JAMAICA, Government of Jamaica, Jamaica Information Service; Oct. 15, 2008
The Agriculture Minister pointed out that the other aspect, involves examining the role of agricultural policy in supporting energy requirements. "What is the role in agriculture in doing that? What are the various sources of bio-fuels that complement and not contradict or conflict with our need to provide food security? Are there crops that can be grown that are not going to take away what is required for consumption?" Dr. Tufton questioned. Another issue that came out of the conference was the need to identify alternatives to corn as a source of protein, particularly in feedstock; it was suggested that cassava be utilised. The Minister noted that this was not only useful in terms of feed stock, but for human consumption as well, pointing to an experiment with nutri-buns, provided under the school-feeding programme, through the Education Ministry, where cassava flour was used to substitute up to 20 per cent of flour.
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Tufton, has called for the establishment of a World Trade Organisation (WTO) - compatible agricultural development fund, to facilitate modernisation and re-tooling of the sector.
This call follows a meeting last week, which the Minister chaired, with the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), as part of the eighth Caribbean Week of Agriculture, held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Dr. Tufton revealed that it was suggested at the meeting, that revenues collected from imports of agricultural produce from other countries, could go towards supporting the development of such an agricultural fund.
"Daily, we import billions of dollars of produce from farmers who are producing it in other countries...We need to put a system in place that says if we gave 100 per cent duty concession on corn imports, which we currently do, coming into the country, apply a five per cent duty and take that five per cent, put it in a pool to re-tool our farmers so that they can grow," he said.
Dr. Tufton was speaking at the opening ceremony for a Sub-Regional Training of Trainers (TOT) Workshop on Agricultural Science, Technology, and Innovation Systems, being hosted by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA), in collaboration with the Scientific Research Council (SRC) and the National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST). The event is being held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel from October 13 to 17.
He noted further, that those who oppose that process, of applying duty to agricultural imports, claim expense to the consumer, "but the truth of the matter is that.it might be a small price to pay for building the local capacity that is required, so that it minimises our vulnerabilities in the long run. We have to take these decisions, and the COTED is firm on it," he emphasised.
"I think there are opportunities in the current market crisis that we face, (and) we need to look for those opportunities that exist there, (and) not just view it as a threat, but view it as a call to action to address some of the fundamental challenges that we have to confront. We have to change our mindset, we have to change our attitude, we have to change our approach, and it has to start at the highest possible level," Dr. Tufton stressed.
Also, coming out of those discussions, he said, was the call for the region, to "re-focus our attention towards building local capacity. Territories within the region, which once saw their salvation coming from services, including Jamaica from tourism, from fossil fuels, in the case of Trinidad and Tobago, and saw food or the sourcing of food coming primarily from trading with other countries, are now re-thinking that model because of the developments that have occurred over time". Out of the meetings, he informed, a communiqué had been developed by the Heads of the region, to take a number of steps to re-focus attention on building local capacity.
Dr. Tufton pointed out that there is a need, for example, for common commodities to be identified in the region and for the research capacity that is being provided by institutions like the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), the University of the West Indies, and others "to build capacity behind these common commodities, so that these can become an important source of food for the region."
"Firstly, to satisfy the local needs within each territory, because we tend to focus a lot on trade between ourselves, when in truth and in fact, we are not even providing enough capacity to satisfy our local demands. We are looking for best practices, and what we are saying to regional Heads, (is that) we need to recommit ourselves by explicitly stating our commitment to building an agricultural sector that will work, and by supporting that with the necessary resources," he explained.
The Agriculture Minister pointed out that the other aspect, involves examining the role of agricultural policy in supporting energy requirements. "What is the role in agriculture in doing that? What are the various sources of bio-fuels that complement and not contradict or conflict with our need to provide food security? Are there crops that can be grown that are not going to take away what is required for consumption?" Dr. Tufton questioned.
Another issue that came out of the conference was the need to identify alternatives to corn as a source of protein, particularly in feedstock; it was suggested that cassava be utilised. The Minister noted that this was not only useful in terms of feed stock, but for human consumption as well, pointing to an experiment with nutri-buns, provided under the school-feeding programme, through the Education Ministry, where cassava flour was used to substitute up to 20 per cent of flour.
"The point is that there are alternative options out there. It is for us to identify them and to tap into them and to develop business models supported by research and development, that is going to provide those options, which will, in effect, allow us to determine our own destiny, rather than to be overly dependent on others to supply us," he said.
Dr. Tufton noted further, that COTED took the decision that Government policy must drive a process that encourages existing providers of feed stock to replace the imported content up to 25 per cent. "Instead of importing 100 per cent of corn, we have to use Government policy, whether through moral suasion or direct intervention, to encourage some of these persons who import 100 per cent corn to find an alternative to subsidise the corn that they import," he stressed.
