Researchers successfully grow “seed yams in the air”

Researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have successfully grown seed yams in the air using aeroponics technology, raising hopes and more options for the propagation of virus- and disease-free planting materials.

In preliminary trials, Dr Norbert Maroya, Project Manager for the Yam Improvement for Incomes and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project at IITA, together with a team of scientists successfully propagated yam by directly planting vine cuttings in Aeroponics System (AS) boxes to produce mini-tubers in the air.

Aeroponics System is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium. The technology is widely used by commercial potato seed producers in eastern and southern Africa but successfully growing yam on aeroponics is a novelty for rapidly multiplying the much needed clean seed yam tubers in large quantities.

“With this approach we are optimistic that farmers will begin to have clean seed yams for better harvest,” Dr Maroya said.

Preliminary results showed that vine rooting in Aeroponics System had at least 95% success rate compared to vine rooting in carbonized rice husk with a maximum rate of 70%. Rooting time was much shorter in aeroponics.

Aeroponics is coming at an opportune time for African farmers. Traditionally, seed yam production is expensive and inefficient. Farmers save about 25 to 30% of their harvest for planting the same area in the following season, meaning less money in their pockets.

Moreover, these saved seeds are often infested with pathogens that significantly reduce farmers’ yield year after year.

However with an established Aeroponics System for seed yam propagation at the premises of an interested private investor, seed company or humanitarian nongovernmental organization; yam producers can have access to clean seed yams.

The soilless yam propagation system will increase the productivity of seed and ware yam and effectively reduce diseases and pests incidence and severity (no soilborne or vector-transmitted pests and diseases during the vegetative phase).

Dr Robert Asiedu, IITA Director for Western Africa described the results as “impressive.”

“Yam is an important crop in Africa and addressing the seeds’ constraint will go a long way in improving the livelihoods of farmers who depend on the crop for their livelihood,” he added.

In conducting the aeroponics trial, a special structure was built in an existing screen house with Dixon shelf frames using perforated styrofoam box, as support for plant vines, while the developing roots of the plants in the air were enclosed in conditions of total darkness to simulate the situation of soil to the roots.

For the plant and tuber to develop, an automated power house system was established for atomizing periodically nutrient enriched water solution in the form of mist to feed the plants.

Agriculture Science Week sets agenda for Africa’s food security

Africa feeding Africa through Agricultural Science and Innovation is this year's theme at the 6^th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW) which kicks off on the 15^th through to 20^th of July, 2013 in Accra, Ghana. 

The Week will bring together over 1,200 delegates including Ministers of agriculture, science and technology, researchers, farmers, extensionists, civil society and development partners to discuss the role of agricultural science and innovation in finding and strengthening local solutions to the urgent food security challenges in Africa. 

The event is organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in collaboration with the Government of Ghana and holds at the International Conference Centre in Accra.

“The Science Week, and the range of events taking place during it, plays a critical role in responding to burning issues in African agricultural research and development”, said Dr. Tiemoko Yo, Chairperson of FARA. “The recommendations emanating from the pre-plenary meetings, which will be presented at plenary will take center stage in shaping Africa’s agenda for food security, poverty reduction and economic development over the next three years and will also contribute to global initiatives for African development for the post MDG era”. 

With the target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) drawing nearer, the Week’s topics are particularly relevant given that food and nutrition security remain key challenges especially in Africa, with a focus on home-grown food security and innovations that will enable Africa feed itself and improve livelihoods. 

There will be a ‘Marketplace’ of exhibitions as well as 51 side-events organized by global stakeholders and organizations engaged in agriculture and rural development around the sub-themes of the Week. The recommendations of these meetings will be presented during Plenary Sessions on the 19^th of July.

The CGIAR Consortium will particularly be represented by more than 60 scientists and experts who would be demonstrating the role of agricultural research in helping “Africa feed Africa”.

