#Owuraku Asamoah – A Radio Gem In The Eastern Region

I needed to share this with you all. Over the last one year Owuraku Asamoah, has worked very hard on this STAR Ghana project and has ensured the project maintained focus and pushed everyone working with him to become successful. He has made all of us at Rite Fm very proud by ensuring that his leadership on this project has gained recognition not only for himself but the institution as a whole. Honesty, hardwork and determination are a few of his traits and it has played a key role in making him one of the outstanding presenters and managers of #Rite90.1Fm certainly paid of. We are grateful to #STAR GHana for giving us the opportunity and #SocioServe GHana our partner on the project for being our back bone

Some radio presenters outside the Greater Accra Region are doing marvelously well but have not been in the limelight. A presenter of that ilk is Owuraku Asamoah who is known in private life as Emmanuel Asamoah. Owuraku has been working with Somanya – based Rite 90.1 FM since 2004 as a talk show host with no professional journalistic background. “I grew up in Koforidua from Christ Preparatory to Church of Christ Mission to Saint Peter's Anglican to Koforidua Secondary Technical School then to Kumasi Polytechnic to do Civil Engineering but spent the first nine years of my life in Asesewa, the capital of Upper Manya. In short, I am a Civil Engineer doing radio and I have no regrets,” he told Flex newspaper. Owuraku added that he feels 'paid' and fulfilled when he is able to impact what he has onto others and to bring relief and development to lives in the rural setting. In August 2012, The George Atkins Communications awarded him in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Farm Radio International which took him to Arusha, Tanzania through Kenya and at the same time attended an AGRA conference with Kofi Annan. “Twice, I have been in Berlin to cover the Fruit Logistica and a documentary I did for the trip when I met Ghana's Ambassador to Germany won my station an award for promoting rural enterprise this year,” Owuraku added. He has also managed Rite FM which according to him is the best Radio Station in the Eastern region for more than three years and won several awards in their focus. Aside all these feats, Owuraku Asamoah has done developmental journalism where with support from STAR Ghana, hosted a political debate for about four constituencies in the 2012 general elections, has done work on maternal health and just finished with another on education and has been able to push ten basic schools in Yilo Krobo to move from zero percent zone in their current BECE. On the Morning Ride, which he hosts, they have pushed for roads to be constructed, water sent to those without water, people who hitherto did not have electricity now have it and markets have been constructed for certain communities in the region. “We have prodded the police to get criminals arrested to make the place safe for all,” he noted. “I am happy when people call to tell me there's a problem somewhere and they want me to address it. Well, I now have a new job with Rite FM as a Programs Director which I am trying to get used to with the passage of time. I have gotten to where I am in life because of God and my family and some great friends and I am ever grateful to anyone who has been a part of my success story,” he concluded. Owuraku is undoubtedly one of the best morning show presenters in the Eastern Region and his contributions to the communities he serves tell it all. Tune in to the Morning Ride every weekday from 7am to 10am and get into the world of Owuraku Asamoah. His name is Asamoah – Owuraku Asamoah!!! FLEX NEWSPAPER