The training workshop will seek to support the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), region in building capacity to improve understanding, among leaders in the agricultural sector in ACP countries, of innovation framework systems. It emphasises how the major actors involved in an innovation system at the national level in any given sector and in particular, the agricultural sector, can contribute to improving and expanding innovation processes in support of socio-economic markets.
Oct 17, 2008
Families in conflict spend three-quarters of income on food
LONDON, UK, British Red Cross, 16 October 2008
She continued: “With the intervention of the Sierra Leone Red Cross after the war, it has been much better as it actively encouraged us to grow food for ourselves and to sell some, which has meant we are bringing in money. The profits are what we live on – taking care of the children and ourselves.”The Red Cross has provided seed rice to Nyanda’s group. The group will keep some to plant for the next season, sell some at the local market and eat the rest. “Everyone benefits from it,” she said. “We’ve had a good harvest this year and we’ve been eating twice a day. Cassava in the morning and rice in the evening.”
Households in countries affected by armed conflict spend as much as 75 per cent of their income on food, compared to 15 per cent spent by the average person in the UK, the British Red Cross announced on World Food Day (16 October).The Red Cross helps communities suffering from conflict and lack of access to food all around the world.
Drought in Afghanistan
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Afghan Red Crescent are distributing 500 truck-loads of emergency food aid to people in desperate need in four remote, far-flung provinces in the north of the country before the onset of the harsh Afghan winter next month.
Around 280,000 people are suffering the effects of the worst drought in a decade. With no food, no money to buy seeds, and no guarantee it will rain, the outlook for the winter harvest is bleak in an area that relies on rain-fed farming.
Thousands of families are expected to leave their homes in search of food and work.
Their plight is compounded by rocketing food prices. Across Afghanistan, large numbers of people cannot afford to buy essential staples like wheat and rice. The cost of flour, for example, has doubled in less than a year.
Growing again in Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, the Red Cross community animation and peace support programme (CAPS) helps communities recovering from war set up work groups to grow food.
Women like Nyanda Albert (28) work on vegetable gardening, while men take care of the bigger farms that produce their staple food of rice and cassava.
Nyanda said: “After the war we were barely living on cassava and bush yam. It was survival of the fittest.”
Bringing in money
She continued: “With the intervention of the Sierra Leone Red Cross after the war, it has been much better as it actively encouraged us to grow food for ourselves and to sell some, which has meant we are bringing in money. The profits are what we live on – taking care of the children and ourselves.”
The Red Cross has provided seed rice to Nyanda’s group. The group will keep some to plant for the next season, sell some at the local market and eat the rest.
“Everyone benefits from it,” she said. “We’ve had a good harvest this year and we’ve been eating twice a day. Cassava in the morning and rice in the evening.”
She continued: “With the intervention of the Sierra Leone Red Cross after the war, it has been much better as it actively encouraged us to grow food for ourselves and to sell some, which has meant we are bringing in money. The profits are what we live on – taking care of the children and ourselves.”The Red Cross has provided seed rice to Nyanda’s group. The group will keep some to plant for the next season, sell some at the local market and eat the rest. “Everyone benefits from it,” she said. “We’ve had a good harvest this year and we’ve been eating twice a day. Cassava in the morning and rice in the evening.”
Households in countries affected by armed conflict spend as much as 75 per cent of their income on food, compared to 15 per cent spent by the average person in the UK, the British Red Cross announced on World Food Day (16 October).The Red Cross helps communities suffering from conflict and lack of access to food all around the world.
Drought in Afghanistan
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Afghan Red Crescent are distributing 500 truck-loads of emergency food aid to people in desperate need in four remote, far-flung provinces in the north of the country before the onset of the harsh Afghan winter next month.
Around 280,000 people are suffering the effects of the worst drought in a decade. With no food, no money to buy seeds, and no guarantee it will rain, the outlook for the winter harvest is bleak in an area that relies on rain-fed farming.
Thousands of families are expected to leave their homes in search of food and work.
Their plight is compounded by rocketing food prices. Across Afghanistan, large numbers of people cannot afford to buy essential staples like wheat and rice. The cost of flour, for example, has doubled in less than a year.
Growing again in Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, the Red Cross community animation and peace support programme (CAPS) helps communities recovering from war set up work groups to grow food.
Women like Nyanda Albert (28) work on vegetable gardening, while men take care of the bigger farms that produce their staple food of rice and cassava.
Nyanda said: “After the war we were barely living on cassava and bush yam. It was survival of the fittest.”
