Agri-Business Africa November 2015

In this Issue: El Nino effects on Coffee production

www.agribusinessafrica.net

N e w s , p o l i c y & t e c h n o l o g y f o r a f r i c a’ s c r o p, a n i m a l & h o r t i c u lt u r e i n d u s t r y

The Interview:

Mira Mehta, CEO, Tomato Jos, Nigeria

Special Focus: AGOA trade deal

TASSELLS CATTLE FARM our QUEST TO BE THE BEST

Introducing Nairobi’s newest Farmer’s Expo March 18 - 19, 2016 Nairobi railway club Nairobi, Kenya

book your space today www.agribusinessafrica.net/agroevents Volume 1 • ISSUE 5, No. 5 • ISSN 2409-1235

a foodworld media publication

N ai rob i Rai lway Club M arch 18 - 19, 2016 horticulture • dairy & livestock • c ereals & tubers • aq uaculture • coffee & tea

theme

Catalysing agriculture and value addition in the region through the adoption of innovative technologies and practices The Nairobi Agro-Tech Farmers Expo is the regional trade fair that targets small, medium and large scale farmers; retailers, exporters and distributors for two days of exhibition and workshops aimed at improving agricultural productivity and quality in the East African region.

This yearly forum is unique for its value proposition: it targets urban, peri-urban and rural farmers in one venue at the start of the long-rain planting season.

Nairobi and its environs is home to thousands of key decision makers in matters agriculture and agro processing and is an excellent place to have your company stand out from the crowd with your unique products and services.

Join us at the Nairobi Agro-Tech Farmers Expo and see your business grow into the regional market!!

Sponsorship, exhibition and Speaking opportunities available

FoodWorld Media P.O. Box 1874-00621 – Village Market, Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 20 8155022; +254 725 343932 | info@foodworldmedia.net Please log onto the event website for more information:

www.agribusinessafrica.net/agroevents

contents in the news

P.27 p.8

UN names 2016 as the International Year of Pulses

p.12 Nigeria gets new agriculture minister

p.16 Finlays sells Horticulture Division A young cow at the Tassells cattle farm in Ruiru Kenya IN thIS ISSue: El NiNo EffEcts oN coffEE productioN

ISSu

IN thIS

e: man

age men

bir d t of

flu

www.agribusiNEssafrica

.NEt

t

ica.ne

ssafr

usine

.agrib www

ne

pol ws,

icy

c & te

hno

log

r y fo

afr

i c a’

o s cr

nim p, a

hor al &

ticu

lt u r

N E w s ,y p o l i c y & t E c hNology for afric str a ’ s c r o p, a N i m a l & h o r t i c u lt u r E i N d u stry

du e in

s: ty Focunya Counmb u, Ke Kia erview: The Int O, Bayer

stein, CE Africa Klaus Eck Southern Focus: SpecialAflatoxins

p.18 Land O’Lakes buys stake in SA crop protection firm

rT uAInterview: STThe EnCEO, rdMehta, BAMira

SSIOn A Jos, Nigeria Th A mIKE wITomato TO ny AuSSIE Special Focus:

you booK rica.net/cen ssaf

ribusine

www.ag

me 1 •

Volu

ISSue

4, No.

4 • ISSN

2409-1235

d media

Help for soybean industry in Africa starts with the source

pictorials 14

Central Kenya Agri-Business Africa Trade Fair

executive interview 18

Managing Director and CEO, Mira Mehta, Tomato Jos, Nigeria

Trade 20

Analysing AGOA and its impact on Africa’s agriculture

Agronomy 24

Coffee management during El Nino

Regulars Editorial Calendar of Events Quotable Quotes

2

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

NaIrobI raIlway club NaIrobI, KeNya

a foodworld mEdia publicatioN

in the next issue feb 2016 Industry Focus - Coffee industry in Tanzania – production, challenges, market trends, future prospects Special Feature - Solar Technology - Benefits and opportunities in Africa’s Agro industry

Crop Health - Maize Stem Borer

Tassells Cattle Farm

4 6 6

March 18 - 19, 2016

booK your Space today www.agribusinessafrica.net/agroev ents ISSN 2409-1235

Animal Health – Mastitis

Farmers Notebook 25

n

catio

publi

worl a food

Volume 1 • ISSue 5, No. 5 •

perspective 7

TASSELLS CATTLE FARM

OuR QuEST TO BE AGOA Fairtrade deal trade THE BEST - 17, 2015 al Agro r, 16 reSearch a tocK octobe t Region Introducing , KeNy lIVeS Nairobi’s newest Farmer’s Expo ral aNd (Kalro) thIKa ’s Bigges ultu ay IoN a agrIc NISat Kenya e tod KeNy orga r Spac tral

digital issue Read the latest issue of this magazine on www.agribusinessafrica.net

8 10

International News African News

Animal Nutrition - Feed pelleting And much more agribusinessafrica.net

DE

B LE OOK GA Y TE OUR PA SS NO W

27 – 28 January 2016 Mlimani City Conference Centre Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

BUSINESS CONGRESS

EAST AFRICA

Driving economic growth and accessibility in East Africa

Solution driven conference programme to answer your questions on financing issues, climate change, land reform and other pertinent issues within the East African region.

Network with industry experts and farmers of all scales during the two-day exhibition and view the latest agricultural technology.

Are you an emerging commercial farmer? Apply now for your free delegate pass as part of our Hosted Farmers Programme.

The leading conference and exhibition within the East African agri industry For Conference information or to book your delegate pass, contact: Phillip Mostert +27 21 700 3548 Phillip.mostert@spintelligent.com

For Sponsorship or exhibition opportunities, contact: Liam Beckett +27 21 700 3552 Liam.beckett@spintelligent.com

www.agri-eastafrica.com

Editorial

When farmers gain, everybody gains

T

he recently released Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN) places a lot of weight on farmers.

Signed off by the world’s leaders at the UN in New York, SDGs are a universal set of 17 goals that governments have committed to as they frame their agendas over the next 15 years, with the ultimate goal of eliminating hunger, poverty and improving human health and the environment around the world.

Agriculture is at the heart of the SDGs, with a number of goals targeting hunger, poverty, economy, health, climate change and sustainable consumption and production being anchored around the growth of agricultural production around the world.

For example, considering goal number 1, which is targeted at ending poverty in all its forms, 836 million of people still live in poverty, majority of them farmers in Asia and Africa. Pulling this huge number of people out of poverty will not be an easy task without sorting out agriculture.

Goal number 2 aims to end hunger, achieve food security, improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. It seeks to ‘double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers’. Many other goals continue to place emphasis on getting agricultural productivity right, in order to feed the world and make the world a more peaceful, prosperous place to live in.

While the UN’s intentions are all noble and clear, it is sad that the majority of those responsible for feeding the world, small scale farmers, continue to bear the brunt of low prices for their crops and livestock, wallowing in cycles of poverty from one season to the next.

A case in point is the coffee farmer, as has been highlighted in a recent documentary series by the Kenyan media company, Nation Media Group. According to the report, the average Kenyan coffee farmer takes home only one per cent of the retail cost of coffee. The report suggests that dwindling production in the country, from as high as 130,000 tonnes in the late 1980s to the current 50000 tonnes per year is as a result of farmers who have neglected coffee after being short-changed by a system of coffee processing and marketing that rewards the other players up the chain, in-

4

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

cluding brokers, millers, marketers and regulators, at the expense of the farmer. This situation exists in other sectors and is a common point of debate across Africa. The question remains: How does Africa boost farm productivity if farmers have nothing to show for their labour? How can we expect more from farmers who are too hungry to work in the first place?

While we may not lay total blame on the price offered for the produce, what is needed is the realization by all concerned of the need to boost farmer productivity and profitability. Adoption of the right technology and practices, reducing the cost of production and injecting transparency in the whole supply chain will go a long way to ensure that farmers can earn decent, sustainable incomes from their sweat, and thereby have the incentive to produce more.

For Africa, and the world, to meet the goals set forth by the UN through the critically important SGDs the African farmer will have to produce more grain, meat, milk, oilseeds and other agricultural commodities.

These commodities will then contribute to better nutrition, health and economic wellbeing of the continent’s population - critical blocks to achieving the SDG goals. As long as the African farmer gets the short end of the stick, we must be ready for a bumpy long road to Africa ever achieving the SDG goals.

In this issue, we bring to you one of the most innovative dairy enterprises in Kenya.

Tassels Cattle Farms are based in the outskirts of Nairobi and stands out for its ambition to be the best dairy enterprise in the region. On trade matters, we have a review of the African Growth Opportunities (AGOA) Act, which was recently given a further lease of life by the Obama Administration, looking at ways the continent can take advantage of the 10 year extension.

Beginning with this issue, we have also included a new ‘Perspective’ column, where opinion leaders from Government, NGOs, academia and politics shall be addressing some of Africa’s challenges, and how to turn these challenges into opportunities that shall move Africa’s agriculture forward. We hope you enjoy this new column.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2016 to our readers. We hope the new year brings good tidings to all.

Have a good read Editor

www.agribusinessafrica.net Volume 1 • Issue 5, No.5 • ISSN 2409-1235

Publishers: Foodworld Media Founder: Francis Juma Editor: TJ Kwach Design & Production: Centrepress Media info@centrepressmedia.com Advertising & Subscription: Selina Wangusi

Foodworld Media P.O Box 1874-00621, Village Market, Nairobi Kenya Tel: +254 20 8155022, Cell: +254 725 343932 info@foodworldmedia.net www.agribusinessafrica.net RELATED PUBLICATIONS

SUBSCRIPTION Contact: info@foodworldmedia.net Annual Subscription: Kenya: KSh 2900 (VAT inclusive); Africa: US$ 70; Rest of World: US$ 90 (including postage) Two Years: Kenya: KSh 5600 (VAT inclusive); Africa: US$ 130; Rest of World: US$ 170 (including postage) Agri-Business Africa (ISSN 2307-3535) is published 6 times a year by FoodWorld Media Ltd. Special event issues may also be published. The magazine is distributed to agriculture supply chain companies in Africa. The publishers reserve a right to determine the number of free copies to any company. The magazine is available through subscription for the other stakeholders in the agro chain, including suppliers to the sector.

Postage is paid at Nairobi, Kenya. Send address changes to FoodWorld Media Ltd by phone or email.

Copyright 2015. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the editor is prohibited.

All information is published in good faith. While care is taken to prevent inaccuracies, the publishers accept no liability for any errors or omissions or for the consequences of any action taken on the basis of information published.

agribusinessafrica.net

AGRI-BUSINESS AFRICA magazine is thankful to the following exhibitors and partners for making the inaugural Central Kenya Agri-Business Africa Trade Fair a success 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Kobian Kenya Limited City General Stores Limited KCb Insurance Agency Kenya biologics Limited Molaplus Limited Agri Sciences Turkey African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) Wefarm Limited G. North & Son Limited Kenya bixa Limited

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

SGS Kenya Limited Ecoh Holdings Limited Promaco Limited Agricultural Finance Corporation Winnie’s Pure Health Thika Motor Dealers Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) Fresh Produce Exporters Association Of Kenya (FPEAK) County Government Of Kiambu County Government Of Embu

Join us for the second edition re-named Central Kenya Agro-Tech Farmers Expo on October 6-7, 2016 in Thika Town at the event that focuses on Kenya’s most important agriculture region.