This is such an interesting Piece I needed to share it with you all. By Kwesi Atta Sakyi With the spotlight now on the critical issue of climate change due to global warming, it has become highly imperative to critically examine the issues of food security, and evaluate our agricultural practices in Ghana. There is the controversial issue of the Plant Breeders’ Bill relating to accepting Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or scientifically engineered seeds in Ghana. The bill seems to have been laid to rest after much media kerfuffle. What is essential is to consider the bio-ethics and the sustainability of such ‘cloned’ seeds. Many eye-brows have been raised against the impropriety of such underhand methods of the foreign proponents of GMOs, because they seek to create a dependency syndrome with high economic and financial implications so that we have no capacity to have ownership of our own indigenous seeds, as we will willy-nilly perpetually have to import all seeds from abroad. Is that another form of neocolonialism or economic imperialism? Our Ghanaian economy has long been characterized by heavy import-orientation, and an equal outward-orientation strategy of exporting unprocessed commodities, among others. This has robbed us of much needed extra foreign exchange, because of little value-addition to our exports. We export raw coffee and cocoa beans, cashew nuts, kola nuts, pineapples, and bananas. We also export unprocessed timber, bauxite, gold, diamonds, manganese, and lately, crude oil and gas. The annual food import bill is colossal indeed in Ghana. It is all our fault of acquiring insatiable desire for foreign foods such as turkey tails, apples, grapes, cheese, ham, sausages, cornflakes, canned foods, among others. Yet in Ghana, we have our own vintage delicacies such as apapransa, kose, esaato, boodooo or abolo, epitsi, kaakro, tatale, koobi, you name it. The Indians, Chinese, and Japanese are all self-sufficient in their domestic food needs, and they eat what they grow themselves as they are highly insular and patriotic. Our President, His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, has called on Ghanaians to patronize made in Ghana goods. This is a clarion call to us all to go back to basics. Dr Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, has been very vociferous in campaigning hard to bring the issue of food security to the agenda and policy arena of African governments at the least opportunity. IFAD, an agency of the UN and World Bank, based in Rome, is equally helping small scale farmers in Africa with loans and other farm inputs. We in Ghana should realize that reliance on mining will not take us far because minerals are diminishing assets, and are also called robber economy. Gold, diamonds, bauxite, and manganese have been mined for more than a century in Ghana yet we still see no benefits to the local communities where these minerals are extracted. Ghana as a whole has not benefitted as much as those in say South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, who have benefitted from their natural endowments. Why? Is it because our leaders negotiated poorly at the outset, or because we lack discipline in the use of the mineral royalties and proceeds? Is there a cartel among us who receive the proceeds into their foreign accounts? However, agriculture is the oldest profession, and it will continue to be the bedrock and mainstay of our economy, because we depend on it for our livelihood. It becomes imperative for us therefore to pay particular attention to agriculture in Ghana, as our population is growing at 2.4% per annum. The Malthusian spectre of Doomsday stares us starkly in the face. We will need also to overcome natural calamities in agriculture such as floods, droughts, bush fires, locusts, army worms, crop diseases such as black boll weevil, capsid bug, iron-rust, among others. It is estimated in some quarters that the annual cost of importing rice in Ghana is about 500 million dollars; such a stupendous sum, and needless frittering away of our scarce foreign exchange. This excludes incalculable foreign exchange expended on importing other food items such as sugar, flour, frozen meats and fish, dairy items, fruits, among others. Have we become dumping grounds for cheap and highly-subsidised agricultural outputs from other climes and countries? What is the use of a nation which cannot feed itself? It is cardinal that we pay particular attention to livestock production in Ghana as we have a huge protein deficit in that area. We also need to beef up arable farming, fish farming, hydroponics, aquaculture, and drip-irrigation. We learn on authority that our fish stocks in the Atlantic Ocean are fast depleting due to uncontrolled plastic pollution, discharge of toxic industrial and domestic effluents into the sea, mass rape of the sea resources by huge foreign trawlers which prowl our seas at random and with abandon, among other causes. Ghana is fortunately located near the Equator, with two rainfall regimes in a year caused by convectional currents, orographic or relief rainfall, and seasonal monsoon rains. Cyclonic rain is rare in the tropics because they are restricted to the temperate regions where we have occluded fronts and a lot of atmospheric instability. Our agriculture is based on rain-fed agriculture, which makes it risky and dicey because of extreme changes in weather patterns. The Ghana government, over the years, has improved the lot of farmers by increasing producer prices of cocoa and other cash crops. It has also assisted cash crop farmers to cheaply access farm inputs such as spraying equipment, chemicals, hybrid seeds accessed from the Ghana Seed Company, farm extension services, and marketing outfits such as the produce buying agencies, and scholarship schemes for farmers’ children through COCOBOD. It has also funded research in agriculture in places such as the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) at Akyem Tafo, Bunso, Kwadaso, Mpraeso, Nalerigu, among others Farmers have also been incentivized by organizing farm shows to showcase our farm products, and