Govt to secure Shs663 billion equipment for postharvest

Govt to secure Shs663 billion equipment for postharvest handling

The government through the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) is set to secure equipment worth 130 million pounds (about Shs663 billion) for postharvest handling and processing. “Government is in the process of procuring equipment for post-harvest handling and processing worth Shs663 billion, and once that is done, the challenges of farmers losing their produces will come to end,” said Mr Pius Wakabi, the permanent secretary MAAIF while meeting a delegation from Kenya National Defence College at the ministry head offices in Entebbe on Wednesday. The group is in Uganda on a study tour. "The government has been paying much attention to production and productivity where the government has given out a number of farm inputs including seeds and even mechanization but we are now focusing on adding value and processing,” he added. Mr Wakabi noted that they have geared up to go to villages to educate farmers on how to handle their products while still on the farm and also after harvest to reduce aflatoxins. The ministry intends to become net exporters of animal feeds in the region since beef, dairy, and aquaculture have become strategic commodities throughout the East African countries. Col John Kiswaa Sankale who led the Kenyan delegation said that they have managed to learn a lot during their visit to Uganda. “Besides military training, we engage in farming, therefore, we wanted to know how Ugandan government maintains its food basket, how’s food harvested, stored. What we have gathered will really be helpful,” he said.

Kenya: Kirinyaga Releases Sh117m to Boost Farmers' Projects

Kirinyaga County has disbursed Sh117 million meant for the empowerment of farmers in the region. The funds will be invested in various farming development projects in a bid to increase agriculture production in the county. According to Governor Anne Waiguru, the funds will go into implementation of the second phase of the National Agricultural Rural Inclusive Growth (Narig) projects which include poultry, dairy, avocado, tomato and pig production among others. The projects are being implemented by 314 community groups. While disbursing the cheques to the various groups in Kutus on Wednesday, Ms Waiguru said that the funded projects are part of the Wezesha Kirinyaga programme which aims to make agricultural activities bring better incomes and improve the livelihoods of the county's residents.

Diversify activities

She said that the projects will economically empower residents by enabling them to diversify their agricultural activities and reduce overdependence on traditional cash crops whose prices are unreliable. Among the 314 beneficiaries are 45 poultry farming groups, 60 tomato growers' groups, 30 avocado production groups and 60 dairy farming groups. The poultry farmers have been funded to a tune of Sh22.5 million to undertake mass egg production projects. The governor said that the county will provide each of the groups with 1,250 improved kienyenji chicks, adding that the project will complement the ongoing phase one project in which 32 groups are already producing eggs.

Chicken feeds

The county will also provide chicken feeds to the farmers for the first six months of the project while marketing of the eggs is being done through Kirinyaga Investment Development Authority (Kida). The tomato growing groups will receive Sh30 million for construction of greenhouses and drip irrigation systems. The project is tied to the proposed tomato processing factory that will add value to the produce and address postharvest losses. Sh15 million will goes towards supporting avocado growing groups with seedlings, with an aim of increasing production. At the same time, Sh30 million will go to the dairy sector to improve cow breeds through an improved artificial insemination. Governor Waiguru said that with Kirinyaga being an agricultural county, her administration is committed to ensuring that farmers get value from their produce.

AFRICA: ACF secures $115m syndicated loan for sustainable agriculture

The Netherlands Development Finance Corporation (FMO) has teamed up with the Development Finance Institute (FinDev Canada) and Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG (OeEB), the Austrian development bank, to open a $115 million syndicated credit line. The funds, which benefit Agri Commodities and Finance (ACF), a subsidiary of Export Trading Group (ETG), will promote sustainable agriculture in Africa.

The $115 million syndicated line of credit now available to Agri Commodities and Finance (ACF) has been opened by several development finance institutions. These include the Netherlands Development Finance Corporation (FMO), the Canadian government’s Development Finance Institute (FinDev Canada), and Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG (OeEB), the Austrian development bank. The Export Trading Group (ETG) subsidiary will use the credit line to expand its activities on the African continent. ETG is an agricultural conglomerate with activities covering the entire agricultural value chain, i.e. from farm to table. The group provides procurement, warehousing, processing and manufacturing of finished food products, transportation, as well as distribution of consumer goods. The group will leverage the credit line to improve processing capacity and logistics, thereby reducing crop losses.

