Download or read book Examining the sense and science behind Ghana s current blanket fertilizer recommendation written by Chapoto, Antony and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper was written to help bolster the case and present visual evidence demonstrating why it is important to seriously consider spatial soil fertility variability in Ghana and to promote area-specific fertilizer recommendations. Using geostatistical analysis of soil samples collected from farmer plots in three districts (Tamale Municipality, Savelugu-Nanton, and West Mamprusi in northern Ghana), the paper analyzes spatial variations in soil fertility. The results clearly show that there are variations in soil pH, organic matter content, and available phosphorous even at the community level, supporting the need for Ghana to seriously consider location-specific fertilizer recommendations.

Download or read book A review of the Ghana Planting for Food and Jobs program 2017 2020 Implementation impact and further analysis written by Pauw, Karl and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines the evolution of farm input subsidy programs in Ghana, with a focus on the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative, which was introduced in 2017 and replaced the Fertilizer Subsidy Program (FSP) that was launched in 2008. A review of PFJ implementation reports and other official data sources reveal that information on general program features, such as beneficiary numbers, subsidized input quantities, and program budget is readily available and useful for understanding program design and implementation. National crop production estimates are also reported annually, and these provide evidence of rapid output growth in the agricultural sector, especially within the cereals subsector. However, the implementing agency, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), lacks a system for closely monitoring and reporting PFJ program impacts at farm-level. Consequently, most of the published information on the marginal contribution of PFJ to national crop output is based on simulations, which make strong assumptions about seeding rates, fertilizer use by crop, and input use efficiency on beneficiary farms. With this drawback in mind, these simulations show that PFJ contributed substantially to crop output growth, a result which is not implausible considering the quantities of inputs provided, but one that requires further on-farm validation. Recommendations are offered around beneficiary targeting, interpretation of employment impacts, and the need for regular monitoring of farm-level impacts, all of which will help improve transparency of the program.

Download or read book Farm input subsidies and commodity market trends in Ghana An analysis of market prices during 2012 2020 written by Amewu, Sena and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-12-20 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ghana has a long history of intervening in food markets to balance consumers’ expectations of low and stable food prices, farmers’ demands for high farmgate prices, and traders’ demand for predictability in seasonal price patterns. However, government interventions may also alter the behavior of markets and alter incentives or risks for all market actors. The Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative, launched in 2017, signaled a renewed commitment from government to agriculture and is Ghana’s flagship strategy for boosting smallholder production, strengthening market linkages, and developing value chains. Given this significant policy shift, we examine agricultural commodity price patterns before and after 2017 to identify potential structural shifts in price behavior in maize, tomato, and onion markets, three key sectors targeted by PFJ. Results show maize and tomato prices drop below their long-term trend under PFJ, but not onion prices. Tomato and onion prices exhibit smaller seasonal price variations. These results are indicative of a structural shift in food markets, although further analysis is required to conclusively attribute these changes to PFJ.

Download or read book Agricultural intensification technology adoption and institutions in Ghana written by Houssou, Nazaire and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-10-14 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural intensification has only taken off to a very limited extent in Ghana. Adoption of land productivity-enhancing technology is low, even in areas with proximity to urban markets. Rather, farmers have increasingly been adopting labor-saving technologies such as herbicides and mechanization, for which vibrant private supply channels are emerging. Further efforts to strengthen the private mechanization supply chain would help meet the rising demand for tractor services. Furthermore, mechanization could also help free up agricultural labor to perform other more labor intensive tasks.

Download or read book Variable returns to fertilizer use and its relationship to poverty written by Harou, Aurélie and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-29 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the rise of targeted input subsidy programs in Africa over the last decade, several questions remain as to whether low and variable soil fertility, frequent drought, and high fertilizer prices render fertilizer unprofitable for large subpopulations of African farmers. To examine these questions, we use large-scale, panel experimental data from maize field trials throughout Malawi to estimate the expected physical returns to fertilizer use conditional on a range of agronomic factors and weather conditions. Using these estimated returns and historical price and weather data, we simulate the expected profitability of fertilizer application over space and time. We find that the fertilizer bundles distributed under Malawi’s subsidy program are almost always profitable in expectation, although our results may be reasonably interpreted as upper-bound estimates among more skilled farmers given that the experimental subjects were not randomly selected.

Download or read book Food safety and developing markets written by Unnevehr, Laurian and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To better inform donor support for public food safety interventions, this paper reviews the literature on the impact of more stringent food safety standards on developing-country markets. This literature has primarily focused on the market access and economic implications of higher standards in export markets rather than on the extensive debate around market failure and public health benefits that dominates the literature in developed countries. We find that the market access benefits from compliance with public and private food safety standards are clear, as is the market exclusion that results from noncompliance. These benefits are now well documented, with more recent evidence pointing to added benefits of poverty reduction and spillovers for health and productivity. Rigorous evidence is also found concerning the positive role of technical assistance and public or donor support. Most of the literature, however, has focused on the relatively small market for EU horticultural products, which will provide opportunities for only a fraction of developing-country producers. This narrow focus causes important gaps in the literature informing meaningful public roles in addressing food safety in developing countries. Future research should examine and rigorously evaluate alternative models for how best to support improved food safety management outside of the export channels that have been the focus of the literature thus far. Further, evaluating the impact of public–private approaches on reduction in enforcement costs and improving compliance through supporting industry-led efforts would better inform donor support for food safety reforms, as would research among developing-country consumers with respect to food safety reforms and public health.

