest the crop in Atebubu, an agronomist from the CSIR-CRI, Felix Frimpong, stated that the project has helped to increase yam production and raised income levels of yam farmers through participatory demonstrations, on-farm trials and farmer’s field days. 

“The project has helped doubled or in some cases tripped the yield of farmers compared to their conventional practice. It is estimated that the improved agronomic package is able raise yields to about 55% over the current achievable yields in-spite of climate change,” he said. 

The improved technology builds up farmers resilience because the ridging helps in moisture conservation, the use of the trellis staking reduces farmers contribution to deforestation as a result of the reduction in the number stakes used by at least half.

“It is also evident that the technology promotes intensification on the given area because of the high population density and arrangements it accommodates. Sprouting which is also key for yam production is assured because seeds are pre-treated thereby reducing pest incidence and rot,” explained Mr. Frimpong.

When adopted, the technology ensures better living standards compared to traditional farming of mounding and planting.

 

Some beneficiary farmers are excited at the opportunity to increase yield under with the improved technology.

The researchers have advised policy makers to help promote such innovations and make available mechanized ridges for commercial production.

The YIIFSWA project ended in December 2016 with an expected additional grant for a second phase upscale.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh   

Global Economic Prospects 2017

Global economic growth is forecast to accelerate moderately to 2.7 percent in 2017 after a post-crisis low last year as obstacles to activity recede among emerging market and developing economy commodity exporters, while domestic demand remains solid among emerging and developing commodity importers, the World Bank said in a report.

Growth in advanced economies is expected to edge up to 1.8 percent in 2017, the World Bank’s January 2017 Global Economic Prospects report said. 

Fiscal stimulus in major economies—particularly in the United States—could generate faster domestic and global growth than projected, although rising trade protection could have adverse effects. 

Growth in emerging market and developing economies as a whole should pick up to 4.2 percent this year from 3.4 percent in the year just ended amid modestly rising commodity prices.

Nevertheless, the outlook is clouded by uncertainty about policy direction in major economies. A protracted period of uncertainty could prolong the slow growth in investment that is holding back low, middle, and high income countries.

“After years of disappointing global growth, we are encouraged to see stronger economic prospects on the horizon,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. “Now is the time to take advantage of this momentum and increase investments in infrastructure and people. This is vital to accelerating the sustainable and inclusive economic growth required to end extreme poverty.”

The report analyzes the worrisome recent weakening of investment growth in emerging market and developing economies, which account for one-third of global GDP and about three-quarters of the world’s population and the world’s poor. Investment growth fell to 3.4 percent in 2015 from 10 percent on average in 2010, and likely declined another half percentage point last year.

Slowing investment growth is partly a correction from high pre-crisis levels, but also reflects obstacles to growth that emerging and developing economies have faced, including low oil prices (for oil exporters), slowing foreign direct investment (for commodity importers), and more broadly, private debt burdens and political risk.

“We can help governments offer the private sector more opportunities to invest with confidence that the new capital it produces can plug into the infrastructure of global connectivity,” said World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer. “Without new streets, the private sector has no incentive to invest in the physical capital of new buildings. Without new work space connected to new living space, the billions of people who want to join the modern economy will lose the chance to invest in the human capital that comes from learning on the job.”

Emerging market and developing economy commodity exporters are expected to expand by 2.3 percent in 2017 after an almost negligible 0.3 percent pace in 2016, as commodity prices gradually recover and as Russia and Brazil resume growing after recessions.

Commodity-importing emerging market and developing economies, in contrast, should grow at 5.6 percent this year, unchanged from 2016. China is projected to continue an orderly growth slowdown to a 6.5 percent rate. However, overall prospects for emerging market and developing economies are dampened by tepid international trade, subdued investment, and weak productivity growth.

Among advanced economies, growth in the United States is expected to pick up to 2.2 percent, as manufacturing and investment growth gain traction after a weak 2016. The report looks at how proposed fiscal stimulus and other policy initiatives in the United States could spill over to the global economy.

“Because of the outsize role the United States plays in the world economy, changes in policy direction may have global ripple effects. More expansionary U.S. fiscal policies could lead to stronger growth in the United States and abroad over the near-term, but changes to trade or other policies could offset those gains,” said World Bank Development Economics Prospects Director Ayhan Kose. “Elevated policy uncertainty in major economies could also have adverse impacts on global growth.”