2016 Calendar

Aug 31-Sep 2, 2016 Nairobi, Kenya

March 18-19, 2016 Nairobi, Kenya

October 6-7, 2016 Thika, Kenya

Find more information at www.agribusinessafrica.net/agroevents

Events | calendar December 1-2: Durban, South Africa Global Forum for Innovations in agriculture – Africa edition

www.gfiaafrica.com January 27-28, 2016: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Agribusiness Congress East Africa

www.agri-eastafrica.com February 3-5, 2016: Zanzibar, Tanzania 14th African Fine Coffee Conference & Exhibition www.afca.coffee.conference March 1-2: Accra, Ghana Cassava World Africa

www.cmtevents.com March 6-11, 2016: Addis Ababa Ethiopia World Coffee Conference

www.ico.org March 9-11, 2016: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Tanzania International Forum for Investments

www.tziforum.com March 18-19, 2016: Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi Agro-Tech Farmers Expo

www.agribusinessafrica.net/agroevents April 26-28, 2016: Lagos Nigeria Nigeria Agrofood

www.agrofood-nigeria.com August 31-Sept 2, 2016: Nairobi, Kenya African Agro-Tech Summit Conference & Expo

www.agribusinessafrica.net/agroevents

Have an Event you would like to see here?

Contact us on info@foodworldmedia.net

Subscribe to our bi-weekly e-newsletters.

Keep abreast of the happenings in Africa’s agriculture industry.

Sign up on our website

www.agribusinessafrica.net 6

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

quotes | in the news “There’s lots of animals dying on the farms.”

Lardus van Zyl, chairman of the Red Meat Producers Organisation, commenting on the havoc being caused by drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon in South Africa – BD Live “We are discussing every possible possibility just like every other company are doing.”

Monsanto’s Chief Operating Officer Brett Begeman, on what his company is doing, as speculation swirls about a number of agrochemical and seed giants seeking to buy out the other – Financial Times “There is no doubt that availability of price information is important to facilitate the development of the small-holder horticultural supply chains in Zambia. The system should not be over-reliant on donor or government funding except when it is seed funding during the initial stages of development.”

A report by the Lusaka based Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute on the need for a price information system in Zambia – Daily Mail “About four flower firms have shifted to other regional countries in the last few years because of the harsh tax regime and lack of incentives in the country.”

Jane Ngigi, the CEO of the Kenya Flower Council, commenting on the effect of double taxation and harsh business environment has had on Kenya’s flower sector, pushing investors to Ethiopia – Business Daily “Pulses are important food crops for the food security of large proportions of populations, particularly in Latin America, Africa and Asia, where pulses are part of traditional diets and often grown by small farmers.”

UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation’s Director-General José Graziano da Silva as the UN declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses “The amendments streamline the management of cooperative societies with term limits for the leadership of all societies. It also sets minimum academic qualifications for the managers of societies.”

A statement issued by the Trade, Industry and Cooperatives ministry public relations and communications department, on changes made to the laws governing cooperatives in Uganda – Daily Monitor “We have done in-depth research in the key sectors that are already developed, including flower and grain industry, and we are hoping to expand more.”

Barclays Bank of Kenya Managing Director Jeremy Awori, as the bank launched a strategy that focuses on agribusiness in Kenya.

“Ghana Investment Promotion Centre believes as efforts are directed towards improving the current economic conditions prevailing in the country, it will boost the confidence of both existing and potential investors to retain and invest in the country.”

A statement by the GIPC on a strategy to boost value addition in Ghana by providing tax incentives in various cities in the country. agribusinessafrica.net

perspective

Help for soybean industry in Africa starts with the source

I

f you want a bountiful soybean harvest, start with high-quality seeds. This is simple for farmers in the United States who can choose from hundreds of seed varieties. For farmers in developing countries, it’s not that easy. Why? Soybean breeding in Sub-Saharan Africa is not well developed, and soybean farmers have access to a very limited number of varieties that do not have the yield potential of varieties typically grown in North or South America.

University of Illinois plant geneticist Brian Diers and USDA-Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist Randy Nelson are working on a solution to this problem. Rather than training farmers how to grow inadequate seed, they’re going to the source, sharing their own tricks of the trade with soybean breeders.

Diers and Nelson demonstrated how they run their breeding programs to three visiting soybean breeders from Ghana, Ethiopia, and Zambia. And not just any breeders—these three are at the national and international level in their countries. The tricks included simple, tried-and-true strategies that range from how to physically arrange envelopes of seeds for field planting to managing thousands of new soybean experimental types each year.

“In the past, we’ve put technology in the hands of the farmers, forgetting that agricultural research has been gutted in these countries,” said Peter Goldsmith, a University of Illinois economist and principal investigator of USAID’s Soybean Innovation Lab. “This program through Feed the Future is focused on helping researchers in developing countries. It targets the key influencers to change the foundation of the soybean system.

If we can affect the source, it will have a ripple effect down through the soybean supply chain.”

Goldsmith explained that the goal is for breeders to begin to understand how to improve their own programs – showing them ways to improve their efficiency, increase the

agribusinessafrica.net

scale of their program, helping them see the types of equipment that they need, and how to introduce new seed varieties.

“They haven’t had new germplasm for decades,” Goldsmith said. “University of Illinois is home to the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection, which has over 20,000 unique soybean types and has good relations with Brazilian soybean breeders so we can provide African breeders with high-yielding varieties that they can use as parents.

“Currently, we’re working in five African countries, but we’ve been contacted by soybean breeders in many others who also want the training and better germplasm,” Goldsmith said. “They all have the same problems. Even at the national research institutes in Africa, they are harvesting soybean by pulling plants out of the ground by hand; then women gather around and hit them with sticks. This is not an effective or sustainable technique.”

This month a conference was held in Ghana to give policy makers and those who work with farmers the opportunity to visit farms and to learn more about soybean as a commercial crop.

While out in the field practicing how to operate a hand planter, one of the national breeders said that he’s proud that the conference is hosted at his home institution, the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute in Ghana.

“I think it will open up the gates for research,” said Nicholas Denwar. “They will get to know what the stakes are in the soy industry, what varieties farmers want to grow, what varieties industry wants, and what can they use soybean for.”

Denwar explained that processors and feed mills have to import soybeans and soybean mill from Brazil to supply the nation’s poultry farmers. He would like to see soybean for animal feed grown in Ghana.

“The government intends to make agriculture very businesslike and to grow

agriculture,” Denwar said. “We think that soybean is one of the crops that can feed into that agribusiness model.”

Godfree Chigeza, who was recently hired at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Zambia, said that soybean is the fastest-growing crop in Africa.

“People are now aware of the importance of soybean, not just in terms of human nutrition, but in terms of poultry feed,” he said.

“Farmers are diversifying into soybean for animal feed. They are able to get income, and then they are able to send their kids to school.

That’s very important. In the past, the only emphasis was on human food crops—things like maize, cowpea, drybeans—but you need to understand that for farmers to move from poverty they need to have income, and crops like soybean provide farmers an opportunity to have income so that they can reinvest into their farm practices.”

Goldsmith elaborated on how this program is a very different approach to how researchers can address real needs and affect change in developing countries.

“There have been critiques of programs that just provide emergency support, yet do little to avert the next calamity,” he said.

“There have been critiques of grain delivery programs that distort markets and decrease incentives for local production. There have been critiques of university research because it affects journals but not livelihoods. And there have been critiques of development efforts that just implement projects with no regard to sustainable solutions or effectiveness.

Feed the Future ‘research for development’ breathes new life into how universities can be relevant and extend their service mission to include the developing world.”

Source: www.soybeaninnovationlab.illinois.edu The Perspective forum provides industry leaders with a forum to share their views. Got your perspective? Send it to us. It may appear here. august 2015 | agri-Business africa

7

news | international

UN names 2016 as the International Year of Pulses

WORLD – Dry beans and peas have one whole year to grab the headlines, and an opportunity for their protein power and health benefits to be put under the spotlight after the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared next year as the International Year of Pulses.

Under the slogan ‘nutritious seeds for a sustainable future’ FAO is seeking to boost production and trade, and encourage new and smarter uses throughout the food chain of these legumes that are consumed around the world.

“Pulses are important food crops for the food security of large proportions of populations, particularly in Latin America, Africa and Asia, where pulses are part of traditional diets and often grown by small

farmers,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, in a news release.

“They have been an essential part of the human diet for centuries,” he added, “Yet, their nutritional value is not generally recognized and is frequently under-appreciated.”

According to FAO, pulses, including all kinds of dried beans and peas, are not merely cheap and delicious; they are also highly nutritious source of protein and vital micronutrients that can greatly benefit people’s health and livelihoods, particularly in developing countries.

There are hundreds of varieties of pulses grown throughout the world. Popular ones include all varieties of dried beans, such as kidney beans, lima beans, butter beans and broad beans. Chickpeas, cowpeas, black-eyed peas and pigeon peas are also included.

Speaking about their nutritional value, the FAO chief said that pulses have double the proteins found in wheat and triple the amount found in rice. They are also rich in micronutrients, amino acids and b-vitamins, he added.

FAO has credited pulses as the key ingredients in many signature regional and national dishes across the world - from falafel to dahl to chilli and baked beans.It also added that as an affordable alternative to more expensive animal-based protein, pulses are

ideal for improving diets in poorer parts of the world, where protein sources from milk if often five time more expensive than protein sourced from pulses.

Pulses also offer a great potential to lift farmers out of rural poverty, as they can yield two to three time higher prices than cereals, and their processing provides additional economic opportunities, especially for women.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a message noted that pluses contribute significantly in addressing hunger, food security, malnutrition, environmental challenges and human health and also are a vital source of plant-based proteins and amino acids.

“Despite strong evidence of the health and nutritional benefits of pulses, their consumption of pulses remains low in many developing and developed countries. The International Year can help overcome this lack of knowledge,” said Mr. Ban.

advertise with us

grow with us into africa

EFSA finds weed killer is safe for humans EU – The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has given the green light to the commonly used herbicide chemical glyphosate, after a review of available data and recent studies.

The EFSA report concludes that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a cancer hazard to humans.

It however proposes a new safety measure that will tighten the control of glyphosate residues in food, setting an acute reference dose for glyphosate of 0.5 mg per kg of body weight, the first time such an exposure threshold has been applied to the substance.

“This has been an exhaustive process – a

full assessment that has taken into account a wealth of new studies and data.” Jose Tarazona, head of EFSA’s Pesticides Unit has said. “By introducing an acute reference dose we are further tightening the way potential risks from glyphosate will be assessed in the future. Regarding carcinogenicity, it is unlikely that this substance is carcinogenic.”

Glyphosate, also known as RoundUp, is widely used broad-spectrum herbicides to control weeds, especially as a pre-emergence herbicide in annual broad leaf grasses. A number of crops have been developed with resistance to glyphosate. These RoundUp

Ready crops can tolerate glyphosate application post-emergence.

However, safety concerns around glyphosate continue to arise, after the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IRAC) released a report in March this year, proclaiming glyphosate to be ‘probably carcinogenic in humans.’ This EFSA study serves to bring more confusion as to the safety of this chemical. Glyphosate use in crops has also been hit by new cases of weed resistance.

FDA releases new produce food safety rules, to affect imports

US - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken major steps to prevent foodborne illness by finalizing three rules that establish enforceable safety standards for farm produce, and that make importers 8

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

accountable for verifying that imported food meets US safety standards.