to afford opportunity to award best farmers. Our farmers have received subsidized farm inputs such as weedicides, fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, farm machinery, among others from the government. However, the biggest hurdle for our farmers is at the tail-end or downstream part in the supply chain, in the form of well-structured marketing of farm produce. Many a time, food surplus areas face glut or surfeit of output, with no immediate connection to the food deficit areas, due to poor rural roads, poor storage and preservation facilities, high cost of transportation, lack of information, low market capacity, among other obstacles. This is why our subsistence farmers need to form critical mass cooperatives in order to ease access to the market, and to reduce marketing and transactions costs. We need structured markets for our farmers so that they can derive optimum revenue for their sweat. The high fluctuations in the business of agriculture has led to some theories being put forward such as the hog cycle, or the explosive and convergent cobweb cycles. To even out such uncertainties and supply-side shocks, interventions are recommended such as having a buffer stock system, and using price targets or minimum price interventions, which are set within a band, around the equilibrium market price, with price ceilings and price-floors. Our farmers should be spared the spectre of seeing their crops rotting or being bought at give-away prices. Our peasant farmers who engage in subsistence farming should be assisted by the use of IT/IS to have easy connectivity with the markets for easy sale of their produce, especially to those in the urban areas. Rather than empowering our farmers, we find intermediaries in the supply chain who become better off at the expense of farmers. The escalation of food prices in urban areas is caused by the poor distribution networks, and the weakness in the agricultural supply chain. Labour is scarce these days on the farms because many young graduates do not stay back in the villages to tend their parents’ farms. This is where we are likely to face unsustainability of subsistence farming in Ghana, after the passing away of the older generation. It was funny the other day to read a suggestion on the internet that the Ghanaian government should allow an influx of cheap labour from neighbouring countries to supply cheap labour on our farm estates. This is where we need to think ahead by establishing commercial farms and plantations, commercial fish farms, and truck and market gardening in the peri-urban areas to sustain agriculture in the long-run. We need to create synergies and tight integration in the agricultural supply chain by linking animal feed makers to the poultry, piggery and other livestock farmers. We need to link the supermarket chains, stores and retailers at the downstream part of the chain to the farmers. Many young people nowadays think farming is a dirty and menial job, yet many millionaires in the USA are farmers. There is gold in the soil. Our poultry industry in Ghana is dying a slow and natural death because of high cost of input and neglect by the government. Besides, their market is killed by high imports of tasteless frozen meats. The Ghana government should with immediate effect ban meat and chicken imports to make us sustainable in livestock production. My elder brother who is 87 years, and a retired mason or bricklayer, used to work for the disbanded Animal Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture. He was once stationed at Amasaman and Pokuase near Nsawam. He later transferred to the derelict and defunct Pomadze Poultry Farm near our hometown, Winneba. Those were the 60s and 70s when state-run enterprises supplemented the efforts of subsistence farmers, and they served as yardsticks or benchmarks of good practice. We had quality feed produced for sale to livestock farmers, and quality calves, chickens, and piglets for those who wanted to embark on livestock farming. Pomadze Poultry was an excellent enterprise which was killed at a time it was blossoming and serving as a source of quality protein supply in Ghana. Most of those large-scale commercial farms were funded by government, as models of excellence, under the Kwame Nkrumah regime. It is very sad indeed to reflect now that those farms offered lots of employment opportunities, and they ensured food security. Most of our agricultural experts then were trained in Israel and they were innovative. After the 1966 coup, those viable state-run commercial farms were sold for a song to some underserving local businessmen who ran them down, hence the food deficit in protein sources that we are currently facing in the country. Ghana now imports lots of tasteless frozen meat products into the country from abroad, thereby indirectly patronizing foreign farmers and emasculating our indigenous producers. This is part of mercantilist beggar-my-neighbour economics reminiscent of the 18th and 19th centuries. I do not know which World Trade Organisation Protocols that we have signed to expose our farmers to so much risk from foreign competitors who supply us sub-standard meats. This sad state of affairs is tantamount to dependency syndrome and neo-colonialism, whereby we still do not have economic freedom. Nkrumah warned us about such developments in his many writings on the last stage of imperialism and neo-colonialism. We are our own vehicles and instruments for economic and cultural enslavement and incarceration. What compares with our own home-grown chickens, goats, guinea fowls and sheep? Not those insipid and nutritionless frozen meats imported into our country! In conclusion, I call upon us as Ghanaians, to go back to our roots and develop backyard farming. Those who have the wherewithal should invest heavily in agriculture because it is the backbone of our economy, and it holds the key to the survival of our nation. We need to intensify organic farming in Ghana. Let us come up with innovative ideas in farming, to increase yield, but not compromising on accepting GMOs lock, stock, and barrel, hook, line, and sinker.