Reducing agricultural losses

Improved processing capacity and logistics will also help prevent food waste in the 26 African countries where ETG operates in the agricultural sector. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), post-harvest losses account for 30% of agricultural production in Africa each year. Chiji Chinedum Ojukwu, director of the Africa Projects Development Centre (APDC), a Nigerian-based agricultural development institution, attributes these losses to inadequate post-harvest storage facilities and inefficient processing methods. Agricultural losses and food waste also have environmental consequences. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), every year, food produced but not consumed in the world consumes a volume of water equivalent to the annual flow of the Volga River in Russia and is responsible for the release of 3.3 gigatons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

At least 600,000 beneficiaries

The funding from FMO, FinDev Canada and OeEB is expected to benefit 600,000 smallholder farmers. “ETG’s impact and success is helping to strengthen Africa’s agricultural sector, which will reduce poverty among smallholder farmers in Africa and improve their overall wellbeing through ETG’s sustainable and climate-smart agriculture and agribusiness programmes,” says Pieternel Boogaard, FMO’s director of agribusiness, food and water. ETG is a leading cashew exporter with supply, processing and distribution networks in countries such as Tanzania and Mozambique in East Africa and Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea Bissau in West Africa. The group also exports cocoa from Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Guinea.

Better prospects for Niger ’s farmers

Greater support for farmers in Niger is helping to improve food security, boost local economies and make communities more resilient.

With the highest birth rate in the world, recurring droughts exacerbated by climate change and a lack of arable land and access to water, producing enough food to sustain Niger’s rapidly growing population is an enormous challenge. Roughly 80 per cent of the landlocked country lies in the Sahara desert and the majority of its 23 million people live in the arable areas in the south and west. Niger's economy depends heavily on agricultural activities and many people depend on animal herding and subsistence crops such as corn and sorghum to survive and earn a living. The various challenges the country faces are being intensified by global warming and present a persistent threat to food security, sustainable development and economic growth. “Climate change poses a major threat to communities in Niger, where more than 80 per cent of the population rely on agriculture for livelihoods. As we know, temperatures in the Sahel are rising 1.5 times faster than the rest of the world. It’s exacerbating already harsh climatic conditions, putting additional pressure on farmers and resources,” says Abdalah Adamou Maiguizo, Director of the Climate-Resilient Communities Project, MCANiger. To help improve food security for its growing population and address climate-related challenges, UNOPS is supporting the Millennium Challenge Account-Niger (MCA-Niger) to deliver an ambitious programme –funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation – that aims to harness the country’s agricultural potential, boost economic development and ensure a more sustainable approach to using natural resources.

The end goal: help communities become more resilient.

BETTER WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

Niger receives rainfall just three months of the year between June and September. This makes access to water one of the biggest challenges facing local farmers, who have to find other ways to irrigate their farms for the remainder of the year. In Birni-N'Konni, a department in the Tahoua Region close to the border with Nigeria, an irrigation system has supplied water to farmlands for more than 40 years. At one time, it provided irrigation to some 3,000 hectares of land in the area. But over the years, the system has fallen into disrepair, causing leakages that have reduced capacity significantly. This in turn has affected crop yields and farmers have been forced to seek alternatives to irrigate their lands – such as digging water wells, which can be vulnerable to flooding and are insufficient for large areas of land.

For farmers like Hamza Saidou, repairing and developing existing irrigation infrastructure can help boost agricultural yield, benefiting local economies and enhancing food security. The crops that I cultivate require a lot of water, so I have to draw more water from the well. But with the rehabilitation project, I could even increase the moringa seeds. Hamza Saidou - Farmer

To increase water supply to farms in Birni-N’Konni, two dams will be rehabilitated and the existing irrigation system repaired and extended – increasing the irrigation capacity to 5,000 hectares of land.

ACCESS TO MARKETS

Improving the availability of water is only one part of addressing the challenges faced by these communities. Securing buyers for freshly harvested produce is another difficulty affecting farmers like Hamza.

“Our concern right now is that the onions are ready for harvest and it’s been a week that I’m looking for a buyer, but nothing. It’s always a major worry,” says Hamza. To create better market access, a network connecting local farmers with private companies will be established, helping increase competitiveness and trade opportunities. As part of the MCA-Niger programme, the government also plans to open up its agricultural market to neighbouring countries to facilitate cross-border trade. This will particularly benefit farmers living around BirniN'Konni, given their close proximity to Niger’s border with Nigeria.