Bringing in money
She continued: “With the intervention of the Sierra Leone Red Cross after the war, it has been much better as it actively encouraged us to grow food for ourselves and to sell some, which has meant we are bringing in money. The profits are what we live on – taking care of the children and ourselves.”
The Red Cross has provided seed rice to Nyanda’s group. The group will keep some to plant for the next season, sell some at the local market and eat the rest.
“Everyone benefits from it,” she said. “We’ve had a good harvest this year and we’ve been eating twice a day. Cassava in the morning and rice in the evening.”
Mothers' Union DR Congo
by Fiona Thomas
SWITZERLAND ReliefWeb (press release) - Geneva, Oct. 16, 2008
Mugisa Isingoma, from Mothers' Union DR Congo, reports from Boga, that the teams need Cassava, soya beans, maize flour, sugar, rice, cooking oil and salt to meet the needs of increasing numbers of displaced families. An additional provisions of mosquito nets for small children and plastic sheeting to protect families from the rains, which are just starting, are also required.
Mothers' Union members in Eastern DR Congo report a huge rise in the number of people displaced through the escalating violence in the region. Currently the charity are feeding 250 families of vulnerable, displaced mothers and children in the Boga region and are on standby for news from the Bukavu area.
An immediate relief grant of $5,300.00 is being sent to facilitate delivery of relief in the area. Local grassroots workers are appealing for help feeding the hundreds of people needing their assistance.
Mugisa Isingoma, from Mothers' Union DR Congo, reports from Boga, that the teams need Cassava, soya beans, maize flour, sugar, rice, cooking oil and salt to meet the needs of increasing numbers of displaced families. An additional provisions of mosquito nets for small children and plastic sheeting to protect families from the rains, which are just starting, are also required.
Worldwide President of Mothers' Union, Rosemary Kempsell, spoke yesterday to highlight the particular risks to women caught up in the war. "Women are, we hear, increasingly being subjected to rape and worse. We [Mothers' Union] need to do all we can to support the relief efforts of our team in DR Congo at this time."
Fiona Thomas
Communications Officer
Mary Sunmer House
24 Tufton Street, London, SW1P 3RB
+ 44 20 7222 5533
www.themothers.union.org
SWITZERLAND ReliefWeb (press release) - Geneva, Oct. 16, 2008
Mugisa Isingoma, from Mothers' Union DR Congo, reports from Boga, that the teams need Cassava, soya beans, maize flour, sugar, rice, cooking oil and salt to meet the needs of increasing numbers of displaced families. An additional provisions of mosquito nets for small children and plastic sheeting to protect families from the rains, which are just starting, are also required.
Mothers' Union members in Eastern DR Congo report a huge rise in the number of people displaced through the escalating violence in the region. Currently the charity are feeding 250 families of vulnerable, displaced mothers and children in the Boga region and are on standby for news from the Bukavu area.
An immediate relief grant of $5,300.00 is being sent to facilitate delivery of relief in the area. Local grassroots workers are appealing for help feeding the hundreds of people needing their assistance.
Mugisa Isingoma, from Mothers' Union DR Congo, reports from Boga, that the teams need Cassava, soya beans, maize flour, sugar, rice, cooking oil and salt to meet the needs of increasing numbers of displaced families. An additional provisions of mosquito nets for small children and plastic sheeting to protect families from the rains, which are just starting, are also required.
Worldwide President of Mothers' Union, Rosemary Kempsell, spoke yesterday to highlight the particular risks to women caught up in the war. "Women are, we hear, increasingly being subjected to rape and worse. We [Mothers' Union] need to do all we can to support the relief efforts of our team in DR Congo at this time."
Fiona Thomas
Communications Officer
Mary Sunmer House
24 Tufton Street, London, SW1P 3RB
+ 44 20 7222 5533
www.themothers.union.org
Oct 16, 2008
Bridging gap between research and farming
Centre of excellence to improve productivity, says Tufton
Ross SheilM Online Co-ordinator rsheil@jamaicaobserver.com
JAMAICA. Jamaica Observer - Kingston, Oct.15, 2008
Cassava flour is being piloted as a 20 per cent flour substitute in Nutribuns in conjunction with the Ministry of Education with the initial response being favourable, he reported. He said that Jamaica Flour Mills have expressed a willingness to use cassava to provide 15 per cent of its flour, dependent on reliable supply - he added that at current levels of productivity cassava is yielding 7 tonnes per acre but that this could be raised to 20 tonnes.
State Minister in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Michael Stern (right) listens keenly to Minister of Agriculture, Dr Christopher Tufton at the opening ceremony for a week-long agricultural science and technology workshop held at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston Monday, organised by the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) and the African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP)-European Union (EU) Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.
Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton says that a Centre of Excellence for the sector, scheduled to launch early next year, will help train farmers islandwide in up-to-date best practice and technology to boost production, which has fallen by 30 per cent in the past 15 years, and hence domestic food security.
Headed by former World Bank agricultural economist Wayne Henry, and now special advisor to the minister, the centre has been promised funds of US$3 million by the Spanish government. Henry will have responsibility for co-ordinating with the various bodies carrying out agricultural research and education.
The centre will be based at the ministry's existing facility in Bodels, St Catherine, which is being refurbished for the purpose and two satellites: A greenhouse project in Coleyville, Manchester and ruminants (sheep and goats) in Hounslow, South St Elizabeth.
"The farming community doesn't benefit from a study! It benefits from a practical application of the study to improve its techniques in the field. One of the things we want to do is to have a body that co-ordinates all existing studies and develop a training agenda that is practical and implemented out of the findings of those studies and train farmers in the field to implement those best practices, so we can advance the agenda of improving production and productivity levels," Tufton told an audience at the opening ceremony for a week-long agricultural science and technology workshop. The Workshop was held at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston Monday, and organised by the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), and the African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP)- European Union (EU) Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.
He said that the current world economic situation and concern over food security presented an opportunity for Caribbean agriculture, a sentiment shared by his special advisor.
"It's a tremendous vision and the potential for the country is there, there are a lot of able people involved and there is a lot of initiative as well. We have this window of opportunity with the concern of food security and with the support of international partners and locally interest in agriculture is resurgent. But we don't know how long this window is going to last for and there is a lot of work that needs to be done," Henry told the Business Observer.
Jamaica currently chairs the Caricom Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on agriculture, which convened in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines last week. Tufton said that there was a growing realisation among Caricom countries that imports need to be substituted for increased local production.
"Out of those discussions it was quite clear that as a region there is a recognition of a need to refocus our attention towards rebuilding our agricultural capacity.
Territories within the region that once saw their salvation coming from services - Jamaica included, from tourism, from fossil fuels in the case of a Trinidad and Tobago - and so food or the sourcing of food coming primarily from trading with other countries are now rethinking that mode because of the developments that have occurred over time," he said.
The resulting communiqué to CARICOM heads of governments included: Recognition of common commodities to sustain local demand; greater investigation of thd potential for biofuels that do not conflict with existing food profduction; the establishment of local research bodies and an agricultural development fund to be financed from import levies; and a recommendations that 25 per cent of feedstock be locally produced.
"We need to put a system in place that says if we gave 100 per cent import duty concessions to corn imports, which we currently do coming into the country, apply a five per cent duty and take that five per cent put in a pool and give it to our farmers so that they can grow... Those who oppose that process claim expense to the consumer but the truth of the matter is, sometimes I believe this is an excuse, and it maybe a small price to pay for building out our capacity."
Cassava flour is being piloted as a 20 per cent flour substitute in Nutribuns in conjunction with the Ministry of Education with the initial response being favourable, he reported. He said that Jamaica Flour Mills have expressed a willingness to use cassava to provide 15 per cent of its flour, dependent on reliable supply - he added that at current levels of productivity cassava is yielding 7 tonnes per acre but that this could be raised to 20 tonnes.
"The point is that there are alternative options out there. It is for us to identify them and to tap into them and to develop business models, supported by research and development that is going to provide those options, which - in effect - will allow us to determine our destiny rather being overly dependent on others to supply us."
The Ministry is continuing to employ more extension officers with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) with 20 starting work this week and plans to recruit another 40, he said. Meanwhile, the Ministry is conducting two studies into soil nutrition and disease to better inform farmers in addition to best practice research into 12 crops including carrots, ginger and yams.
He said that the Ministry would also continue to work closely with farmers via the Producing Marketing Organisations (PMOs) of which there are 400 groups of farmers registered with RADA, following their revival last year.
"We are going to be working through those groups. On deciding that we are targeting a particular crop, we need to go in and train those farmers what are the best practices in growing those crops and work with them in finding those markets."
Ross SheilM Online Co-ordinator rsheil@jamaicaobserver.com
JAMAICA. Jamaica Observer - Kingston, Oct.15, 2008
Cassava flour is being piloted as a 20 per cent flour substitute in Nutribuns in conjunction with the Ministry of Education with the initial response being favourable, he reported. He said that Jamaica Flour Mills have expressed a willingness to use cassava to provide 15 per cent of its flour, dependent on reliable supply - he added that at current levels of productivity cassava is yielding 7 tonnes per acre but that this could be raised to 20 tonnes.
State Minister in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Michael Stern (right) listens keenly to Minister of Agriculture, Dr Christopher Tufton at the opening ceremony for a week-long agricultural science and technology workshop held at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston Monday, organised by the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) and the African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP)-European Union (EU) Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.
Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton says that a Centre of Excellence for the sector, scheduled to launch early next year, will help train farmers islandwide in up-to-date best practice and technology to boost production, which has fallen by 30 per cent in the past 15 years, and hence domestic food security.
Headed by former World Bank agricultural economist Wayne Henry, and now special advisor to the minister, the centre has been promised funds of US$3 million by the Spanish government. Henry will have responsibility for co-ordinating with the various bodies carrying out agricultural research and education.
The centre will be based at the ministry's existing facility in Bodels, St Catherine, which is being refurbished for the purpose and two satellites: A greenhouse project in Coleyville, Manchester and ruminants (sheep and goats) in Hounslow, South St Elizabeth.
"The farming community doesn't benefit from a study! It benefits from a practical application of the study to improve its techniques in the field. One of the things we want to do is to have a body that co-ordinates all existing studies and develop a training agenda that is practical and implemented out of the findings of those studies and train farmers in the field to implement those best practices, so we can advance the agenda of improving production and productivity levels," Tufton told an audience at the opening ceremony for a week-long agricultural science and technology workshop. The Workshop was held at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston Monday, and organised by the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), and the African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP)- European Union (EU) Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.
He said that the current world economic situation and concern over food security presented an opportunity for Caribbean agriculture, a sentiment shared by his special advisor.
"It's a tremendous vision and the potential for the country is there, there are a lot of able people involved and there is a lot of initiative as well. We have this window of opportunity with the concern of food security and with the support of international partners and locally interest in agriculture is resurgent. But we don't know how long this window is going to last for and there is a lot of work that needs to be done," Henry told the Business Observer.
Jamaica currently chairs the Caricom Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on agriculture, which convened in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines last week. Tufton said that there was a growing realisation among Caricom countries that imports need to be substituted for increased local production.
"Out of those discussions it was quite clear that as a region there is a recognition of a need to refocus our attention towards rebuilding our agricultural capacity.
Territories within the region that once saw their salvation coming from services - Jamaica included, from tourism, from fossil fuels in the case of a Trinidad and Tobago - and so food or the sourcing of food coming primarily from trading with other countries are now rethinking that mode because of the developments that have occurred over time," he said.
The resulting communiqué to CARICOM heads of governments included: Recognition of common commodities to sustain local demand; greater investigation of thd potential for biofuels that do not conflict with existing food profduction; the establishment of local research bodies and an agricultural development fund to be financed from import levies; and a recommendations that 25 per cent of feedstock be locally produced.
"We need to put a system in place that says if we gave 100 per cent import duty concessions to corn imports, which we currently do coming into the country, apply a five per cent duty and take that five per cent put in a pool and give it to our farmers so that they can grow... Those who oppose that process claim expense to the consumer but the truth of the matter is, sometimes I believe this is an excuse, and it maybe a small price to pay for building out our capacity."
Cassava flour is being piloted as a 20 per cent flour substitute in Nutribuns in conjunction with the Ministry of Education with the initial response being favourable, he reported. He said that Jamaica Flour Mills have expressed a willingness to use cassava to provide 15 per cent of its flour, dependent on reliable supply - he added that at current levels of productivity cassava is yielding 7 tonnes per acre but that this could be raised to 20 tonnes.
"The point is that there are alternative options out there. It is for us to identify them and to tap into them and to develop business models, supported by research and development that is going to provide those options, which - in effect - will allow us to determine our destiny rather being overly dependent on others to supply us."
The Ministry is continuing to employ more extension officers with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) with 20 starting work this week and plans to recruit another 40, he said. Meanwhile, the Ministry is conducting two studies into soil nutrition and disease to better inform farmers in addition to best practice research into 12 crops including carrots, ginger and yams.
He said that the Ministry would also continue to work closely with farmers via the Producing Marketing Organisations (PMOs) of which there are 400 groups of farmers registered with RADA, following their revival last year.
"We are going to be working through those groups. On deciding that we are targeting a particular crop, we need to go in and train those farmers what are the best practices in growing those crops and work with them in finding those markets."
Cassava may replace some corn in animal feed
by Tracy Moore
BARBADOS. The Nation Newspaper - Bridgetown,St. Michael, Oct.15, 2008.
GOVERNMENT has provided $400 000 to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) to conduct feasibility studies to replace a percentage of corn in animal feed with cassava. According to the Ministry of Agriculture's Chief Agriculture Officer Barton Clarke, all that was left for the ministry to do "is essentially some demonstration work that we can grow the cassava at a price cheaper than corn".
"The whole idea is that we would be able to replace a certain per cent of the corn that is used in the feed with cassava.