Listen to Rite Fm Agric News each day at 12pm

1310 2:30 Rite Fm News at 12

AFAP- Pierre Brunache, Regional Director, West Africa

Rice Farming in Afife, Ghana

District Education Observer Project (DEOP) - A Rite 90.1 Fm iinitiative

http://www.star-ghana.org/news/district-education-observer-project-a-rite-901-fm-initiative/ https://soundcloud.com/star-ghana-1/district-education-observer-project-quarter-2-documentary-children-want-to-learn Its frightening to hear leaders in the 21st century advocating for students to be whipped. Amazingly many people seem to support this. Rite 90.1Fm is championing the use of radio for development and this is one of our many development projects that is having an impact in our community. This one was a STAR Ghana sponsored project. Owuraku Asamoah is the host of our morning show a program that mostly looks at how we can discuss topical issues in the Agricultural sector. Issues that affect development in our communities. We stream live on www.ritefmonline.org or TuneIn radio

Prioritize agriculture, financial institutions told

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/artikel.php?ID=331810 1/2 Business News of Friday, 24 October 2014 Source: GNA Reading the article in the link above I got the sense that in Ghana our Financial institutions will not, cannot, should not be made to invest in the AGRICULTURE SECTOR UNLESS GOVT or some INDEPENDENT BODY GIVES THEM SOME MONEY(NOT THEIR OWN) TO LOAN OUT TO FARMERS. Why will they ever risk their investments in Agriculture? Listen to what my interaction over the years with some Banks(safer not to mention their names) say..Agriculture is too risk as it is too dependent on rainfall and therefore too much uncertainty and now there is also the looming danger of CLIMATE CHANGE that is affecting everything in farming, others say.... farmers do not pay back their loans, others say why give it to farmers when traders can turn around the money in a relatively short time etc...and most of these reasons are truths. But there are so many more reasons why the banks will not bother with agriculture when its easy to just buy treasury bills or loan it to commercial traders. and make much more in their annual turnover The question I often ask then is.... which Bank in Ghana will give any money as start-ups to young people who have no collateral( not even farm lands will be accepted), who will readily take a chance on a farmer who possible is an illiterate, has no Technical know-how or knows nothing about new and modern technology on how farming is being done in the more developed countries. The answer is simple and clear...No One and No Bank!. The banks will only begin to talk to you when they see your fat bank account and usually it is those who are exporting produce or the Agro processing industries who add value to the produce they buy from the farmer or a foreign company that has brought in its own capital and successful managed to make its agro bussiness prosperous . The farmer who is the primary producer usually bears the most risk and he is the one that needs more support but they are the ones who are usually being ignored and being left to fend for themselves. Naturally the older farmers are the ones fading out or slowly dying off. There is going to be a generation gap and in the near future the risk of food insecurity if the Govt does not begin to show real steps in managing the agriculture sector in the country. I also often ask myself...Do we have a ministry that is actually working to improve the work of the farmer and also ensure that what they do is sustainable....Do the work with the farmer at heart or are they just more interested in their workshops and per diems? I have been working in this sector for a while now and I am as lost now as I was 10years ago. Wyy will I then encourage the people ( mostly the younger ones) who keep asking me and showing the interest in participating in the seemingly booming sector because of all the BIG TALK and empty promises when I cannot boast of any profits myself? Having mere passion is not ENOUGH!!!!MERE statements being made by those in power and policy makers is not enough!!! GHAna is at the cross roads and I am not afraid to say it.....Yes!!!!!.... Agriculture and farming for that matter is at High Risk!!! and is failing But just take a minute and ask yourself so who are the people who do it and where do you get the food you eat everyday from? How long can we as a country, ignore the unprofessional and amateurish way Agric is being done in the country. I just do not get it. ADB the bank mandated to help farmers in my opinion should have been sold long ago because it is irrelevant in its own mandated agenda. WHen you speak to some of them they will tell you it is not their fault as the Govt expects to be paid dividends at the end of the month, Their own people will tell you ..we cannot give out loans to farmers at rates any lower than other banks as we must make a profit. so they end up giving more loans to traders and commercial people than the farmers who need the money to help them improve, expand or grow their businesses. My farming business has saved with ADB for the past 10years and I don't have a relationship officer, I have never been approached if I want a loan, they have never even asked me how my business is doing. But I bet if I was exporting and had a fat account they would have paid attention to me and this validates the very point i made earlier on. The banks are simply not interested in nurturing you to grow unless they see you are already making it The Govt or politician is not interested in really solving the problems of farmers or truly help them develop..they are only interested in the politics of the game...when we came into power we did a,b,c whether it worked or failed they introduced something and spent so much.