The agency also issued a rule establishing a program for the accreditation of third-party certification bodies, also known as auditors, to conduct food safety audits of foreign food facilities.

The final rules, which implement the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act, will help produce farmers and food importers take steps to prevent problems before they occur.

They build on the preventive controls rules the FDA finalized in September 2015, which mandate modern preventive practices in food processing and storage facilities. These rules

work together to systematically strengthen the food safety system and better protect public health.

The first rule has established food safety standards for growing, harvesting, packing, and holding produce. The second rule requires food importers to verify that foreign suppliers are producing food in a manner that meets US safety standards, while the third one establishes a program for the accreditation of third-party certification bodies to conduct food safety audits and to certify that foreign food facilities and food produced by such facilities meet applicable FDA food safety requirements. agribusinessafrica.net

Syngenta CEO leaves as industry seeks consolidation SWITZERLAND - Mike Mack, the CEO of Swiss agrochemicals and seeds giant Syngenta has stepped down from his job, after Syngenta refused advances of a buy-out by its competitor Monsanto.

John Ramsay, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, has appointed interim CEO until the appointment of a new Chief Executive.

Mack’s resignation comes at a time of uncertainty in the agrochemicals industry following low commodity prices that are projected to affect the profitability of the leading agribusiness players.

A number of players including Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Du Pont and Dow Chemicals are reported to be looking at consolidation of their operations through complete or partial buy-out of rivals to boost their profits and cut costs.

Monsanto has been interested in Syngenta for a number of years, including the latest one that was rebuffed by Syngenta in August, citing ‘a number of regulatory and execution risks,’ according to FT. The deal, worth US$46 billion could have boosted Monsanto’s crop protection business and turned it into the industry’s leader, adding to its seeds business, but was said to have undervalued Syngenta by the company’s Board. Despite a significant number of Syngenta shareholders in favour of a sale to Monsanto, the Board stood its ground.

The tide seems to have turned in the last few days as we went to press, with reports emerging that Monsanto have rekindled their interest in Syngenta following Syngenta’s reported refusal of a US$42 billion offer from China National Chemical Corp, or ChemChina, as reported by Bloomberg, putting a further spin to the works. China’s interest in Syngenta, which came as a surprise to many, is not far fetched, considering China’s dwindling arable land and increasing feed and grain demand. “What ChemChina is really interested in is the seed research. It’s arguably the main strategic rationale for the deal,” Jonas Oxgaard, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., told Reuters.

“We are discussing every possible possibility just like every other company are doing,” said Monsanto’s Chief Operating Officer Brett Begeman, who was quoted by the FT, commenting on the speculation around the industry as to which company is talking to the other about a deal. According to Reuters, Syngenta has been talking to Du Pont about merging its agricultural unit, quoting Wall Street Journal while Du Pont has been in talks with Dow Chemical about its seed and farm chemical division.

It remains to be seen which deal goes through, but we are “best placed to be a leading consolidator or a leading partner in an industry that is changing,” Monsanto’s chief executive, Hugh Grant was quoted

by Reuters – a clear sign that the seed giant is confident of its intention to take a lead in the industry as it changes.

Cargill opens its largest feed mill in Korea SOUTH KOREA - American commodities giant Cargill has officially inaugurated its biggest ever animal feed factory, opening its plant in South Korea as it seeks to grow its strength in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to the company, the official opening of the Agri Purina feed mill plant in Pyeongtaek, reaffirms its investment in the country and signals its continued commitment to sustainable growth of Korea’s feed and livestock industry.

The nearly 52,610m2 facility produces poultry, ruminant, pig and pet food products for animal producers marketed under the Purina & Nutrena brands. With a capacity of 870,000 tons, this facility is Cargill’s largest animal feed plant in the world. In addition to stateof-art technology, the new feed mill strives to achieve the highest standards of food safety to serve Korea’s animal nutrition industry.

Dr. Bokyeun Lee, Korea country representative and president of Cargill Agri Purina Korea, said. “The new feed mill will enable us to better serve our customers with advanced technology and high quality, safe animal feed. agribusinessafrica.net

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

9

news | african

African innovators shortlisted for engineering award

IITA

AFRICA - A solar-powered high-tech greenhouse, a three-wheeled mini-tractor and food supplements made from caterpillars are among twelve innovations shortlisted for the 2015/2016 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The Africa Prize, in its second year, is Africa’s largest award dedicated to engineering innovation, covering covers all engineering disciplines from mechanical, civil and computing to agricultural. This year, the number of agro-based innovations that have been shortlisted is especially high.

Other agro innovations included a mechanical cassava harvester, bio-briquettes made from maize waste, a renewable energy micro-grid for rural areas, and software to help farmers analyse their soil and a three-wheeled mini-tractor which doubles as a generator.

“We see a massive benefit from engineering innovations designed specifically to meet local challenges,” said Malcolm Brinded CBE FREng, chair of the Africa Prize judging panel.

These innovations include the mechanical cassava harvester by Emmanuel Bobobee from Ghana, who made an affordable tractormounted implement, which turns up the soil to expose the root without damaging it. The labour intensive process, which takes 5-10 minutes and is a hindrance to commercial cassava production in Africa, can be done in

one second by the implement. The UjuziKilimo, a soil analysis system by Brian Bosire from Kenya also joins the list of innovators.

From Burkina Faso, Kahitouo Hien has come up with a breeding system that ensures a year long supply of Shea caterpillars known as ‘chitoumou’ to make FasoPro, a line of nutritional products. This high protein food can be used to combat malnutrition as well as protect the shea trees from being cut down by communities.

Taita Ngetich and his team from Kenya have also been shortlisted for their Illuminum greenhouse, where solar and sensor technology and the use of local materials enable the growing of crops in a controlled environment in an affordable manner. Other innovations include Tryctor from Nigeria, a three-wheeled minitractor which can also be used as a mobile generator and Drylobag, which prevents the development of mould in grains by reducing the grain temperature and drying it evenly from South Africa.

The twelve entrepreneurs will be encouraged and supported to grow a business from their innovation through six months of training and mentoring from business development and engineering experts. An overall winner will be announced in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in May 2016. The winner will receive £25,000, with £10,000 awarded to two runners up.

Dairy processor to buy milk from community TANZANIA - Agro-pastoralist cattle keepers in five villages in Kilosa and Mvomero districts in Tanzania’s Morogoro region are set to become more commercial and reap huge benefits from milk sales following an agreement with a leading dairy processor to buy their milk.

Under the agreement between representatives of milk producer groups in the two districts and ASAS Dairies Ltd, the smallholder farmers will supply milk to the 10

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

Asas hub in Iringa region starting February 2016. The agreement was facilitated by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)-led MoreMilkiT project.

The new arrangement will provide opportunity for farmers to deliver up to 1,000 litres of milk per day to the processor, providing a key market which was previously unavailable to individual farmers and farmer groups created by the MoreMilkiT project in the area.

New maize varieties released in Nigeria NIGERIA - The Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IART), Obafemi Awolowo University in Ibadan have successfully released two new high-yielding, early maturing maize hybrids.

The varieties, Ife Maizehyb-07 and Ife Maizehyb-08, have potential yields of 7.0 tonnes per ha and 8.5tonnes per ha respectively, attracting preference from most farmers. The early maturating maize varieties have an advantage during erratic rainfall seasons especially in the second planting in South West Nigeria. They also have good grain size and high in starch, which is an important attribute good for livestock feed milling.

The Ife Maize hyb-07 has forest and derived savanna agro-ecologies adaptation with 98 days maturity period. The Ife Maizehyb 08 takes 110 days to maturity. Both varieties are tolerant to maize streak virus, rust, leaf blight, and curvularia leaf spot. The release of these varieties has been made possible through AGRA’s grant to the Institute.

Selina Wamucii acquires Mt. Kenya fresh avocados

KENYA - Selina Wamucii Ltd, a Kenyan fresh produce export company, has acquired a majority stake in Mt. Kenya Avocado Farms, a leading producer and exporter of Kenya avocado fruits and avocado oil.

The acquisition seeks to make solid an already successful avocado brand that has seen Mt. Kenya Fresh Avocados play a winning role in positioning Kenya as the world’s preferred source of high quality Hass and Fuerte avocados.

Mt. Kenya Avocado works with farmers in the Highland region’s Muranga, Nyeri, Kiambu,Kisii and Meru areas. Under the terms of the acquisition, Selina Wamucii will immediately gain a controlling interest in Mt. Kenya Fresh Avocados. Overall management responsibilities from marketing to finance will be undertaken by Selina Wamucii. agribusinessafrica.net

Drought ravages Southern Africa, farmers pray for rain SOUTH AFRICA – Farmers and people in South Africa have resorted to prayers as the country’s drought takes to the worse following failed rains brought about by the El Nino phenomenon.

Drought-stricken farmers across the country have faced increasingly desperate water availability situations, with cattle reported to be dying in the northern parts of the country, with some local authorities providing some relief to the farmers. “We are now developing mechanisms to procure fodder feed for the animals,” said Mlibo Qhoboshiyane, the MEC Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture. “We also plan whether there will be any need for de-stocking

and advising farmers on what to do in areas with dry grass. In the areas where there is [green] grass, things are better.” The state has set aside more than R60-million to provide relief to drought-stricken farmers.

“We believe now is the time to reach out to each other as believers from all denominations and religions. South Africans live in sensitive and difficult times and we therefore call on all churches and their members to use Sunday to reach out to their fellow citizens and pray for rain,” said Agri SA’s President Johannes Möller of the prayer day set for November 27 across the country to pray for some rain relief. Agri SA is the country’s apex farmer organisation.

South Africa is Africa’s biggest maize

producer, and with an expected drop in maize production, it is likely to affect more than South Africa, but the region as a whole.

“Scenarios are increasingly pointing to a situation where significant imports of maize, as staple food crop, will become necessary, as well as the provision of fodder for breeding herds of livestock to be maintained,”stated Agri SA in a statement.

Concerns have been raised on the farming sector’s ability to meet payments for bank loans as the drought has damaged crops with expected further drop in yields, which came down from 14.2 million tonnes in the 2013-4 season to 9.9 million tonnes last year.

Research suggests local cocoa value addition to affect farmer incomes GHANA - New research on the effect of increasing the amount of raw cocoa processed locally in Ghana for the US$20 billion export market has highlighted the difficulty of achieving rapid industrialization in Africa.

A study paper on the impact of industrial policies on Ghana’s industrialization, titled “Is More Chocolate Bad for Poverty?” shows that increasing the amount of cocoa processed locally in Ghana would eat into the farmer’s earnings while increasing the profit margin of private processing firms by 56%.

The local processing of cocoa produced in Ghana would also lead to a 36% drop in the revenue of the state-run Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), which serves as an exclusive marketing agency. At the same time, farmers will lose 22% of their earnings from the supply chain.

“The price of cocoa is not good enough to encourage local processing although the government has offered tax breaks to local processing companies to increase the domestic processing to 40%,” said Eugenie Maiga, a researcher from the University of Koudougou, Burkina Faso.

The paper was presented at the 10th African Economic Conference (AEC) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to discuss the fight against poverty.

Local investors are calling for a bigger discount on the retail price of cocoa in order to increase the local production. The local processing firms also have a bigger capacity to process more, but currently receive only 20% discount on cocoa purchases during the low cocoa-harvesting period.