The Consortium is a partnership of 15 of the world's leading research centers. More than 50% of CGIAR's funding is driven towards a solutions-based research approach, in support of improving food security in Africa. Its work in the region is more critical than ever, given its proven track in translating its research findings into practical home-grown solutions to associated challenges.

“CGIAR research is helping to improve food security, health and nutrition and natural resource management, alongside reducing poverty and mitigating and adapting to climate change across Africa.  This demonstrates the vital role that research has to play in providing solutions to some of the biggest challenges that the region and world are facing", Dr Frank Rijsberman, Chief Executive Officer of the CGIAR Consortium said.

The AASW would have sub-themes on education and human resource development, innovations to improve productivity and resilience, moving from competition to collaboration and innovative financing and investment in agriculture.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

AfDB funds $63M initiative to raise agricultural production

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and researchers have launched a US$63.24 million AfDB-funded initiative that aims to raise agricultural productivity and also lift millions of Africans out of poverty.

The 5-year multi-CGIAR center initiative known as “Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa” (SARD-SC) is a research, science, and technology development initiative aimed at enhancing the productivity and income derived from cassava, maize, rice, and wheat.

These four crops are among the six commodities that African Heads of States, through the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP), have defined as strategic crops for Africa.

During the launch of the initiative in Ibadan, Nigeria, the Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga called on researchers to deliver ‘quick impact’ to justify the investments in research.

“We should begin to demonstrate impact in the next two years using available technologies already developed. Everything in SARD-SC is about impact and not only writing scientific papers,” Dr Sanginga said.

The SARD-SC Project comes at an opportune time when food security and nutrition are high on the national agenda of the AfDB Regional Member Countries (RMCs), as rising food prices push millions of people into extreme hunger and poverty. The SARD-SC allows – for the first time ever in a single project – a continental coverage of the food security challenges in Africa.

“What we intend to achieve goes beyond food security. We are looking at boosting incomes and reducing poverty in Africa,“ said Mr Ousmane Dore, Resident Representative, Nigeria Field Office of the AfDB, who launched the event on behalf of AfDB’s President, Dr Donald Kaberuka.

“Apart from supporting research with broad sectoral and/or economic-wide objectives, the social impact of this intervention is significant. This is underscored by the all-inclusive nature of the project beneficiaries: farmers’ groups, youth, private sector, policy makers, rural entrepreneurs, national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES), community based organizations, and nongovernmental organizations,” he explained.

The project, which will run until 2016, will be co-implemented by three Africa-based CGIAR centers: IITA, Africa Rice Center, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas. IITA is also the Executing Agency of the project.

Another CGIAR center – the International Food Policy Research Institute – a specialized technical agency, will support the other three centers.

 

Dr Kenton Dashiell, Deputy Director General (Partnerships & Capacity Development), said the distinctive nature of the project offered an opportunity to improve food security in Africa.

He also called on partners and researchers to work towards building a new and better future for Africa using the project as a tool.

Youth with ‘swag’ can succeed in agriculture

Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru is a young Nigerian lady passionately driving the beauty in agriculture in her home country. Proud to be a farmer, she’s got her swag – twitting @PrettyFarmer on her sleek tablet.

Cynthia produces food to feed her nation, and delights in inspiring other young persons to take up a profession in agribusiness.

Her company, Honeysuckle Ventures, distributes livestock produce to fast food companies and restaurants in Lagos and one of her farms is used for research and training of young farmers in the agri-food sector.

For Cynthia, it is critical that women and the youth focus less on the drudgery of agriculture and rather focus on the opportunities therein for financial independence and the nutritional security of families.

“If people are concerned about the quality of the food that they eat, they should be concerned about the quality of the produce that comes out of the farm…it means that we need to be involved” she noted. “Now if as women, as young people we love to eat, wear cloths, we love to spend money, then I think it’s critical that we begin to look closely at the agric sector”.

Cynthia inspires her peers not only in Nigeria but others of Africa to venture agriculture, a profession often perceived to be unattractive to today’s African youth.