"More importantly, we have to grow the cassava, harvest it, chip it, and dry it so that it can be readily used by the three manufacturers [in Barbados]," he said.
On board
He added that one of the three manufacturers, Pinnacle Feeds, was already on board and willing to supplement about 30 per cent of its corn with cassava.
"Of course, they will be purchasing that cassava at the same price that they now pay for the corn," Clarke noted.
In addition, he said the BAS was working with the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers Association to garner some technical assistance from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture based in Colombia, which has identified some varieties of cassava to develop agronomic practices for local conditions.
* tracymoore@nationnews.com
BARBADOS. The Nation Newspaper - Bridgetown,St. Michael, Oct.15, 2008.
GOVERNMENT has provided $400 000 to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) to conduct feasibility studies to replace a percentage of corn in animal feed with cassava. According to the Ministry of Agriculture's Chief Agriculture Officer Barton Clarke, all that was left for the ministry to do "is essentially some demonstration work that we can grow the cassava at a price cheaper than corn".
"The whole idea is that we would be able to replace a certain per cent of the corn that is used in the feed with cassava.
"More importantly, we have to grow the cassava, harvest it, chip it, and dry it so that it can be readily used by the three manufacturers [in Barbados]," he said.
On board
He added that one of the three manufacturers, Pinnacle Feeds, was already on board and willing to supplement about 30 per cent of its corn with cassava.
"Of course, they will be purchasing that cassava at the same price that they now pay for the corn," Clarke noted.
In addition, he said the BAS was working with the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers Association to garner some technical assistance from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture based in Colombia, which has identified some varieties of cassava to develop agronomic practices for local conditions.
* tracymoore@nationnews.com
Science must prove to Africa farmers that banana is profitable
Written by Henry Neondo
KENYA. Africa Science News Service - Nairobi,14 October 2008
He said examples from cassava in West Africa can teach one thing or the other to banana growers in east, central and southern African states saying that it is an excellent model to be emulated. To help popularize cassava, Nigerian President initiated a move to change perceptions around cassava---“a tough job in itself just as it is to change consumer tastes and preferences”, noted Hartman. The initiative began a media campaigns for 18 months and got support from the private sector to write on various issues on cassava in leading dailies and broadcast on showing the masses that agri-business is the way out for Africa’s subsistent farming. Cassava leaves, which are 20 percent protein and rich in fiber and energy, are being turned into animal feeds by processing firms who are now having ready markets in Botswana.
Africa can overcome her food problems, but it has to develop and harness the huge potential presented by such crops as banana, hitherto considered as food for the poor and help farmers put money in their pockets out these crops.For this to be realized, farmers must be shown growing banana is profitable. Peter Hartman, CEO, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA said in Mombasa at the first conference on banana and plantain in Africa that the continent needs to be doing things differently and need to realize the internal markets for banana and other crops---by itself huge.
“There is big enough market within Africa and the least worry for the continent now should not be external markets with exceptions for cash crops”, he said.
He said African farmers must be made to have some income in their pockets from whatever the crop they plant.
He said examples from cassava in West Africa can teach one thing or the other to banana growers in east, central and southern African states saying that it is an excellent model to be emulated. To help popularize cassava, Nigerian President initiated a move to change perceptions around cassava---“a tough job in itself just as it is to change consumer tastes and preferences”, noted Hartman. The initiative began a media campaigns for 18 months and got support from the private sector to write on various issues on cassava in leading dailies and broadcast on showing the masses that agri-business is the way out for Africa’s subsistent farming. Cassava leaves, which are 20 percent protein and rich in fiber and energy, are being turned into animal feeds by processing firms who are now having ready markets in Botswana.
Today, says Hartman, cassava is no longer seen as poor man’s crop and the rich are in cassava---with some having over 1000 hectares of land under the crop in bid to support numerous processing factories for cassava products such as flour, bread, cakes, glue and breweries factories.
According to Victoria Ndung’u, Senior Programme Officer, Africa Harvest, banana is good business without doubt. On the farmers’ side, she said, research has shown increasing incomes especially in three to eight years of establishing the orchard.
“Our study in some model farms in Kenya showed total cost in the first year of establishment of the orchard is USD1, 635 and net income was USD470. This however changed by the fifth year to USD532 for operational costs and USD2, 224 as net income”, she said.
“But efforts must be made to first change the mindset of farmers. They have known banana as a subsistence crop. Farmers have to see the crop and treat it equally as coffee and tea and have to be taught to manage their crop as those classified as high horticultural crops---giving it good agronomical practices".
Farmers have to be made to know the various products they can derive from bananas as to minimize losses, now estimated at 40 percent in east Africa.