SUPPORTING WOMEN FARMERS

In the nearby Maradi Region, women traditionally play a crucial role in agricultural activities and form the backbone of local food production. Women comprise around 70 per cent of the country’s agricultural labour force. Yet, crop yields produced by women tend to be significantly less than those produced by men. Systematic gender inequalities in agriculture are prevalent throughout Maradi and elsewhere in the country, which can be seen in the lack of access women have to newer farming technologies, market loans and credit

services, as well as in rates of land ownership. Addressing these challenges is a key step in helping to empower women, increase food production and enable communities to become more resilient.

Meri Mahaman is the head of a female farmers union in El Kolta, where food shortages mean residents often have to travel to neighbouring towns to buy vital supplies. This means more time spent travelling to get food and less focus on developing local agriculture. “If people here stop buying food elsewhere, it will help our [local] economy and food will be in abundance,” explains Meri. To help develop local agricultural production in Maradi, special grants and marketing loans are being provided to female farmers like Meri to help them develop their farms and agricultural capacity. The grants are typically used to purchase stock and build infrastructure like storage facilities and equipment. If every woman in this town found a job or had enough money, [...] their suffering would be over. They would flourish. Meri Mahaman Head of El Kolta Madalla Union

HEALTHY LIVESTOCK

The availability of grazing land is another issue challenging food security in Niger. Land shortages not only affect farmers, but herders as well, who have seen the amount of land available for pasture decrease over the years. “You know, before there were not many residents here. But now, there are too many people. So, the little space there was left for cultivation and for grazing has now been totally cultivated,” explains Harouna Garba, a cattle breeder of 15 years. The lack of pastoral land means breeders must often buy animal feed to sustain their herds – an additional expense that many households simply cannot afford.

Sometimes, we must sacrifice, not eating in order to be able to buy food for the cows because we don’t have enough money and since there is not enough pasture. Rabi Abdou - Cattle breeder

The creation of a 180kilometre transhumance corridor in the Maradi region aims to alleviate the lack of grazing land by providing dedicated pastoral land for herders. New infrastructure will help ensure the availability of drinking water along the corridor.

A large-scale livestock vaccination programme is also helping prevent deadly diseases and improve the overall health of livestock.

Before the vaccinations, they [the animals] were not in good shape. Before we started the vaccinations, we had a lot of problems because there was a disease that attacked our cattle. Harouna Garba Cattle breeder

About the programme

Delivered through the Millennium Challenge Account-Niger, the $437 million programme is funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation. MCA-Niger is a special entity set up by the Nigerien government to manage the funds and is supported by UNOPS, which is providing technical and administrative assistance for the programme. Set to benefit 4 million people in the regions of Dosso, Maradi, Tahoua and Tillabéri, the five-year programme comprises two projects that aim to reduce poverty and promote economic growth. The Irrigation and Market Access Project aims to rehabilitate and construct new and existing irrigation systems, increasing irrigation capacity to 5,000 hectares of land.

To create better access to markets, over 300 kilometres of roads will be rehabilitated through the project while sectoral reforms will help improve land and natural resource management, road maintenance and the availability of affordable quality fertilizers. Training for farmers will help ensure knowledge transfer of marketing practices and of irrigation infrastructure maintenance.

The Climate-Resilient Communities Project will provide support to pastoral activities through better animal disease control, the upgrading of water infrastructure and pasture along transhumance corridors, and the modernization of livestock market infrastructure, benefiting over 3.4 million people. The project will also promote climate-resilient agriculture through grants and training activities to more than 300,000 households.