“I think that people need to begin to look at the brighter side and then appreciate agriculture for what it is – a wealth creating platform. This is one sector that singly is capable of creating total employment across its value chain”, she added.

In Ghana, the government’s Youth in Agriculture Programme (YIAP) was established to increase employment opportunities and incomes, encourage entrepreneurship, and upscale food production.

With the average national farmer age at 55 years, the programme seeks to increase productivity in agricultural sector by tapping into the energy of the youth who compromise about 30percent of Ghana’s active population.

According to National Programme Coordinator, Alhaji Adam Mahama, the Ghanaian youth are interested in venturing agriculture but financial constraints remain major obstacle.

“My office, on daily basis, is filled with applications, proposals from youth, university graduates – both male and female – who are interested in going into agriculture but I’m constrained by funding”, he stated.

Alhaji Adam estimates that a minimum of Gh₵10,000 ($5,000) is needed to support a university graduate to be able to take off into full-time agriculture, but such funding is not readily available.

He however does not subscribe to the establishment of a fund by government to be accessed by the youth “because immediately government takes too much interest in funding such things, people don’t want to be independent”.

Hence, government should provide the farming inputs whilst the private sector is engaged in providing financial packages for such agricultural ventures, he opined.

“If a package is made in such a way that they take the money from the banks that they can use and pay back to the banks [and] account to the banks, then they’ll learn to be independent and good private sector”, noted Alhaji Adam.

Private sector agribusiness players believe the public-private partnerships are important to drive young people into agribusiness but this, they say, must be devoid of politics.

Prince Obeng Asante, Deputy Managing Director of Ghana Nuts Company, says concepts geared towards youth employment must move from a political platform to a pseudo-business organization for the private sector to buy into them.

“It should be partnership which is built on rock, not on sand which can easily be washed away when the political season comes to an end”, he observed.

Ghana Nuts is a leading agro processor, manufacturer and exporter of a gamut of edible oils, animal feed input materials and Shea Butter.

The company has been supporting the agricultural project under the National Service Scheme and recently received 4,000 bags of yellow maize from the NSS Wenchi Farm to produce feed for the local poultry industry.

The NSS project is making some inroads with an expected harvest in excess of eight metric tonnes of maize by end of 2012 from the combined 2,120 acres it is farming in five regions.

It is early days yet to ascertain what percentage of the young national service personnel engaged in the NSS agric project would opt for full-time ventures in farming or agribusiness at the end of their service.

But Prince Obeng says there is the need to critically show young people that agriculture could provide a dynamic and productive future for them.

Young people who see the profitability in agriculture will naturally move into the sector, he said.

“The cost of production vis-à-vis the revenue has been the major bottleneck; the guy is spending Gh₵1,000 per hectare and the revenue coming from it is Gh₵900, why do you think the youth will be there?” queried Prince. “But if today we say that you spend Gh₵1,000 but your revenue is Gh₵2,000, so the [profit] margin is Gh₵500, I tell you even the dead will resurrect and go into agriculture”.

To set the agenda right, Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, who is currently a Youth Consultant to the African Union Commission, has emphasized the direct engagement of the youth in agricultural policy formulation whilst providing avenues for the youth to access mentors and role models to success in agribusiness.

Already, youth in agriculture is one of the driving issues on which the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) focuses its work.

“Granted that there are a lot of countries benefiting from oil and natural resources, but most of the countries in Africa today are primarily agriculture-based communities, so when you think about the future of agriculture you should start with the source which is the young people of Africa”, said James Tefft, Senior Policy Officer, FAO Regional Office for Africa.

He wants the subject of young people in agriculture to be embedded within national policies in the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

He says investments in the agricultural sector should be about the people and integrating youth in agriculture is essential in addressing the demographic challenges.

“The policy framework in Ghana with respect to METASIP exists but we need to get into the specifics of how these partnerships between public and private actors actually take place… we need the young people, civil society [to be] engaged in the process. So to move forward, we need to move into the specific of the dialogues at very decentralized levels”, said James Tefft.