Examples from Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania are showing that there are moves across Africa to add value to banana and in effect change the way banana has been perceived.
Dr Irene S. Egyir, lecturer, University of Ghana said processed banana products such as banana juice have a niche market in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi.
“We target those who are healthy conscious and youths and try to compete with Coca cola. Our industry for example, sales off 200 boxes each of which contains 30 bottles of 350 ml of juice off in a month. This is a clear indication of the demand for the product”.
Agreeing, Mrs Mariam Asigri, Masig Natural fruits industries said the move to process banana is providing jobs to rural youths who would not have earned employment.
For example she said, her firm, although still small scale employs five people, all youths, and in high season when there is high demand, other casual labour gets hired.
Jones M. Mwandawiro, regional manager for Kenya Horticultural Development Authority for coast region said today in Kenya and in most of Africa, the demand for banana far outstrips supply.
“My organization began bringing TC banana in the coast region some 3-4 years ago for farmers to buy. After overcoming initial hurdles we are now struggling to meet demand for planting materials.
Prof Esther Kahangi, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology said the move in Kenya where farmers are currently seeing uprooting coffee and tea plantations and replacing them with TC banana is testimony that banana is big business.
“As a scientist, I am seeing many laboratories being set up to do work on TC banana and in turn sale them to farmers on the upper end while on the lower end, farmers are teaming up together and forming groups that buy TC germplasm from laboratories and establishing greenhouses where they grow the seedling to sale them in turn to their neighbours”.
KENYA. Africa Science News Service - Nairobi,14 October 2008
He said examples from cassava in West Africa can teach one thing or the other to banana growers in east, central and southern African states saying that it is an excellent model to be emulated. To help popularize cassava, Nigerian President initiated a move to change perceptions around cassava---“a tough job in itself just as it is to change consumer tastes and preferences”, noted Hartman. The initiative began a media campaigns for 18 months and got support from the private sector to write on various issues on cassava in leading dailies and broadcast on showing the masses that agri-business is the way out for Africa’s subsistent farming. Cassava leaves, which are 20 percent protein and rich in fiber and energy, are being turned into animal feeds by processing firms who are now having ready markets in Botswana.
Africa can overcome her food problems, but it has to develop and harness the huge potential presented by such crops as banana, hitherto considered as food for the poor and help farmers put money in their pockets out these crops.For this to be realized, farmers must be shown growing banana is profitable. Peter Hartman, CEO, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA said in Mombasa at the first conference on banana and plantain in Africa that the continent needs to be doing things differently and need to realize the internal markets for banana and other crops---by itself huge.
“There is big enough market within Africa and the least worry for the continent now should not be external markets with exceptions for cash crops”, he said.
He said African farmers must be made to have some income in their pockets from whatever the crop they plant.
He said examples from cassava in West Africa can teach one thing or the other to banana growers in east, central and southern African states saying that it is an excellent model to be emulated. To help popularize cassava, Nigerian President initiated a move to change perceptions around cassava---“a tough job in itself just as it is to change consumer tastes and preferences”, noted Hartman. The initiative began a media campaigns for 18 months and got support from the private sector to write on various issues on cassava in leading dailies and broadcast on showing the masses that agri-business is the way out for Africa’s subsistent farming. Cassava leaves, which are 20 percent protein and rich in fiber and energy, are being turned into animal feeds by processing firms who are now having ready markets in Botswana.
Today, says Hartman, cassava is no longer seen as poor man’s crop and the rich are in cassava---with some having over 1000 hectares of land under the crop in bid to support numerous processing factories for cassava products such as flour, bread, cakes, glue and breweries factories.
According to Victoria Ndung’u, Senior Programme Officer, Africa Harvest, banana is good business without doubt. On the farmers’ side, she said, research has shown increasing incomes especially in three to eight years of establishing the orchard.
“Our study in some model farms in Kenya showed total cost in the first year of establishment of the orchard is USD1, 635 and net income was USD470. This however changed by the fifth year to USD532 for operational costs and USD2, 224 as net income”, she said.
“But efforts must be made to first change the mindset of farmers. They have known banana as a subsistence crop. Farmers have to see the crop and treat it equally as coffee and tea and have to be taught to manage their crop as those classified as high horticultural crops---giving it good agronomical practices".
Farmers have to be made to know the various products they can derive from bananas as to minimize losses, now estimated at 40 percent in east Africa.
Examples from Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania are showing that there are moves across Africa to add value to banana and in effect change the way banana has been perceived.
Dr Irene S. Egyir, lecturer, University of Ghana said processed banana products such as banana juice have a niche market in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi.