Download or read book Drought risk reduction in agriculture written by Cenacchi, Nicola and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is a component of the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS)–-funded project “Impacts of Climate Extremes on Future Water and Food Security in South Asia and East Africa.” The goal of the project was to characterize extreme drought events, to improve on a methodology to assess the probability of these events in the future under climate change, to illustrate their impacts, and to provide suggestions on coping strategies. The present report sets the stage for the overall project by undertaking a review of the causes of vulnerability to drought in East Africa and the western Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) of South Asia, and discussing the options to increase resilience to drought in the agricultural sector. Agriculture is a high-risk endeavor in both regions, due to a combination of recurrent droughts—which may intensify due to climate change—poor soil fertility, and a host of constraints faced by farmers, especially low access to input and output markets. These factors, combined with farmers’ high aversion to risk, stifle investments in agriculture, resulting in continuous underachieving production, low income, and persisting poverty.

Download or read book The political economy of MGNREGS spending in Andhra Pradesh written by Sheahan, Megan and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While government spending on pro-poor community asset creation and income-transfers could have compounding positive effects on poverty reduction, it is important to first study trends in the allocation of funds, particularly as they relate to the susceptibility of the program to political clientelism. This paper uses expenditure data at the local level in Andhra Pradesh from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a rights-based program distributing both public and private goods, to investigate the relationship between voting outcomes and program intensity in the seven years straddling a major election. By focusing on one state where accountability and transparency mechanisms have been employed and implementation efforts have been applauded, the authors do not find evidence of blatant vote buying before the 2009 election but do find that patronage played a small part in fund distribution after the 2009 election. Indeed most variation in expenditures is explained by the observed needs of potential beneficiaries, as the scheme intended.

Download or read book Strategies to control aflatoxin in groundnut value chains written by Florkowski, Wojciech J. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Groundnuts, which are widely consumed in West Africa, are prone to contamination by aflatoxin during production and storage. Although aflatoxin plays a role in many of the important health risks in developing countries, individuals and governments ignore the risks because their health effects are not immediate. In the developed world strong regulations remove contaminated kernels and their products from the food systems. The objective of this paper is to examine production and marketing practices, particularly grading methods, in Ghana’s groundnut value chain to obtain a clear understanding of the sources and levels of aflatoxin contamination in the crop and how such contamination can be sharply reduced.

Download or read book The agrarian reform experiment in Chile written by Valdés, Alberto and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents what is known about the role of agrarian reform and the subsequent counter reform in producing a successful dynamic evolution of Chilean agriculture.

Download or read book Assessing progress made toward shared agricultural transformation objectives in Mozambique written by Benson, Todd and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-08 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What has been the recent performance of the agricultural sector in Mozambique and the progress made thus far toward achieving the objectives established under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) initiative for Mozambique that began in late-2011?

Download or read book Identifying agricultural expenditures within the public financial accounts and coding system in Ghana written by Benin, Samuel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-08-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper is part of four country case studies that take a detailed look at public expenditures in agriculture, and at how the data on expenditures are captured in government financial and budget accounts. The objective of these studies is to unpack the black box of public expenditure statistics reported in various cross-country datasets, and ultimately to enable the use of existing government accounts to identify levels and compositions of government agriculture expenditures, with better understanding of what these data are in fact accounting for.

Download or read book The Economywide Effects of Teff Wheat and Maize Production Increases in Ethiopia written by Benson, Todd and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The government of Ethiopia is investing significant public resources to increase overall national production of teff, wheat, and maize. To better understand the likely economywide effects of increases of between 12 and 14 percent in the national production of these cereals, a set of production increase scenarios for each crop were run using a computable general equilibrium model of the Ethiopian economy. The analyses were extended to also consider the effects of several international wheat price and wheat import scenarios, a wheat subsidy program, and maize exports. Among the effects considered are changes in economic growth, prices, total household consumption, cereal and calorie consumption levels, and poverty measures.

Download or read book What dimensions of women s empowerment in agriculture matter for nutrition related practices and outcomes in Ghana written by Malapit, Hazel J. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper investigates linkages between women’s empowerment in agriculture and the nutritional status of women and children using 2012 baseline data from the Feed the Future population-based survey in Ghana. The sample consists of 3,344 children and 3,640 women and is statistically representative of the northernmost regions of Ghana where the Feed the Future programs are operating.

Download or read book Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists written by and published by . This book was released on 1972-09 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.

Download or read book Guide to Laboratory Establishment for Plant Nutrient Analysis written by M. R. Motsara and published by Fao Inter-Departmental Working Group. This book was released on 2008 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication provides practical guidelines on establishing composite service laboratories for the analysis of soil, plants, water and fertilisers (mineral, organic and biofertilisers). It also provides various analytical methods for assessing soil fertility and making nutrient recommendations, assessing quality of irrigation water, and details of the equipment, chemicals and glassware required for a given analytical capacity. Useful to administrators and planners in establishing laboratories, and to technicians through providing detailed and precise procedures for estimation.

Download or read book Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists written by and published by . This book was released on 1969-05 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.