Agricultural Investments News
Agriculture plays an important role in Africa’s development, and with 239 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa living in hunger it's essential Africa learns how to feed it's self. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone agriculture provides work for 70% of the working age population and almost 30% of the GDP for the region. Studies show that increasing GDP through increased agricultural productivity is more effective in combating hunger and poverty than GDP growth non-agricultural growth. No country has managed to pull its self out of poverty without increasing productivity within its agricultural sector.Many African governments are leading the way in attracting investments in their agricultural sectors. In 2003, the African Union adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), calling on African governments to dedicate 10% of their national budgets to agriculture and to seek a minimum of 6% annual agricultural growth. To date twenty-one countries have signed up to the CAADP and getting under way plans to help them achieve these goals.
To date combined efforts from Africa’s governments has help to reduce hunger and poverty across the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa’s agriculture GDP growth rate increased from an annual average of 3 percent in the 1990's and 2000's to 5.3% in 2008. While Ghana’s agriculture sector is growing at rate of more than 5% a year, while hunger levels fell by 75% between 1990 and 2004, while the number of people living in poverty fell from 52% in 1991/92 to 28.5% in 2005/06. These impressive figures show Ghana has made the fastest progress in the world on reducing hunger and is on track to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger from 1990 levels.
With Improved quality of seeds and new techniques are also helping African farmers to increase their yields and their incomes.
- Drought-tolerant maize: African farmers using new drought-tolerant maize varieties developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and its partners increased yields by 30% more than those without the improved varieties.
- Rice: The International Rice Research Institute and its partners are developing heartier new varieties of rice that can withstand drought, flood, cold, and toxic minerals such as salt and iron.
- Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA): Since its launch in 2006, this African-led effort to improve the productivity and incomes of small farmers has released 68 new varieties of improved seed bred for traits such as resistance to insects, disease, and drought; educated thousands of local agro-dealers to share agricultural knowledge with small farmers; and held training for 280,000 farmers.
- Sweet potato: The International Potato Center has developed improved sweet potatoes, benefiting over 6 million people in East and Southern Africa. Rich in nutrients, these improved varieties help reduce the prevalence of malnutrition, including vitamin A deficiency, which leaves people susceptible to blindness.
- Coffee: Working with donors and consultants, the Rwandan government created incentives for farmers to improve the quality of their coffee crops and encouraged entrepreneurship in the coffee sector. As a result, the average export price of Rwandan coffee doubled between 2003 and 2008, raising the incomes of smallholder farmers and creating thousands of new jobs.
Agricultural Investments with Growth Green Agriculture
Growth Green Agriculture Plc is a UK based agricultural investments
company specialising in emerging markets offering lucrative
opportunities to invest in Ghana. GGAgriculture acts as consultant on
green and socially responsible investments to the private and
institutional investor community in Europe.
Visit us today @ http://ggagriculture.com
Growth Green Agriculture investing in emerging markets