“We target those who are healthy conscious and youths and try to compete with Coca cola. Our industry for example, sales off 200 boxes each of which contains 30 bottles of 350 ml of juice off in a month. This is a clear indication of the demand for the product”.
Agreeing, Mrs Mariam Asigri, Masig Natural fruits industries said the move to process banana is providing jobs to rural youths who would not have earned employment.
For example she said, her firm, although still small scale employs five people, all youths, and in high season when there is high demand, other casual labour gets hired.
Jones M. Mwandawiro, regional manager for Kenya Horticultural Development Authority for coast region said today in Kenya and in most of Africa, the demand for banana far outstrips supply.
“My organization began bringing TC banana in the coast region some 3-4 years ago for farmers to buy. After overcoming initial hurdles we are now struggling to meet demand for planting materials.
Prof Esther Kahangi, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology said the move in Kenya where farmers are currently seeing uprooting coffee and tea plantations and replacing them with TC banana is testimony that banana is big business.
“As a scientist, I am seeing many laboratories being set up to do work on TC banana and in turn sale them to farmers on the upper end while on the lower end, farmers are teaming up together and forming groups that buy TC germplasm from laboratories and establishing greenhouses where they grow the seedling to sale them in turn to their neighbours”.
Oct 15, 2008
Cassava growers ask FG to compel banks to give loans
By Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja
NIGERIA.The Punch - Lagos, Oct. 14, 2008
Members of the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association have called on the Federal Government to appeal to banks to give them credit facilities. They said this was the only way the government could achieve the expected annual foreign earnings of $5bn from the crop. The farmers made this known during the inauguration of their association in Gwagwalada, Abuja on Monday.
The farmers also called on the Federal Government to reactivate the moribund Presidential Initiative Committee on Cassava to enhance the $5bn cassava products’ export to the international market annually.
Speaking on behalf of farmers, the National Coordinator, NCGA, Chief Tola Adepomola, said there was no way the nation would achieve the lofty idea if the banks continued to turn their back on the farmers anytime they asked for loans.
He said, “We are now begging the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency help us beg the banks to extend credit facilities to us, the grassroots farmers.
“It has been said that agriculture is the bedrock of Nigeria’s economic development. It is the most certain solution to poverty reduction, employment generation and sustainable food security.”
Nigeria is said to be producing about 50 million metric tonnes of cassava per annum, making her the largest producer of the crop world over.
However, the Presidential Initiative Committee on Cassava realised that Nigeria could produce 10 times that quantity based on the fact that it had comparative advantage on production of roots and tuber crops, especially cassava more than many countries of the world.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, NCGA, Chief Anson Eke, appealed to the government to assist the farmers by providing them with tractors and preservatives, which would help in their work.
He said that if this was done, cassava farmers spread across 20 states, would be able to do mechanised farming.
Eze said that cassava as a crop, had assumed the position of a domestic and commercial crop.
The crop enjoys the patronage of about 70 per cent of the farmers in Nigeria because of its adaptability to various weather conditions, which often makes it succeed where other crops fail.
NIGERIA.The Punch - Lagos, Oct. 14, 2008
Members of the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association have called on the Federal Government to appeal to banks to give them credit facilities. They said this was the only way the government could achieve the expected annual foreign earnings of $5bn from the crop. The farmers made this known during the inauguration of their association in Gwagwalada, Abuja on Monday.
The farmers also called on the Federal Government to reactivate the moribund Presidential Initiative Committee on Cassava to enhance the $5bn cassava products’ export to the international market annually.
Speaking on behalf of farmers, the National Coordinator, NCGA, Chief Tola Adepomola, said there was no way the nation would achieve the lofty idea if the banks continued to turn their back on the farmers anytime they asked for loans.
He said, “We are now begging the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency help us beg the banks to extend credit facilities to us, the grassroots farmers.
“It has been said that agriculture is the bedrock of Nigeria’s economic development. It is the most certain solution to poverty reduction, employment generation and sustainable food security.”
Nigeria is said to be producing about 50 million metric tonnes of cassava per annum, making her the largest producer of the crop world over.
However, the Presidential Initiative Committee on Cassava realised that Nigeria could produce 10 times that quantity based on the fact that it had comparative advantage on production of roots and tuber crops, especially cassava more than many countries of the world.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, NCGA, Chief Anson Eke, appealed to the government to assist the farmers by providing them with tractors and preservatives, which would help in their work.
He said that if this was done, cassava farmers spread across 20 states, would be able to do mechanised farming.
Eze said that cassava as a crop, had assumed the position of a domestic and commercial crop.
The crop enjoys the patronage of about 70 per cent of the farmers in Nigeria because of its adaptability to various weather conditions, which often makes it succeed where other crops fail.
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