( meanwhile whatever they spend ends up in their own pockets). ARe we for REAL!!! DO they see how it is being done in other countries and the massive investments being poured into the sector? To me, the Development partners are no better...they send in their own people and they come here to do so many projects that die off without any real success.... A typical case is all the investments that have been made and continue to be made up in Northern Ghana. What do we have to show for it? I am sick of it!!! Its about time they become bold to stop giving money to ruling Govts who clain they have their own agenda for the Agric sector. Everyone keeps talking about the fact that Ghana needs an Agric Revolution to change our fortunes..I say we need a revolutionary, visionary who can be bold enough to invest properly in the sector and stop all this nonsense of trying to start all sort of schemes in farming for the rural poor that do not work. Ghana does not have to re-invent the wheel. It Is been done in many parts of Africa in countries like Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana etc. Our so called leaders must stop wasting our money and our time and get their hands dirty and stop sitting in Accra with all the talk shops. They must give money to some of the banks who have already dared use their own capital and venture into supporting Agriculture. They must give money to some of our National best farmers and help them expand what has already made them achievers. Today many of our farming lands are being destroyed or giving way to real estate developers and gold miners (Galamsey etc.) and we look on. some of our same leaders are the very people giving away the concessions because they get their cut. SHAME ON YOU!!!! A farmer stels a goat and he serves in prison. The same thief called a politician is made to go home with his spoils and nothing happens. THIEFS...if you ask me most our leaders are plain thiefs, they keep stealing our money because nothing will ever happen to them. FIRE BURN YOU ALL!!!!! http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/artikel.php?ID=331810 Prioritize agriculture, financial institutions told Nana Bosoma Asor Nkrawiri II, Omanhene of Sunyani Traditional Council on Wednesday advised financial institutions to prioritize agriculture to help improve food production. This, he explained could be achieved if financial institutions designed excellent banking packages that would benefit the rural poor to go into commercial farming. Nana Nkrawiri II gave the advice at the official launch of the universal status of the GN Bank (formerly First National Bank) in Sunyani. The Bank of Ghana (BOG) has granted the GN Bank a universal license, to operate banking services across the length and breadth of the country and outside as well. Nana Nkrawiri II noted that the country’s economy thrived on agriculture, and if financial institutions placed premium on that sector, it would not only reduce poverty, but enhanced national food security. He said the influx of banking institutions in Sunyani and parts of the Brong-Ahafo Region, was a good sign of development, but added that the industry would progress if it provided excellent customer services. Though the BOG has granted it a universal license, the GN Bank would continue to be a national bank for the ordinary person, providing close-to-client banking service to customers, Mr Charles Nimako, Director of the Bank said. He expressed appreciation about the supervisory role of the BOG and assured customers that the bank would continue to operate within the guidelines of the central bank to protect the interest of customers. Mr Nimako said the GN Bank was fully owned and managed by Ghanaians and would soon open up ownership for interested Ghanaian investors and customers. Mr Henry Lamptey, General Manager, Corporate Banking of the GN Bank, emphasized that the bank had not been sold except that it had changed its name. 0/26/2014 Prioritize agriculture, financial institutions told | Business News 2014-10-24 http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/artikel.php?ID=331810 2/2 Sponsored Links by Taboola He assured customers of highest standard of integrity, loyalty and absolute honesty by aiming to become the “best big bank” by the end of 2015. “In line with corporate mission we do not intend to metamorphose into a high street bank but to remain the people bank,” Mr Lamptey said.