Ethiopia: Consolidating Efforts to Meet Rising Demand of Agricultural Inputs

It is proved that utilizing agricultural inputs enables farmers to raise their products and productivity. Due to the created awareness, the demand for inputs is increasing from time to time. Mengistu Tesfa is working in the Ministry of Agriculture. He told The Ethiopian Herald that there are various types of agricultural inputs and among others: soil fertilizer, selective cereal and vegetable seeds, agro chemicals, and lime are frequently used besides the small and big machinery. Supplying inputs to farmers on time and the right place based on the demand by considering the types and the quality is essential. Most agricultural inputs are imported from abroad but they are also produced locally. For example, selected seeds are produced here and lime is processed by the local industries while inputs such as fertilizers, chemicals, animal medicines are imported from abroad. In the 2012-2013 budget year Ethiopia imported 14.5 million quintal fertilizers. This year the nation imported 17.5million quintal. The demand for agrochemicals is also increasing. For the importation of input, the government renders prior attention and allocated the necessary hard currency in the early months of the year and to that end, it allotted 650 million US Dollar. In addition, for logistics purposes 30 billion Birr were allocated. Up to now, there are no difficulties in importing process but in case a problem occurs there is a way to solve with the cooperation of the government. The sector serves as a means of employment for 80 percent of the working force. Therefore, the development of agriculture has a spillover effect on other sectors. As to Mengistu, history indicated that agriculture propelled the advanced countries to move to the higher level and transform the economy from primary level towards the secondary and tertiary level economy. The excess agricultural production and marketing gave way for capital accumulation which facilitates the flourishing of industries and services. Hence, similar to other countries to bring structural change in our country, the subsistence nature of the sector must be transformed into commercial and the stranded rural labor relies on small scale farming to

move to the manufacturing and the service sector. Currently, the subsistence farming contributed 49 percent to the Growth Domestic Production and in such a situation achieving structural change is unthinkable. Therefore, to attain transformation modernizing the sector is undergoing. As to Mengistu, the introduction of irrigation farms during the winter season to cultivate wheat can be mentioned as the case in point. The irrigation projects are implemented in Amhara, Oromia, Somali and Afar regions and totally in 150 thousand hectare land wheat is under cultivation. In the future the practice will be scale upped in all regions. The government is providing the necessary inputs such as fertilizer, selected seeds, farming techniques and extension services. The projects are evaluated by the pertinent institutions from the woreda level up to the Office of the Prime Minister. Nevertheless, in supplying input value chain, numerous stakeholders are involved and obviously such a situation has its own drawback on price and ultimately the farmers will be disadvantaged. Therefore, unless the extended value chain shortened productivity might be affected as well. Reacting to this situation, Mengistu said that starting from the need for assessment of farmers, importing, transporting and supplying of fertilizer 22 actors are involved and such cumbersome activities affects price and productivity. Therefore, to shorten the value chain studies are accomplished and they are on the way to be implemented. The 2011 E. C the Ministry of Agriculture studies proposed to transport fertilizer from abroad by the Ethiopian Shipping line up to the Port of Djibouti which was formerly conducted by foreign company. The company not only engages in sea transport but also it has the mandate to do the land transportation activities. In addition to this, the Ministry proposed the importation of fertilizer business to be owned by the private sector. Unlike the previous time, the government's role reduced to doing only the regulatory work and the Ministry will keep on such kind of reform. In the input transaction, there is inconvenience which could harm the business. Farmers may not purchase the inputs if the provision is delayed; this may incur additional cost on the importer. Reflecting on this, Mengistu said that in the beginning there is a soil road map which indicates the type of soil in each agro ecological zone and the right type of fertilizer that is conducive for that particular soil. Their road map is available in each region, woreda, zone and kebele. Farmers due to natural conditions such as drought, flood and by other reasons may give up purchasing. If they give up by natural conditions, the input is stored and will be supplied to them in the next season. If it happens due to a shortage of money, they will be provided by credit. When farmers quit purchasing chemicals after they announced their purchase, problems might occur. Because agro-chemicals have short life spans unless they are utilized on time; they will be spoiled and might bring disastrous consequences on the environment. Removing the spoiled chemicals also incurs additional cost and sending back to the exporting country also is expensive. Currently, the Ministry is preparing to send back huge packed outdated chemicals to the country of origin. Agricultural inputs raise productivity but they also have their own environmental impacts. During the rainy season, they will be taken by flood to rivers. When the polluted river water consumed by humans or animals it might bring health risks. As to Mengistu, utilizing organic fertilizer is preferable. Exporting organic agricultural products also has market advantage; currently, feeding the growing population without enhancing production by fertilizer is very hard. Therefore, to reduce possible environmental impacts due to utilizing chemical fertilizer, the government planned to change the non-organic fertilizer to the organic one through time.

RainFine Introduces Just-Fine Pipe

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