Mouhamadou Sy, an Economist in the African Development Bank’s Research Partnerships Division, said the research was useful in helping to determine the impact of policies to structurally transform the economy through value-chain reforms. agribusinessafrica.net

ALWAYS THE RIGHT COLD STORE TEMPERATURE. EXACTLY AS YOU NEED IT.

Reliable refrigeration in your cold stores is very important, especially when the ambient temperature is high and varies. As a leading global manufacturer of refrigeration compressors BITZER has a wide product range, which offers the fitting solution for every application: reliably, efficiently and to high German quality standards. Thanks to our good service network you can rapidly access local technical support and BITZER genuine spare parts. Learn more about our products at www.bitzer.de

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

11

news | african

Nigeria gets new agriculture minister

NIGERIA – Chief Audu Ogbe has been appointed as the new Federal Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development by the incoming Gen. Buhari administration, replacing the widely popular Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

Born in 1947 in Benue State, Chief Ogbe was a lecturer during the early days of his career before venturing into politics, where he was the Federal Minister of Communications between 1982 and 1983. He was also Chairman of the People’s Progressive Party in 2001-2005, the party that recently lost the presidential vote to Gen Buhari’s party, before resigning to manage his Efugo Farms, where he has a cashew nut plantation and also produces grains and rears chicken and fish.

Chief Ogbe replaces Dr Adesina who has recently been appointed the 8th President of the Ivory Coast based pan-African financial institution, the African Development Bank.

A huge believer in Africa’s potential in

agriculture, Adesina has been credited with boosting local production in Nigeria, where the oil boom of several decades ago reduced agriculture to a small part of government policy, with Nigeria importing a majority of its agricultural food needs.

FAO estimates that Nigeria has lost US$10 billion in annual export opportunity from groundnut, palm oil, cocoa and cotton alone due to continuous decline in the production of these commodities.

Dr Adesina implemented bold policy reforms in the fertilizer sector and pursued innovative agricultural investment programs to expand opportunities for the role of the private sector in agriculture. For example, according to the Ministry, private sector investments in fertilizer manufacturing were expanded, with over $5 billion private sector investments in fertilizer manufacturing in the three to 2014. The state, through its Agriculture Transformation Agenda, has boosted local production of rice and other grains that have tamed the huge imports of food products that had been grown in the country.

Chief Ogbe has his work cut out, considering that Nigeria is the world’s biggest producer of cassava (50 million tonnes as per FAO). The country has huge opportunities to grow this figure further, and increase production of rice, a staple food for which Nigeria is the largest importer, while building capacity of the sector to add value to crop and animal produce in the country.

In an interview, Chief Ogbe believes that Nigeria requires investing in farm management training. “There are no trained farm managers in this country. Qualified manpower is a big challenge,” he says. He believes that lack of financial access by farmers and infrastructure challenges in Nigeria stand in the way to Nigeria achieving its agriculture potential.

“We think we need a farmers’ bank,” he says.

Now he gets a chance to shape agricultural policy for Africa’s most popular country, from the learning from his farm.

Barclays Kenya joins agribusiness bandwagon

KENYA - Barclays Bank has expanded its portfolio into agriculture, by launching an agribusiness unit to offer loans and consultancy.

The lender has rolled out a strategy, which was developed with ABSA South Africa, a subsidiary of Barclays Plc, to increase operations in the sector.

Barclays Bank of Kenya Managing Director Jeremy Awori said the agribusiness unit would mainly lend money from a KSh30 billion kitty 12

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

set aside for small and medium enterprises this year.

He said the bank would also channel money through corporate lending for bigger projects, including setting up processing plants.

“We have done in-depth research in the key sectors that are already developed, including flower and grain industry, and we are hoping to expand more,” he said.

Mr Awori said the project comes at an important time when the bank has set up an asset-financing product that can go into lending for machinery and a bancassurance product to underwrite risks - Nation

South Africa’s banana industry threatened by Panama disease SOUTH AFRICA - South Africa’s R1.5 billion banana industry could be threatened by Panama disease, a devastating fungal disease, reports BDLive.

Panama disease, which is caused by the Fusarium fungus, is a soil pathogen that infects the root system and goes on to colonise the entire plant. The outbreak of Panama disease was spreading rapidly across the Metocheria Farm, a 3,000-hectare farm in northern Mozambique, owned by Norwegian company Norfund, due to the flooding at the beginning of 2015.

The disease has been present in plantations in north eastern Mozambique’s Nampula province for the past two years.

The disease could spread to more banana plantations in the Nampula province and then further into Africa, where it could threaten food security.

“The outbreak in northern Mozambique most certainly poses a risk to all its neighbouring countries. A major means of spread is water, as well as planting material and soil left on shoes and vehicles from the farm. South Africans had been visiting the affected farms in Mozambique in the past, and are still visiting the farm to do business.

If proper biosecurity is not introduced, South African growers might be affected.” said University of Stellenbosch plant pathologist Altus Viljoen - BD Live

Demand for export maize to drop ZAMBIA - The demand for Zambian maize in southern Africa is likely to drop because of improved production in traditional import countries in the region, reports Zim Daily.

The Centre for Trade and Policy and Development (CTPD) says Zambia faces reduced demand for maize in terms of exports because of improved harvest in the region.

The drop in the export maize demand will also be compounded by competitive price of the cereal in other countries compared to the cost of the grain in Zambia.

“The 2014/15 maize marketing season has been characterised by reduced demand for Zambia’s maize export from its neighbours which mainly was as a result of good rainfall leading to average and above-normal maize harvests in the region. Compared to export parity prices, Zambia’s maize is not competitive in the region because FRA bought maize above market prices,” she said.

“Inefficiencies and costly requirements in the export value chain and poor trade infrastructure also make it difficult for exporters to fully comply” she said. agribusinessafrica.net

Cashew nut processing gets funding boost TANZANIA - The Tanzanian cashew industry was recently allocated TSh30 billion (US$13.9m) for the construction of three factories to help to boost country’s processing capacity of its second largest export crop, notes allafrica.com.

The factories will be built in Mtwara, Mkuranga and Tunduru and are expected to save 80 per cent of Tanzania cashew nuts currently exported in raw form, enabling farmers to earn more from processed cashews.

Each factory will have capacity to process 10,000 tonnes of cashew nuts per annum, assuring farmers with high returns when their produces are processed locally before exporting. Cashewnut Industry Development Trust Fund (CIDTF) will fund the construction

of the industries - allafrica.com Meanwhile, Mohammed Gaffar, the president of the Mozambican Cashew Industry Association has said he expects the cashew campaign in the country to be good this year.

Cashew processing companies are expected to process 41,500 tonness of nuts by the end of the year, a 66% increase compared to the 25,000 tonness processed in 2014.

A new cashewnut processing factory will be inaugurated shortly in Nampula district and another is due to start operating in 2016 in the Liupo district. There are currently 14 cashew processing factories operating in Mozambique, mostly in Nampula province, the country’s largest producer, with over 14 million cashew trees, according to Macau Hub.

DuPont Pioneer appoints Zimbabwe head ZIMBABWE - DuPont Pioneer has appointed Temba Nkatazo, as country manager for its business in Zimbabwe, reports the Independent.

Nkatazo’s appointment follows the confirmation of the Competition and Tariff Commission of Zimbabwe’s approval for Pioneer Hi-Bred (Zimbabwe) (Private) Ltd. to acquire the assets and liabilities of Pannar Seed Zimbabwe.

“Temba brings extensive expertise and

experience to the role,” said Prabdeep Bajwa, DuPont Pioneer Regional Director, Africa. “I am confident that he will drive our strategy to continue to help farmers significantly increase agricultural productivity and food production through improved crop yields.”

The company said Nkatazo will oversee the business’ commercial operations in his new role and will provide leadership to the DuPont Pioneer and Pannnar Seed brands in the market.

Dam liner/Pond Liner

Complete Green House Tunnel Kits

Ghana grants 5-year tax holiday to new agroprocessors GHANA – The Ghana Investment Promotion Center has offered a five-year tax holiday for new, wholly owned Ghanaian agro-processing companies, which use only local agricultural inputs as their raw material base.

The move together with a waive of the payment of a minimum foreign capital needed for companies’ registration under the GIPC Act, is part of a grand scheme to allow starter businesses enjoy free incentives and tax rebates to ensure their survival and viability.

The goal is to help these industries find their feet and thrive in a conducive manufacturing business environment. After the initial 5-year tax holiday period, these industries shall as part of the package have corporate tax rates fixed according to their location. Those based in Accra and Tema would enjoy 20% tax relief while the other regional capitals excluding the three Northern regions, would have a relaxed tax of 10%.

“GIPC believes as efforts are directed towards improving the current economic conditions prevailing in the country, it will boost the confidence of both existing and potential investors to retain and invest in the country”, GIPC said.

pictorial | central kenya agri-business africa trade fair • 16 - 17 october 2015

14

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

agribusinessafrica.net

join us for the next edition • 7 - 8, october 2016

agribusinessafrica.net

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

15

news | african

Finlays sells its Horticulture Division

KENYA - James Finlay Limited, Finlays, has agreed to sell its horticulture business, Finlays Horticulture Investments and its subsidiary companies to an affiliate of Sun European Partners, LLP. Finlays Horticulture, a vertically integrated horticultural business active in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa grows, processes, markets and distributes sustainably produced roses and other cut flowers and premium and prepared vegetables and fresh herbs to the EU. The Group sources and processes about 775 million flower stems and about 30 million kilograms of vegetables per annum in Kenya, UK, Germany and Holland and is a core supplier to most of the leading UK retailers, as well as internationally to customers in Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, Japan and Australia.

The transaction includes the sale of Finlay Flowers UK, Finlays Fresh Produce UK, Finlays Horticulture Kenya, Finlays Horticulture Tanzania, Omniflora, Finlay Flowers BV, FV SeleQt, Dudutech and Finlays Horticulture South Africa.

Finlays will, however, retain its flower farm business in Kericho, Finlay Flowers, located within its tea estates in Kenya, who will continue to supply Omniflora and Finlay Flowers UK exclusively.

The Horticulture Division’s management team will continue to lead the business, with the transaction expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

Ethiopia imports 1m tonnes of wheat as drought bites

ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia is projected to break its wheat import record with a tender to import one million tonnes as the drought brought about by El Nino affects the East African nation.

With the early 1980s drought and famine still fresh in many people’s memory, the country is striving to meet local shortfalls in local production that has been exacerbated by low rainfalls and low productivity.

According to Addis Fortune, the Federal Public Procurement & Property Disposal Service (PPPDS) has been handling the

PE, Louis Dreyfus launch African agribusiness fund AFRICA – Louis Dreyfus Holding, which owns a controlling stake in Louis Dreyfus Commodities, the Swiss grain-trading giant and Bamboo Finance, a private equity firm, have launched a jointly managed fund that will focus its investment in Africa’s agribusiness industry.

Known as NISABA, the US$50 million impact investment fund project will focus on the small- and medium-sized agribusiness enterprises (SMEs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

As project sponsor, Louis Dreyfus Holding will invest US$10 million in NISABA as seed capital.

“Agribusiness development is at the crossroads of major challenges for Africa.

With an estimated population of 2 billion by 2050, and 330 million young Africans expected to enter the labor market by 2025, global agricultural production is not keeping

grow into africa

16

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

pace with population growth. We believe that through appropriate financing tools like impact investing, the private sector must take an active role in addressing such challenges,” said Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, Chairperson of Louis Dreyfus Holding.