The Ghanaian government developed the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) to implement the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy (FASDEP II) over the medium term 2011-2015.

Whilst expecting agricultural policies to be youth-centered, there is the potential for women and young people to strategically plug into the sector by “unlocking their minds and view agriculture as a business; it is not just about farming and tilling the soil – there is processing, packaging, distribution, cold storage, marketing – the opportunities across its value chain is enormous”, said Cynthia Umoru.

Transforming mindsets are the core values of the AgroMindset Organisation, which is educating a new generation of entrepreneurial minded agriculturists in Ghana.

“Our idea is using the bottom-up approach to transform youthful thinking from fork (state of consumption) to field (state of activity and productivity), and so we seek to introduce the concept of agric entrepreneurship to young people right from childhood”, said Founding Director, David Asiamah.

The Organization seeks to erase negative perceptions about farming, showcasing that it can bring people great wealth and prosperity, through strategies like organising the Agro Summit and Agro Tourism events, embarking on outreaches, undertaking Green projects and promoting agribusiness, innovation and entrepreneurship.

“We have visited over 5000 young people in basic schools and our meetings attract interested students and industry experts to learn and share ideas at the same time churning them into entrepreneurs”, he said.

Without a clear policy strategy for engaging this rising group of rural youth, Africa’s leaders and the development partners that work with them risk creating an economic time bomb for their successors, warned David Asiamah.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

African Green Revolution Forum 2012: expectations

For the smallholder yam farmer at Mampong-Ejura in the Ashanti region of Ghana or the young graduate seeking opportunities in agribusiness, issues to be discussed at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF 2012) should be of great interest.

The next milestone to develop an African-led food security solutions would be shaped at the Forum holding in Arusha, Tanzania later this week.

AGRF 2012, under the theme ‘Scaling investment and innovation for sustainable agricultural growth and food security’, sets the stage for Africa’s leaders to promote investments and policy support to increase agricultural productivity and income growth for African farmers.

“One thing that Mr. [Kofi] Annan has said over and over again is that he does not want a talk shop; he wants to see action points – what are the things we are committing to do?” stated Sylvia Mwichuli, Executive Producer of the Forum and Director Communications at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

The AGRF is a private-sector led initiative which will brings together African governments, private agribusiness firms, financial institutions, farmers, civil society organizations and scientists to discuss and develop concrete investment plans for achieving the green revolution in Africa.

A post on social networking to engage people’s expectations generated interesting comments and ideas.

According to David Raymond Quojo Asiamah of the Agro Mindset Organisation, policies must link producers to markets and enable value to be created throughout the supply chain to help create income opportunities and diversify rural activities, whilst ensuring environmentally sustainable production.

“In order to provide the conditions that will permit poor farm households to improve their own lives, governments, non-governmental organisations and international agencies must understand more clearly the agro ecological, physical, economic and cultural environment within which farmers and their families live – their farming systems” he wrote. “Only in this way can realistic policies, investments and technical assistance programmes be developed and implemented, and the latent capacity of the farming population fully released”.

Jane Karuku, President of AGRA has noted that smallholder farmers are at the centre of activities, saying that the future will be more prosperous if African farmers are provided the tools they need to grow more and improve their incomes.

Leadership policy therefore remains crucial in the African agricultural transformation.

“They [Africa leaders] should ensure that agriculture protocols set are followed up promptly”, says Geoffrey Onditi, Kenyan journalist with keen interest in agriculture.

Similar concerns are shared by Felix Abugu, an Editor with Nigeria’s Guardian Newspaper, who can’t understand why some countries in Africa produce excess food whilst others starve. He believes policies should promote continent-wide distribution of food.

With the recent $3 billion commitment at the G8 Summit to a New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, the African Green Revolution Forum would be looking for ways to increase the public-private sector partnership to drive global food security efforts.

“Everyone who matters in agriculture is coming to Arusha, so when we leave this place, we’ll be able to say, if it’s issues to do with policy, what policy do we need to change and who’s taking responsibility for making sure the change happens”, noted Sylvia Mwichuli.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/ in Arusha, Tanzania.