The wrong notion that Ghanaian farmers are the most deprived in the society.

https://news.google.com.gh/news/section?pz=1&cf=all&q=Agriculture%20in%20GHana&siidp=3bde0d96a7adbeecf3c58faad4637a0b4fc8&ict=ln After reading this GNA story captured below one is tempted to have a real go at the assertion by this farmer.I really do not get it when people make such general sweeping statements about agriculture just to score points. Why should anyone stop a peasant farmer from describing themselves as deprived in the society when the farmers themselves are saying they are. What has changed? Yes! some farmers are doing very well, some have become successful but there are many out there who are not doing very well. Yes!... It well might be that the assertion My Ayittey makes, is one of the reasons why the youth do not want to go into farming but I disagree that it is one of the major reasons that has stopped the youth from investing in Agriculture. How many people atre involved in plantation farming in GHana? how many nucleus farms exist that have out grower schemes to help these peasant farmers? Is there any Agri-financing in this country. He should come again and explain how a young person wanting to do Agric can start a farm without any funds, No land and no technical support? Where are the extension officers in this country? Please some of these sweeping statements being banded around are even more damaging. When those who have toiled to even start farm manage to produce under very difficult circumstances, are there any good roads to bring them to the markets? In these rural areas where they live are there any social amenities worth boasting about. Its about time real investments are made in the Agric sector and this is the missing link. The lack of opportunity for young people to even get farmlands, good improved seeds, farm insurance, the technical know-how and support etc. these are the issues we need to be looking at. He is a farmer and perhaps he needs talk to the younger generation as to why they don't want to get into farming. It is just not the notion that farmers are poor because its the same for others in other sectors. It is how we have managed the transition of our ageing farmers to the younger ones and how the sector has been developed over the years. Today in most second cycle institutions the students do not have any time to even do any real School farming and even those who do it as a course barely do any real practicals. Having said this I am not discounting some of the pertinent issues he has raised but the prescription he is selling does not unravel the poor performance and the lack of interest by the youth in this agric sector. A GNA story The 2013 Upper Manya Krobo District Best farmer , Mr Moses Kumah Ayittey, has called for an end to the wrong notion that farmers are the most deprived in the society. He said the wrong notion is one of the major reasons that make the youth to refuse to invest in agriculture and trooped to the commercial towns chasing none existing jobs. Mr Ayittey said there was evidence that when farming was properly managed and the appropriate procedure and technology applied , the returns to the investor could be as high as the returns to the best investments in the economy. He was speaking at the 4H-Ghana Upper Manya Krobo District maiden Project Exhibition at Asesewa. Mr Ayittey appealed to teachers to stop using weeding as a punishment to students because it made them to regard farming as a continuation of their punishment in school. Mr Emmanuel Sena of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture(MOFA) called on the District Assembly, traditional authorities and captains of industry in the district to support the 4H concept to be extended to many schools in the district. Mr Kweku Boateng, the Chief Executive Officer of 4H-Ghana, said soon the world population would reach 7 billion and food would be needed to feed the population. He said 4H-Ghana was teaching the youth through their school gardening how to adopt high yielding seeds and the use of best agricultural practices that would enable them to increase their yield and incomes in future as farmers. Mr Boateng said the introduction of the Dupon Pioneer seeds and the new planting protocol to the 4H-Ghana Clubs in the district helped farmers in the district to increase their maize yield from six mini bags per acre to 20 mini bags. He called on the District Assembly and parents to support the 4H-Ghana sustainable school feeding programme introduced to two basic schools for it to be extended to many schools in the district. Mr Trent Mcnight, Chief Executive Officer of Agricorps, a non-governmental organization based in the United States which has been supporting 4H-Ghana with US agricultural graduates to help implement their agricultural programmes, said if the youth are taught how to run agriculture as a business, they would grow to feed Ghana and the world. Mr Mcnight, a businessman and a wheat farmer, said as a young 4H member in the US, he started farming with five cows and now has 3,000 cows in Texas.

Nigeria's past just sounds like Ghana's now but I bet with the sort of plans they have put in place reading from this story, they will overtake Ghana in cocoa production in no time. Perhaps we can draw a lot of parallels from this story and Ghana's handling of the Cocoa industry. The ivory coast after its war has increased its cocoa production to almost double what Ghana is producing today. My question is, are we not over concentrating too much on our oil and neglecting our Agriculture especially the Cocoa industry? what is the cocoa board doing to encourage increase in production, adding value and protecting our borders from smuggling etc. just saying...much more needs to be done http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/african-and-mideast-business/nigeria-nurtures-its-once-unloved-cocoa-industry-as-prices-flourish/article20379625/

Do Ghanaian farmers have pension?

Is there an Agric pension plan or fund for Ghanaian farmers? I am only asking maybe there is and I stand to be corrected but I ask this because it appears it is mandatory for all employers & workers to pay some sort of pension whether you like it or not. Why has nothing been put in place for farmers? Perhaps the exception is Cocoa farmers....the question is..... are they the only ones playing a role in Agriculture in Ghana? I wish we could put this question forward to the policy makers?