NISABA will target a balanced portfolio of countries, activities and commodities, and will invest in financing gaps across the agribusiness value chain in growth markets.

The focus will be on SMEs that combine social, environmental and financial returns by improving efficiency through access to data, finance and risk mitigation, training and technology innovation; strengthening market access by linking producers to end-consumers; and building local capacity through postharvest handling and storage, value-addition or processing solutions, among others.

Uganda kicks off phosphate factory plant construction

advertise with us

with us

procurement of the grain on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture & Natural Resource (MoANR), which has ordered 400,000tn to respond to the drought, while the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE), has ordered 605,000tn for market stabilisation.

A report made by United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in mid-October indicated that the number people in need of assistance had reached to 8.2 million, with the figure expected to increase towards the end of the year, into 2016.

UGANDA - The construction of Uganda Sukulu Phosphate Comprehensive Industrial Development Project in Tororo district has

finally kicked off. The US$620 million project that was launched by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in August 2014 had stalled due to numerous challenges affecting the project.

The president said when completed the project would earn Uganda $600 million annually and employ more than 1000 workers.

The project covering 26.5 square kilometers in Sukulu and Rubongi sub counties will manufacture key products such as phosphate fertilizers, steel products, sulphuric acid, rare earth minerals and generate electricity with the capacity of 12 megawatts – East African agribusinessafrica.net

Ethiopia launches coffee traceability system

ETHIOPIA - The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange has launched a national traceability system that is expected to increase exports of high-quality Ethiopian coffee and enhance market access for specialty coffee from Ethiopia.

The system, known as eATTS, will start by piloting coffee in the current harvest season.

The traceability initiative is led and owned by ECX, which contributed US$1.4 million toward the total project cost of US$4.5 million. Other partners included USAID, Nestle, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE), Mother Parker’s Coffee

& Tea and The Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH).

The new tagging system links bags of coffee traded through the ECX to one of over 2500 geo-referenced washing, hulling and cleaning stations located in Ethiopia’s southern, central and western coffee growing regions. Each tag’s embedded information includes photos of the station as well as names and contact information for the station manager.

“True traceability goes beyond the commodity’s type or origin to tracing where the commodity has been. We wish to track the footprint of our coffee and where and when it was washed, stored, who sampled and graded it, and when it was shipped. All of these facts will help improve our ability to move commodities traded within the exchange and create premium value for all stakeholders in the value chain,” explained ECX CEO, Ermias Eshetu.

Over the past three years, Ethiopia and partners have drastically improved coffee grading. Due to increasing customer requirements for transparency and accountability, ECX and its partners are implementing a wide array of activities, including electronic tracking of bags, innovations in washing and processing, and streamlined storage and transportation processes.

The ECX traceability is the world’s first nationally owned system, and will soon cover all of Ethiopia’s coffee growing regions, which encompass over 5 million smallholder farmers.

Agribusiness is the future for Africa - AfDB President GHANA - Dr. Akiwumi Ayodeji Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has said Africa’s future depends on agriculture as a business and, therefore, urged African governments to focus on building the agribusiness industry.

He said the three key ways to reign in poverty on the African continent were to ensure inclusive growth; increase education; and ensure productivity in agriculture.

He explained that it was important to focus on agriculture as a business and not just a development activity.

He stated that Nigeria implemented an agro-business programme under which the mobile phone was used successfully to end corruption in fertiliser distribution, thereby, increasing agricultural production.

“Agriculture pays, nobody drinks oil, nobody drinks gas but everybody eats food,” he stated. Dr. Adesina said agro-industrialisation was the way to go for Africa, explaining that Africa’s continued export of its products in their raw state was not the beneficial - GNA

in the next issue feb 2016

Land O’Lakes buys stake in SA crop protection firm

SOUTH AFRICA - US agribusiness giants are taking advantage of the weak rand and depressed farm economy in SA to expand their footprint through tie-ups with local companies with the expertise and customer networks they need to penetrate promising regional markets.

Land O’Lakes, a Fortune 500 memberowned co-operative based in Minnesota, posting US$15bn in sales last year, has acquired a 52.5% stake in Villa Crop Protection, headquartered in the Western Cape, for an undisclosed sum.

The deal partners Villa with Land O’Lakes subsidiary WinField. Both formulate and distribute pesticides and other “crop protection solutions” designed to increase agribusinessafrica.net

crop yields. They also offer training and consultancy services.

“This is our first major international commercial investment in Africa,” Land O’Lakes CEO Chris Policinski said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing proven products from our WinField business to SA’s market and investing in the research and development efforts that will provide new products to local growers that help produce more food, more sustainably.”

Land O’Lakes sees Villa’s “training institute” helping it tailor its own products and sales strategy to compete in African markets.

Villa Crop Protection MD Andre Schreuder said on Friday that Land O’Lakes’ stake in the company would see the two firms consolidate in the South African market and expand further into Africa. “Africa is a difficult, highrisk market to operate in. Now I think with the financial backing of Land O’ Lakes we can take another look at Africa - but it is going to be a long, slow process,” Mr Schreuder said.

The sale would also enable the South African company to expand into seeds and fertilisers – BD Live

cover story

coffee industry in tanzania Industry prospects & trends in 21st Century To Advertise in your equipment, inputs, and services in the festure, contact: info@foodworldmedia.net august 2015 | agri-Business africa

17

EXECUTIVE | INTERVIEW

Tomato Jos - Building a resilient tomato value chain in Northern Nigeria

Tomato Jos is a for-profit social enterprise in Nigeria that makes tomato paste from sourcing their raw materials from local smallholder farmers in Northern Nigeria, based at the town of Jos. Agri-Business Africa magazine had an interview with the Managing Director and CEO, Mira Mehta At the end of the season we come back and buy the tomatoes at a pre-negotiated farm gate price. We subtract the cost of agro chemicals and the seedlings but the education services are free. We then take the tomatoes to a processing facility and process them into high quality tomato paste that is consumer packaged for the domestic market.

We have a model farm because we want to make sure that any solution we are giving to the farmer is one we have tested first, we don’t want to give them anything that hasn’t been done in Nigeria; that they shouldn’t be the guinea pigs, we should be the guinea pigs.

Q. How long has the project been running?

Q. What does Tomato Jos do, and how is it structured?

A. Our operation starts with a farmer outreach and delivery model where we work with traditional rulers and Ministry of agriculture and farmer cooperatives to identify farmers that farm vegetables in the region where we are. Once we identify and locate these groups we have a series of meetings over two to three months to learn their experiences. This will depend on whether they farm tomatoes already, have they farmed tomato commercially before, the type of farm they have since tomatoes require a lot of water. We make a number of physical visits to these locations to see if the land is adequate for tomato production.

In Nigeria, tomato is a dry season crop so they have to be near a river or a lake or have other means to access water to ensure they can get water to the fields.

Once we identify the farmer groups, we provide them with high quality seedlings, fertilizer and pesticides plus we visit their farms once a week to make sure they are adequately fertilized, irrigated and the crop doesn’t have any disease problems.

18

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

A. We are just coming into our first anniversary. We are still a young project.

In our first year, we only worked with two farmers and this year we are working with seven. We had initially planned to work with 50 farmers but due to some elements of behaviour change it is better to have a smaller number of farmers who are really committed to the entire project. Farmers all over the world are very hard to change their mind, whether it is California, Kenya or Nigeria. They like to do what they have always done and a lot of it is about seeing is believing. We decided to take our time as we worked with the farmers to adopt the new concept.

Q. What variety of tomatoes do you issue to the farmers?

A. We give a specific type of tomato i.e. determinate varieties which mature almost at the same time thus reducing the logistical nightmare of having to go to the farms after every three days, as is the case with indeterminate varieties. Generally tomato farmers in Nigeria were used to harvesting over a long period of time and for us we are telling them that we can plant the tomatoes and come back to harvest at once. We then pay the farmer his money all at once.

Q. How big is the tomato production industry in Nigeria and how important it is to the economy?

A. Tomato is one of the major food ingredients in Nigerian cuisine. The current supply is actually not meeting tomato demand either for fresh or processed tomato. There is currently no production capacity for tomato paste in Nigeria and there is nobody making tomato paste in Nigeria, but the country imports at retail value over US1billion dollars worth of tomato paste every year, mostly from China. There is a big market for both processed and fresh tomatoes and we see a big opportunity to provide Nigeria with its first domestic brand of tomato paste for a market that is really hungry for this product.

Q. What are the gaps you have noted that have hindered tomato production locally?

A. The average farmer in Nigeria faces a lot of challenges. First of all, in most of parts of Nigeria, the infrastructure is very bad.

The road system is patchy, especially in he North where we are, electricity is rare and it is hard to get good quality farm inputs. I live about 2 hours from Abuja, the federal capital, which is relatively not that far, but even we don’t find all the things we need all the time.

There are also challenges with marketing of tomatoes. Most production is concentrated in the North, with the market being in the South. Post-harvest loss occurs during transport to the markets due to poor packaging and bad infrastructure.

Most of the tomatoes are sold in raffia baskets which are small in the bottom and larger at the top so the tomatoes at the bottom get crushed so by the time the farmers reaches the sorting facility or the major market they may find that half of the tomatoes in the basket is rotten or at least 25% is rotten and they can’t sell the full amount they harvested.

So these are some of the challenges agribusinessafrica.net

Cover

we are trying to tackle and resolve through Tomato Jos because we harvest the tomatoes with them, load them into plastic crates so that the tomatoes don’t get as damaged. For us our market is processed tomato paste, we don’t mind if the tomatoes are crushed or damaged in the same way fresh market might mind, we ok with a little bit more bruises and tomatoes not looking so fine. But, we are able to accept a lot more of their tomato than the farmers will be able to sell to the fresh market, which reduces overall food loss at the farms.

Another challenge we have faced ourselves is the lack of the right technical personnel. We are always trying to find the right personnel like engineers who are willing to come and work in Northern Nigeria where we operate, because of perceived challenges of working in the North.

Q. There must have been some few lessons learnt

A. Oh yes, we learnt so many lessons in the first year. We had issues with adequate water supply. We also had a major problem of Tuta absoluta; Nigeria really was not prepared for that so it devastated not just our crop but also other farms across the region. One of the things we realized is that the pest control we do is so valuable to farmers because they had no access to any kind of trap sprays that they could use. We see these kinds of services as very valuable to the kind of farmers that we work with, and to the success of the project.

Q. Did you manage to control the Tuta absoluta?

A. Yes. We now have a couple of different chemical companies that have started to bring in their chemicals to help combat the menace. But even these companies services are not really available outside Abuja and other major cities, so for us if we can again extend those services, extend those products outside the farmers we are working with, then we can help them to be more prepared against diseases.

Q. Into the future, what kind of plans do you have for the next 3 or 5 years?

A. I think we can grow pretty quickly. We would like farmers to be asking us to be in the program rather than us asking them to be in our program. Basically by 2020 we look at having 2500 farmers in the program with each farmer farming 0.25 acres of land under tomato. Research and development and continued innovation always have to go on to ensure that we feed the factory with enough material to process. Right now we can process 2 tonnes per day of raw material. Within the next year, we are going to extend that to 12 tonnes a day and we are planning to break even on that scale.