Thinking value chain for youth in agriculture

Agriculture, the backbone of Africa’s economy, is threatened by an ageing production population as young people turn away from farming, often thought to be difficult, time consuming, risky and not very profitable.

In Ghana for instance, majority of farmers are interested in empowering their children to take up professions other than farming as their future economic activity.

“No farmer is expecting the child to land on the farm because we don’t make agric a very good profession for it to be very attractive to the farmers themselves to be able to introduce their children into the practice,” observed Emmanuel Arthur, Managing Director of Kuapa Kokoo Company Limited, a farmers’ cooperative.

According to him, there is the urgent need to reflect on agricultural policies to ascertain business ideals and attractiveness to the youth, otherwise “we’ll get to a point that we’ll not be able to produce the food we eat, the cash crop that we export and the country could be in serious crises”.

Majority of the people engaged in agriculture are believed to be over 50 years old, hence calls for Africa to think critically about how to attract the youth to replace the aging farming population.

Suggestions include the integration of agriculture into school curricula, easy access to land, capital, technical knowledge and equipment for successful ventures.

Dr. Samuel Kojo Dapaah, a Special Advisor to Ghana’s Minister of Food and Agriculture, believes the youth should be better off so long as their concerns with agricultural mechanization, transportation, water and other basic amenities are provided.

However, there is growing advocacy to rather encourage the youth to get higher up in the agricultural value chain.

Some African researchers involved in the GDN Global Research Project, ‘Supporting Policy Research to Inform Agricultural Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia’, have strongly pointed to the need to shift from actual production at the farm house to value addition ventures for the youth.

At a recent workshop to present five policy briefing papers to help shape debates on agricultural policies in sub-Saharan Africa, Prof. Chris Ackello-Ogutu at the University of Nairobi, stated that young people would be more interested in value addition than actual production.

He said whilst it is important for the youth to change their mindset and attitude towards agriculture, they should be pushed to the value chains.

“We need to push for policies and strategies that can engage the youth in value addition higher up in the value chain and there are opportunities for that; providing extension services at the lower level and investing in processing and packaging and in public relations in the provision of market information”, stated Prof. Ackello-Ogutu.

Other opportunities for the youth in agriculture have been identified in food retail, catering, input supply and research – but these jobs generally require higher levels of education and different skills.

The 2012 international conference on “Young People, Farming and Food” debated research findings and policy options for youth engagement in agriculture.

It was observed that the agrifood sector in Africa, in the coming years, will undergo significant transformation that will result in both challenges and opportunities for young people.

Experts at the forum noted that policy interest in linking young people to agriculture should not ignore important drivers, trends and developments that are impacting on both young people’s aspirations and the structure of the agrifood sector.

Prof. Saa Dittoh, Head of Food Nutrition and Security at the University of Development Studies, Tamale says the marketing component of the agricultural value chain should be promoted.

According to the GDN policy paper on ‘Long-term Challenges to Food Security and Rural Livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa’, Africa’s urban populations and incomes are growing and with that will come greater demand for marketed food.

“The youth are becoming very innovative, so looking at the value chain and where they can fit in and not necessarily just on the farm but find out what they can do with the produce, is going to be very important”, observed Prof. Dittoh.

In November 2012, hundreds of public and private sector players in agriculture will be participating in an international conference on agricultural value chains in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Though the event has no specific focus on youth, youth employment may be touched on by the session being organized by International Labour Organization (ILO).

Senior Technical Advisor for Market-Led Development  at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Andrew W. Shepherd is uncertain “how policies could drive people into value chains as value chains depend, primarily, on satisfying consumer demand, but as demand increases for processed and semi-processed products there will be more employment opportunities”.

 

As the experts meet to develop a greater understanding of the factors necessary for value chains to thrive, it is expected that young people in Africa would share in the knowledge and experiences to venture the agricultural value chain for gainful employment and contribute to food security.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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