Pineapple Production in Ghana

Useful and interesting points in this story in the link that comparisons and deductions can be made to pineapple production in Ghana. Question though..... Is the pineapple industry in Ghana still vibrant? Has the overly production of MD2 killed the industry? I am just asking....these are the kind of questions that the Rite Fm news team might want to direct to farmer based organizations such as SPEG, PRINPAG etc. http://i-pineapple-a.blogspot.com/2014/09/africa-nigeria-banks-heavy-on-pineapple.html

Backyard Gardening or farming

                                                     A backyard garden

I am writing to encourage those who have a little parcel of land in their homes to use it purposefully by planting a fruit tree or cultivating vegetables or food that you can eat.  Backyard gardening or farming appears to have been lost on many families in Ghana but it is a practice that can be very rewarding. 

It offers a lot of exercise for the one who is doing it, it provides you with your own food, you do not have to go into mainstream farming where one has to buy land and employ farmhands. The food being cultivated can be made organic and offers you protection against what you buy from unknown sources from the open market.

These days other types of backyard gardening are being introduced, using Greenhouse technologies and aquaponics. This is not to say that these technologies are restricted to backyard gardening as  many commercial farms are using these methods. If you are an Agriculture enthusiast it is one way to practice your passion.

www.ritgefmonline.org an  award winning radio station focused on Agriculture and social development

Today's Topical Bible Study

Today's Topical Bible Study

I enjoyed reading this article and felt a strong urge to share this. Hope this finds a place in your heart whether you are a christian or not

 Story culled from http://allafrica.com/stories/201404220654.html

In my opinion, are African leaders really serious about improving the welfare of their people? They talk as if they know all the problems yet do very little to solve them. What do they end up using the resources of the countries they lead for? Your guess is as good as mine. Reading this article I got so angry I thought I was going to get a heart attack because one can do very little about the situation. I share in Dr. Awiti's assertion and advice for African leaders and its advisors t to wake up!!!!! I went into Agriculture thinking I was going to make a difference but I am so disillusioned.  Hear this:-
According to President Museveni, malnutrition impairs educational achievements, undermines economic productivity and places a huge burden on Uganda's fragile public health system. The African Development Bank (AfDB) recognizes that Agriculture is vital to promoting growth and reducing poverty in Africa. As an African scholar and public intellectual, I am scandalized and my pride is deeply wounded by the unending specter of hunger and malnutrition. It is shameful, beyond measure or pardon, that fifty years with Africans at the helm, little progress has been made to guarantee every African child sufficient and nutritious food. I am sure there is enough blame to go round; the UN system and the multi-billion dollar international aid honchos are not innocent.

But, ultimately, the burden of responsibility must rest with people like me, Africa's intellectual elite. 

Here what Dr. Awiti  the director of the East Africa Institute and assistant professor at Aga Khan University, has to say:-

Is this guy for real. Has he not got the power to make a difference? so what is the difference between him and myself? if he who has more than enough power to make a difference is scandalized what are we ordinary people to say?

Stagnation of agriculture has been the defining feature of Africa's economic policy over the last four decades. Spending in agricultural research and development by African countries declined by 27 percent between 1981 and 2000. Conversely, spending in agricultural research and development rose by 30 percent in rest of the developing world; Asia and Latin America.

Egged by experts the African Union, through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), has set a growth target of 6% per annum for agriculture and encourages every country to allocate 10 percent of the national budget to agriculture. CAADP called for $251 billion to fund investments in irrigation, infrastructure, education and markets. Today, less than handful countries allocate 10 percent of their national budget to agriculture and critical investments in agricultural research and development lag behind other developing regions..............

Africa has a large and growing population of young people. Where will young Africans currently entering the labor force find employment? Africa has the lion's share of the world's arable land. Agriculture is uniquely positioned to absorb this young and dynamic workforce. Africa's youth dividend will not be credited automatically into the national treasury. We can harness the youth dividend by accelerating the transformative change in agriculture.

African governments and their expert advisors must wake up. There is no such thing as a dual economy in which agriculture is a passive actor - a low productivity supplier of food and a subordinate driver of national growth and economic transformation. Agriculture is the real driver of Africa's economic growth. There will be no transition to China-style labor-intensive manufacturing until agriculture is productive, efficient and profitable.

Our path to middle income and economic prosperity must be different. Africa must shun technical advisors external beholden to the antiquated linear growth models - from hunter-gatherer to agrarian to industrial to service and knowledge. Our research and academic community must re-imagine our unique path to prosperity.