Once we achieve that then the plan is to look for investment to bring us to the next level of scale.

Q. Any salient point that you may want to add?

A. People all over the world have started to realize that Africa is the final place that has enough capacity and resources to feed the world. With the exploding world population, it is important for companies to establish themselves and grow in a way that is responsible and sustainable so that when the big corporations want to come, then they are not just implementing a new form of neo-colonialism but they have to do things on the terms and conditions of the countries they are working with. That’s really what we are trying to do at Tomato Jos – the belief that things have to be done responsibly and sustainably in a way that when others come to the table they are negotiating on your terms. agribusinessafrica.net

Who are the Readers story of Agri-Business Africa magazine?

In thIs Issue: fara director general interview on agricultural research

In thIs Issue: Gmos: why is afric a standinG by?

IN thIS ISSue: Gmos: why is africa standinG by?

p o l I c y & t e c h n o l o g y f o r a f r I c a ’ s c r o p, a n I m a l & h o r t I c u l t u r e I n d u s t r y

n e w s , p o l i c y & t e c h n o l o G y f o r a f r i c a ’ s c r o p, a n i m a l & h o r t i c u l t u r e i n d u s t r y www.aGribusinessafrica.net n e w s , p o l i c y & t e c h n o l o G y f o r a f r i c a ’ s c r o p, a n i m a l & h o r t i c u lt u r e i n d u s t r y

CAN AFRICA FIGHT THE pEsTICIdE REsIduEs MENACE?

industry review: Sugar in Uganda

farmer Profile: Wendy farms

Crop focus:

moIsture management In cereals

Climate Change in afriCa

biG interview: taha ceo

greenhouse selectIon tIps

importance of soil analysis

country focus: malawI

a foodworld media publication

Which way forward? poultry: fowl typhoid

Banana

mastItIs control In daIry

milk sector in kenya:

auGust, 7 - 8, 2015 | Volume 1 ISSue 1, No. I • ISSN 2409-1235

www.agribusinessafrica.net

KeNya agrIcultural aNd lIVeStocK reSearch

www.agribusinessafrica.net

orgaNISatIoN (Kalro) thIKa, KeNya

Volume 1 • ISSue 2, No. 2 • ISSN 2409-1235

a foodworld media publication

book your space today

www.agrIbuSINeSSafrIca.Net/ceNtral Volume 1 • ISSue 3, No. 3 • ISSN 2409-1235

a foodworld media publication

Agri-Business Africa is the premier, high quality panAfrican magazine that covers industry trends, policy, technology and news from Africa’s agriculture and agro-processing industry Distributed in several countries in Africa and available online, the magazine is availed to: • Large and medium scale farmers and cooperatives • Processors, handlers and storage providers of agro produce • Government policy makers and researchers • NGOs and development organisations • Suppliers to the agro industry • Embassies and foreign missions • Exporters and importers of agro produce Sectors & Industries covered by the magazine: • Dairy & Livestock • Floriculture, Fruits & Vegetables • Cereals & Pulses • Sugar and related • Coffee, Tea & Cocoa • Meat & Poultry • Fibre, Oilseeds and Biofuels Agri-Business Africa is the best resource for suppliers of agrochemicals, equipment, packaging and related services to reach Africa’s agriculture and agroprocessing sector. Advertise with us today.

Contact Us: FoodWorld Media Tel: +254 20 8155022; +254 725 343932 august 2015 | agri-Business africa info@foodworldmedia.net

19

Trade | AGOA

Analysing AGOA: Trade deal with US that could transform Africa’s agriculture The African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade-deal that aims to increase bilateral trade between the US and Africa, was recently extended by the US Congress for another 10 years to 2025. However, with Africa failing to take advantage of this Act to grow exports of agro and processed agro produce to this key market, we ask what must be done to boost agricultural exports to the world’s biggest market.

T

he AGOA Act remains one outstanding achievement of the United States’ trade deals with Africa.

Recently renewed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Obama in June 2015, the current AGOA legislation has been extended by a further 10 years to September 2025 (the longest extension in its history), its fifth extension after having been signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Yet, with this extension, analysts are keen to point out that both parties to the deal, Africa and the US, must do more to ensure that AGOA has a broader effect on not only increased flow of goods between

20

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

them, but also to boost economic progress on the continent. To achieve this goal, the role of agriculture, which employs over 80% of the population in Africa, as the catalyst to this economic transformation continues to be emphasized, considering the effect it has on the population and the possibility that lies therein if Africa is to boost agricultural exports to its economy.

Agriculture a minor component of AGOA so far

According to figures released by Agoa.info, African exports to the US have increased significantly since AGOA inception, with trade balance in favour of African countries.

But it is worrisome that this trade surplus has been declining since about 2012 as exports of oil products reduced as the US produced more oil locally. Combined twoway goods trade in 2014 was valued at US$50 billion (2013: US$61 billion, 2012: US$66 billion), a decline that will affect Africa in the long run.

Agoa.info reports that combined trade between the US and AGOA-eligible SubSaharan African countries has doubled between 2001 and 2014, with peak trade flows of US$100 billion achieved in 2008, majority of the trade flow being oil products from Nigeria, Angola and Chad; and motor vehicles from South Africa. With the risks agribusinessafrica.net

Ghana Ethiopia Cameroon

Moving beyond textiles to agriculture

Most African countries have not gained maximum benefits from AGOA, having agribusinessafrica.net

159 62 155

273 128 297

325 207 186

Trade volumes in million dollars

African countries have recorded increases in trade with US under AGOA -­‐ Agoa.info 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

2001 Ivory Coast

2005 Kenya

2010

MauriVus

Ghana

2014 Ethiopia

Cameroon

AGOA EXPORTS BY SECTOR Exports of agro based products to US has increased under AGOA 200

2001 Agric p180 roducts 36 Food p160 roducts 7 Beverages &

T obacco 4 140 Leather products 1 Trade volumes in million dollars

brought by the financial crisis and the US producing more oil locally, the two-way trade has been reduced to US$50 billion in 2014, with trade surplus with the United States declining to only US$2 billion. (See Graph 1.)

It is for this reason that the role of agriculture remains one of the jewels Africa still has in its favour to ensure it continues to have a positive trade balance with the US, otherwise AGOA will start being reflected on as a means to ensure the US gets access to Africa’s market, without the continent gaining significant advantages in return.

A negative trade balance with the US will eventually put paid to the next extension of AGOA in 2025, with US legislators coming under pressure not to renew the trade deal, with pressure expected to come from African countries themselves and NGOs. This is already a significant disagreement point between South Africa and the US. The South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies decried the new conditions attached to the AGOA extension in May, saying that the changes in US trade policy around AGOA would reduce the value AGOA for SA while raising its costs, according to BD Live.

“Notably absent is any improvement in the level of access of AGOA-eligible countries’ products to the US market.” Mr Davies noted that the US wanted to transform its trade relationship with Africa from one of nonreciprocal concessions under the former AGOA to one of reciprocal agreements in the renewed AGOA deal.

“It is no longer the same game.” The US and South Africa have continued to differ on their trade matters, and as we went to press, South Africa had been given 90 days by President Obama to allow imports of American meat and poultry products, or run the risk of being removed from AGOA-eligible countries, an action that can devastate its motor, chemical and agriculture industries.

By focusing on the agriculture component of AGOA, Expanding opportunities for Africa’s agriculture exports through AGOA, the Brookings Institution contends that a number of benefits will be derived in Africa as well: improve on employment, including for youth and women; reduce poverty and diversify trade areas with the US away from oil exports.

185 29 102

120

2005 82 15 34 6

2010 129 38 31 5

2014 186 37 35 25

100 80 60 40 20 0

2001 Agric products

2005 Food products

relied on a few industries to drive their AGOA trade. This must change, with agriculture coming into the picture. “AGOA has traditionally been viewed as a textile agreement and in the initial first phase there was a lot of focus on the textile sector.

This went okay because we grew our textile exports and our export-processing zone (EPZ) but there are several other areas that we need to look at. We undertook a priority study in partnership with the World Bank and identified the leather industry, cotton and apparel, furniture and the agroprocessing sectors as key areas in which we need to build capacity,” says Phyllis Wakiaga, the CEO of Kenya Association of Manufacturers, an industry body.

Agricultural exports, comprising agro produce, beverages, food and leather products, to the US have increased from US$48 million in 2001 to US$283 million in 2015, according to data by Agoa.info, a five fold increase (Graph 2). While the increase in exports is significant, it

2010 Beverages & Tobacco

2014 Leather products

is important to note that the export of apparel manufactured in the continent, and which could have been a boon to the growing of cotton in the continent increased from US$348 million in 2001 to US$1260 million before coming down to US$935 million. The production of cotton in Africa continues to dwindle in most African countries, and therefore as the exported volumes to the US of apparel reduces, the hopes of reviving the cotton sector in Africa fades into the horizon.

What Africa must fix

The AGOA extension period to 2015 is an important period for Africa. The coming decade is also critical in the continent, considering the debate around the urgent need for the continent to improve on agricultural productivity, improve food security for its growing population and the critical goal of increasing the volume and value of exports to the key markets of august 2015 | agri-Business africa

21

Trade | INTERVIEW AGGREGATE BILATERAL TRADE BETWEEN AGOA COUNTRIES AND THE UNITED STATES 100

Billions $'000

50

0

-50

US Imports from AGOA countries

14 20

13 20

11

12 20

10

09

08

US Exports to AGOA countries

20

20

20

20

07 20

06 20

05 20

04 20

03 20

02 20

01 20

20

00

-100

Trade Balance agoa.info

US, European Union (EU) and Asia. While it remains to be seen how these initiatives pan out, a critical mass of players agree that Africa is an important partner in world trade and must begin to punch above its historical weight.

“Two of the most critical options geared towards African countries for enhancing AGOA after its renewal involve fully utilizing the legislation explicitly through developing country-specific AGOA strategies; and working to enhance regional integration on the continent, which will provide benefits well beyond AGOA exports,” notes a note by the African Development Bank titled Strategies to Enhance Gains from AGOA. “AGOA strategies should focus on providing information about the successes and achievements of different export sectors, strategies for addressing internal and external barriers, and specific information and contacts for existing AGOA-relevant organizations that exporters could use for support. It would also be useful to have market data and to

22

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

identify sectors where each country has the potential to scale exports by looking at products that could be processed or manufactured with a competitive advantage based on interest, available commodities or skills that could be easily accessed or obtained,” notes a strategy paper by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank which has been involved in AGOA strategy matters. The paper also notes that Africa must identify “the barriers to expansion or investment in these potential growth sectors e.g., lack of financing or inability to find capital, the need for partners with experience and knowledge of production, etc.), to succeed in reaping the benefits of the AGOA extension.

Specifically Africa and its partner in this trade deal, the US must tackle the following barriers to AGOA’s success: 1.

Create more awareness about AGOA in Africa Despite the abundance of resources and goods that Africa could export to the

US, there has been an apparent lack of awareness by industry and trade players on the eligibility criteria, processes and gains that could be made through AGOA. “We have not been having sufficient information into what entails the AGOA market and the few people who got that opportunity clung to it,” the chief executive of Micro and Small Enterprise Authority (MSEA), Mr Patrick Mwangi told Business Daily.

And he is not alone in asking for more awareness. “Awareness was the critical issue that makes us lose out on preferential trade agreements whether it is with the EU, the East African Community or the US,” says Phyllis Wakiaga of KAM. “A lot of manufacturers, particularly SMEs were not aware that AGOA existed and which goods they could export and how to start.

For example, you need an AGOA visa and if you do not even know how and where this is processed you cannot even begin to appreciate the opportunities that are available.”

Awareness must also be created beyond the mainstream sectors, for example in Kenya; AGOA has been equated to the textile and apparel sector, hindering the growth of AGOA trade beyond this sector.

2. Streamline Sanitary & Phytosanitary (SPS) measures SPS measures, whether into the EU or American market continue to place substantial non-tariff barriers to the ability of Africa to export produce or goods into these markets. African countries must build capacity to meet and exceed the required food safety related requirements that regulate trade in agricultural and processed agro products. The recent release of new regulations governing the production, storage and handling of fresh produce by the US federal Food & Drugs Administration (FDA), as it continues to seal loopholes that existed before the Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) was passed, is also of critical importance to any exporter to the US. There’s need to build infrastructure in each country or region to ensure that agro produce that is exported to the US meet these new stringent requirements.

However, the South African spat with the US concerning the safety of imported meat and poultry from the US due to the avian flu outbreak in some US states is a clear reminder that the knife cuts both ways, and that African and American regulators must work closely to ensure smooth flow of safe food products into each side of the deal agribusinessafrica.net

3. Improve infrastructure Inadequate infrastructure hinders Africa’s quest to produce, store, handle and export significant volumes of agricultural produce. Most of Africa lacks direct flights and sea transport with the US. Even the few African airlines that enter the US have only a few flights a week. But Africa’s problems do not start with exporting the produce.

Eligibility criteria The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was signed into law by President Clinton in May 2000 with the objective of expanding U.S. trade and investment with sub-Saharan Africa, to stimulate economic growth, to encourage economic integration, and to facilitate sub-Saharan Africa’s integration into the global economy.

At the center of AGOA are substantial trade preferences that, along with those under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), allow virtually all marketable goods produced in AGOAeligible countries to enter the U.S. market duty-free.

The U.S. Congress requires the President to determine annually whether sub-Saharan African countries are eligible for AGOA benefits based on progress in meeting certain criteria, including progress toward the establishment of a market-based economy, rule of law, economic policies to reduce poverty, protection of internationally recognized worker rights, and efforts to combat corruption.

As of August 2014, 41 sub-Saharan African countries were eligible for AGOA benefits.

AGOA preferences apply to approximately 7,000 tariff lines. This includes 4,975 tariff lines currently covered by the United States Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) plus a further 1,800 tariff line items added by the AGOA legislation.

In addition, apparel sector tariff lines also qualify where countries have met the AGOA “apparel visa” requirements.

The U.S. Government provides assistance - most notably through four regional trade hubs - to African governments and businesses that are seeking to make the most of AGOA and to diversify their exports to the United States.

Inadequate communication technology, post-harvest handling facilities, cold chain facilities, power, irrigation, water and sanitation, poor road and railway networks put Africa at a great disadvantage to produce, process and export agricultural produce.

4. Boost agricultural productivity In a world that has embraced technology to produce food, Africa remains a few decades back in terms of agricultural productivity. With yields being below 2 tonnes per hectare, maize, the continent’s most abundant cereal is a perfect example of how far Africa has to cover, to reach its peers. Mechanisation, the use of quality seed, sound management, post-harvest

management and adoption of current technologies in value addition must be boosted to have the agricultural produce to export in the first place. Increased productivity will also expand the range of exportable products to the US market.

5. Remove tariff barriers Even in areas where Africa performs quite well, the US continues to place stringent tariff barriers. Raw sugar, tobacco, meat and dairy products face non-tariff quotas that limit export volumes. The raising or complete lifting of import quotas on such produce shall not only boost export potential to the US but also improve quality of locally sold produce in source countries.

Source: Office of the United States Trade Representative agribusinessafrica.net

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

23

AGRONOMY | COFFEE

Effects of El Nino rains on coffee farming •

T

he heavy short-term rains popularly known as el-Nino are here. Under normal circumstances, short rains constitute around 30% of the annual rainfall that facilitate coffee ripening and boosts wood maturity for the main season flowering.

Heavy rains than normal will have various implications on coffee production and farmers will need to prepare appropriately in order to mitigate the negative impacts while reaping maximum benefits from the heavy downpour Normally, the short rains are known to have downpours during the day and this is expected to happen at a time when late crop coffee harvesting and processing will be at peak.

So how will the El – Nino rains affect coffee production?

•

•

•

•

24

Soil erosion. The heavy rains will lead to soil and organic matter loss especially in steep areas. This will deprive the coffee bushes of the vital topsoil that is rich in nutrients and organic matter thus reducing the bearing potential over the coming season.

This will consequently translate to low income for farmers as well as increased cost of replenishing the soil. This problem can be minimised by mulching and cutting benches and re – scooping water harvesting basins. These measures will also lower the production costs through reduced weed growth and water supplementation by irrigation.

Leaching and washing off of nutrients. Heavy rains will exceed field water holding capacity thus causing run offs, saturation and waterlogging. As excess water drains further down the soil, it carries with it the vital soil nutrients beyond the root zone of the coffee trees and therefore the nutrients will be lost. To avoid this, coffee farmers are advised to: • Apply fertilizers in smaller splits of two weeks apart at about 100kg/ha (75g/tree) • Cutting erosion basins to stop run-off.

Coffee Diseases. With prolonged heavy rains, the risk of late blight of coffee is expected. Late blight of coffee is a fungal infection that lowers the coffee quality and makes coffee pulping very difficult as the infected pulp sticks on the parchment skin. With low quality coffee, the income to the farmer does down. This can be solved by: • Quick harvesting of ripe cherry - weekly • Application of preventive fungicides. Repeat applications if rains persist.

Coffee Harvesting. Harvesting of coffee becomes difficult and more complicated in the presence of heavy rains as coffee pickers abandon the exercise or are difficult to supervise.

Ripe cherry may also be detached from the branches hence falling down. Farmers can minimise this by: august 2015 | agri-Business africa

Picking coffee at the right stage before it starts to over ripen.

• Prudent labour management practices that will motivate the coffee pickers • Pruning. Excess vegetative growth will make the tree canopy thick and this favours multiplication of antesia bugs. Thick canopy also repel the coffee pickers as they detest searching for berries. This would eventually lead to overripe berries that drop down and serve as good breeding habitats for the berry borers. Penetration of chemical spray becomes poor and late blight of coffee may set in thus affecting coffee quality.

Pruning to remove excessive and unnecessary vegetation can help reduce this problem.

• Irrigation. Coffee farmers will need no irrigation for a good crop ripening as the rains will be enough for quality ripening.

Irrigation equipment especially if located along the river banks will need to be removed and stored safely to avoid damage by floods.

• Fertilizer Application. Compound fertilizers like NPK will be required to enhance growth of bearing wood for next year’s late crop • Weed Control. The coffee fields will have a strong regeneration of weeds. Farmers will have to ensure that timely weeding is done to avoid seeding of the weeds that increases the seed load in the soil. Herbicide use is most recommended than manual weeding as it is more effective in wet conditions.

• Coffee Processing. Due to heavy rains, it is expected that the drying time will be less therefore coffee will take longer to dry. Coffee stored in drying bins when incompletely dry may develop onion flavour and coffee on drying tables may suffer re-wetting. To minimise loss and wastages, the following measures are recommended.

• Ensure enough drying space and good covering materials • The storage areas must be water proof • Where mechanical drying is used for skin drying, the driers should be in good working order before the season begins.

• Managers should ensure maximum attention is paid to drying particularly when coffee is removed before fully dry.

• Cover the coffee on drying tables before showers come.

• Coffee Transportation. While transporting the dry parchment to the dry mill, the farmer must ensure that the coffee is well covered with tarpaulins to avoid rewetting the coffee as this will damage the coffee beans lowering the quality.

• General Agronomy. The coffee trees will exhibit a vibrant growth with enhanced soil moisture especially if the rains extend to February and March, the stress period will be reduced causing ineffective flowering for next season’s crop.

To increase flowering, farmers are advised to do the following: • Induce stress by sub soiling • Proper pruning to ensure open trees early enough • Apply phosphoric acid at a rate of 600ml in a drum of water in December to enhance maturity and hardening of the bearing wood.

So to ensure continued and better coffee production, farmers are advised to take advantage of the on-going heavy rains for better returns.

Source: Coffee Management Services agribusinessafrica.net

The

farmer’s notebook

Our aim is to be the best dairy farm Tassells Cattle Farm is a family-run Kenya-based dairy enterprise that seeks to separate itself from the rest of the dairy industry in Kenya and the region. The company is focused on becoming the number one dairy farm in Eastern Africa and is planning to use the latest technology in animal husbandry in dairy production and marketing to deliver on this goal.

Francis Juma sat down with the husband and wife team of Mr. Muturi Njoroge and Mrs. Susan Nyambura Kasinga.

T

advertise with us

grow with us into africa

agribusinessafrica.net

he journey to Tassells Cattle Farm is almost an anti-climax of sorts. Having had no prior knowledge of where we were going, and expecting the journey to the ‘farm’ to take much longer, my companions from the Kiambu County department of Agriculture had to almost grab me out of the car to enter Muturi’s farm. For Tassells Dairy Farm is not your ordinary farm.

From afar the farm looks like a food manufacturing facility, what with the high roofs and modern looking structures one sees as the farm is approached. The farm is located some 20 kilometres from the centre

of Nairobi, Kenya, just off the main Thika Highway in Ruiru, a once sleepy sub-urban town that sits bang in the middle of two major towns: Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya and Thika, an industrial hub that is at the entry point of Kenya’s major agricultural zone, Central Kenya.

Focus on excellence

Dairy farming is a tough venture, but which Mr Muturi believes that can be a profitable venture if done right. Muturi notes that farmers have lagged behind in their management of dairy enterprises in the august 2015 | agri-Business africa

25

region, impacting on their ability to make maximum returns from the venture, hence the frequent complaints about low milk prices in the region.

“There is a big disconnect between farmers and processors. But from my experience, it is not that processors have not bought milk at the right price. It is more to do with farmers failing to capture the innovative ways to do dairy. Milk prices in other parts of the world are not that different from what our farmers are paid here. We are still doing dairy farming the way our forefathers used to do it many decades ago. People are not ready to embrace innovation and technology in agriculture,” says Muturi emphatically, going against the grain to what other farmers may say.

But things are beginning to change, notes Muturi. “We have seen the emergence of knowledgeable farmers, which is a good thing for the whole industry. Even in our farmers’ forums, we have realised that farmers are now talking the right language, thinking of the right way to practice commercial farming.”

The team

Tassels Cattle farm is run by the husband and wife team of Mr. Muturi Njoroge and Mrs Susan Nyambura Kasinga - whose passion for dairy was ignited even before the couple met. “It is interesting that two people came together and got married, only to realise later that both had the same dreams and goals in life,” Mr Njoroge tells us, drawing laughter from the rest of us. “The fact that both of us are focused on this project has been a blessing to our dairy project since we have placed all our hearts and minds to it,” adds Susan.

Muturi entered the dairy venture by working at a dairy farm in Githunguri Town, a major milk-producing town in Central Kenya after high school, taking care of his employer’s animals. “Soon we found ourselves with excess milk and the market was becoming an issue to an extent to which we were over feeding the calves with milk.”

Muturi says. “We decided to look for market for the excess milk in Nairobi. I did this for about three to four months. After sometime, the neighbours started to give me their milk to take to Nairobi for sale and this milk business went very well until at one point I was taking up to 600 litres of milk a day to Nairobi,” adds Muturi. But he didn’t work here for long, since he lost his job afterwards, and went into milk hawking full time, as the unlicensed selling of milk is called in Kenya.

For Susan, animals have always been part of her passion. “I have always have passion for animals from the time I was very young.

I grew up with my grandparents who had cows, goats and sheep. My grand dad noted my interest in animals and trained me in 26

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

milking, feeding and taking care of animals during the school holidays. Whenever he went for seminars, he used to take me to these meetings. At the end of high school, I was a bit

confused, caught between what my parents and my parents wanted me to do. So I studied counselling and community development and spent time at my grand dad’s farm during agribusinessafrica.net

Establishing the farm

When Muturi and Susan came together to start the dairy venture, they realised the need to improve on productivity of their animals, but things didn’t work as they planned at the start. “We thought that with a bigger herd, we would automatically get more milk. This didn’t happen, to our shock,” says Susan. The couple was forced to change tact to improve milk production and keep their enterprise afloat.

“We were quite naive on dairy animal management, but we realised that there were things to be done to improve production, so we decided to visit other major dairy farms for benchmarking and to learn about dairy husbandry. Unfortunately, most farmers were very reserved and would not open their farms for some reason, mostly out of superstition,” says Muturi. “In some instances we were literally chased away,” adds Muturi, with laughter, giving an example of a farmer in Embu who could not waste his time with the couple because they were too young to understand dairy farming. “You see in Kenya, dairy farming and farming as a whole was and is still being viewed as an activity for older people and not for young people as we were then,” adds Susan.

‘Our quest to learn more about dairy farming wasn’t successful because in most of the farms we visited we realised that everyone was doing different things, and when we questioned why, no one had adequate information. They said they were doing the practice because they had been told, not out of scientific basis.’ says Mr Njoroge. ‘We came back frustrated after almost two months’ quest for proper information’ says Muturi.

“ We do not want to be quacks, what we are building is a centre of excellence. We have gone through challenges ourselves and we have a story to tell about our failures. We look forward to a future of building dairy farmers. We shall invest in first class facilities, even with our limited resources. We did our research and decided that this investment is the right thing,” Muturi Njoroge, CEO my free time. In the process, I met Mr Muturi.

What surprised me is that he had cows, and I feigned ignorance about cows for some time.

I hesitated at the start due to the negative connotations of women’s involvement in taking care of animals.”

“When we got married, I had 7 cows, and she had 11 cows, given to her by her grand dad. Her grand dad suggested that we put together our herd and leased to us his shed in Ruiru town, which we renovated. That is the enterprise that has grown to be Tassels Cattle Farm,” adds Muturi.

The company has a model demonstration farm at the Ruiru Farm and other three agribusinessafrica.net

facilities around the country, including one that is used to bring up calves. They also buy and trade in cattle into the regional market.

“We almost basically take care of the animals that have been bought from here, since the farmers also go through training at our facility before they buy the animals from us. These farmers, some of them in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and even in the DRC buy from us because of the trust they place on us to source for them quality animals and the fact that we continue to support them after the sale,” says Muturi. The farm also acts as a training centre for farmers from the region as well.

Then Google comes calling

“It is at this point that we realised there’s something called Internet and turned to Google,” says Muturi with a voice of triumph.

“From there, we started connecting to farms from outside Africa through the Internet, through which we shared our challenges and received advice from farmers across the World. Through these interactions, we realised that compared to our contacts in developed countries, we were almost a century behind in this part of the world in terms of our dairy management,’ says Muturi.

“They had gone so far, and actually we were not connecting for some time. They were talking about milk quality, butter fat content, sucrose levels in milk while in Africa milk is milk, we don’t care about quality.

We started hearing things like breeding records which were alien to us, with breeding records dated back several decades in most cases,” says Muturi. “It is these interactions that enabled us to establish and grow our enterprise,” concludes Muturi. august 2015 | agri-Business africa

27

Management

Out of these interactions and studies the dairy farm developed a 13-point plan to dairy management from breeding, feeding, pasture management, parlour care, calf care and health and mastitis control that acts as a guide to managing the farm on a daily basis. “We separate mastitis from other health issues because it is such a big problem here,” says Muturi.

“The other critical thing that we have realised is the importance of having the right human resource in a farm. Most farms employ uninformed people who cannot even diagnose simple ailments, nor understand simple hygiene and waste management protocols, costing them in the long run.

Our farm structures are erected with the animal safety and health in mind. We realise that stress management of the cow is a critical attribute to dairy management. If you look at our structure, you can see a big difference with what you may see in the region. We believe that stress management begins from the structure, to the people who take care of them,” he says.

With high roofs that provide adequate ventilation and airflow, the farm stands out for its quality of build and care. To manage heat from the environment, the farm has installed solar-powered coolers in the shed.

Tanzania International Forum for Investments

A robotic future

Tassels farm is at the moment putting up a structure that can hold 300 animals and also plans to construct a huge biogas digester to handle 3 tonnes of animal waste per day, which they plan to package and sell. “We realise that since we have devoted ourselves to this business, we strive to be the best in the region. But the going has been hard, as we have gone deeper into the project. For example to fund the project has really been a challenge as most financial institutions didn’t want to take the risk of agricultural financing,’ Muturi clarifies.

“We separate mastitis from other health issues because it is such a big problem here,” The farm has imported robots from the UK that will handle milking, cleaning and feeding the animals, with the aim of reducing human interactions and improving quality and productivity. “Each cow will have a chip which will capture when the cow’s conditions, transmitting data to the control room that will guide the animals to go for milking, for example,” explains Muturi. The robots will manage such mundane tasks as timing of heat, feeding rations etc, boosting productivity on the farm.

The dairy will also commence production of its feed in-house to improve costs and performance of the herd. Meanwhile, it plans to continue with its training programs, which will be boosted by the investment that is currently being done at the farm. They will also continue to train students from the nearby Kenyatta University, who use his farm for attachment purposes.

“For some of us who didn’t go through formal training, we shall work with the county and national Governments, universities, dairy and feed experts to bring scientific proof to what we are doing in this dairy. We do not want to be quacks, what we are building is a centre of excellence. We have gone through challenges ourselves and we have a story to tell about our failures. We look forward to a future of building dairy farmers. We shall invest in first class facilities, even with our limited resources. We did our research and decided that this investment is the right thing,” concludes Muturi.

We can only wish them well in their quest to be Africa’s best dairy farm.

CONTACTS Contact Person: Muturi Njoroge Tel No: +254 707 999364 Email: info@tassellsdairyfarm.net 28

august 2015 | agri-Business africa

9-11 March 2016 Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, Dar Es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania AGRI INVESTING SESSION CHAIRED BY Zhann Meyer, Head: Agricultural Commodities, Global Commodity Finance, Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking

ENDORSED BY

CONTACT US Secretariat 11101 Kivukoni, 50 Mirambo Street - World Bank Building-3rd Floor, P. O. Box 105600 Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Tel: +255-22-211-3010, info@tziforum.com www.tziforum.com agribusinessafrica.net

Subscribe In thIs Issue: fara director general interview on agricultural research

In thIs Issue: Gmos: why is afric a standinG by?

IN thIS ISSue: Gmos: why is africa standinG by?

p o l I c y & t e c h n o l o g y f o r a f r I c a ’ s c r o p, a n I m a l & h o r t I c u l t u r e I n d u s t r y

n e w s , p o l i c y & t e c h n o l o G y f o r a f r i c a ’ s c r o p, a n i m a l & h o r t i c u l t u r e i n d u s t r y www.aGribusinessafrica.net n e w s , p o l i c y & t e c h n o l o G y f o r a f r i c a ’ s c r o p, a n i m a l & h o r t i c u lt u r e i n d u s t r y

CAN AFRICA FIGHT THE pEsTICIdE REsIduEs MENACE?

industry review: Sugar in Uganda

farmer Profile: Wendy farms

Crop focus:

moIsture management In cereals mastItIs control In daIry

Banana

greenhouse selectIon tIps

milk sector in kenya: Which way forward? poultry: fowl typhoid biG interview: taha ceo importance of soil analysis

country focus: malawI

a foodworld media publication

Climate Change in afriCa auGust, 7 - 8, 2015 |

Volume 1 ISSue 1, No. I • ISSN 2409-1235

www.agribusinessafrica.net

KeNya agrIcultural aNd lIVeStocK reSearch

www.agribusinessafrica.net

orgaNISatIoN (Kalro) thIKa, KeNya

Volume 1 • ISSue 2, No. 2 • ISSN 2409-1235

a foodworld media publication

book your space today

www.agrIbuSINeSSafrIca.Net/ceNtral Volume 1 • ISSue 3, No. 3 • ISSN 2409-1235

a foodworld media publication

Keep up to date with the agri-business industry in africa

Subscription form KeNYa

afriCa

reST of world

1 year

KSh 2900

uSd 70.00

uSd 90.00

2 years

KSh 5600

uSd 130.00

uSd 170.00

* Agri-Business Africa is published 6 times a year. These rates are for one copy per issue.

For multiple copies please multiply * Prices inclusive of delivery charges

PaYmeNT TYPe Cheque

Please complete the following details Telephone:

Website:

Email: What best describes your main business activity (e.g. flower farming, banking,

Electronic transfer

consultant, packaging supplier, NGO, exporter etc?)

Send me an invoice for payment processing

What best describes your job:

Name: Company:

Chairman, CEO, Director

General Management

Sales/Marketing

Purchasing/Supply chain

Town:

QA/R&D

Farm Management

Physical Location:

Others (specify)

P.O. Box:

Post code/ZIP:

Country: Applicant’s Signature & Stamp: No of copies subscribed for per issue:

Date:

Would you like us to have a feature on your company/products?Yes

foodworld media lTd PO BOx 1874 - 00621 Village Market, Nairobi, KeNya Tel: +254 20 8155022 | Cell: +254 725 343932 email: info@foodworldmedia.net www.agribusinessafrica.net

August 31st September 2, 2016 Nairobi, Kenya

Focus Topics: Productivity • Technology • Food Safety • Investments • Markets • Policy & Regulations • Sustainability

Unleashing technology to transform Africa’s agriculture & agribusiness industry in the 21st Century

Low farm productivity; poor quality produce; lack of market access and investments; food safety concerns; inadequate financing and value addition; high levels of post-harvest losses; and climate change are some of the top concerns in Africa’s agriculture and agribusiness industry today.

How can the continent harness its resources and innovative technologies to boost farm productivity and increase value addition of its agro produce?

The African Agro-Tech Summit is the region’s high-level conference and exhibition that brings together suppliers of technology, equipment, inputs, agrochemicals and services; Government agencies; NGOs and development partners; farmers and traders for three days of trade, networking and learning on how Africa can move its agriculture forward in the 21st Century.

Partner with us.

Sponsorship, Exhibition and Speaking Opportunities available

FoodWorld Media • P.O. Box 1874-00621 – Village Market, Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 20 8155022; +254 725 343932 | info@foodworldmedia.net Please log onto the event website for more information:

www.agribusinessafrica.net/agroevents