The Israeli Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) has held a four-day workshop for over 50 citrus farmers and Agric extension officers of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to empower them in citrus production.

The workshop, held in Cape Coast, was in partnership with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).

It is in fulfillment of a trilateral cooperation agreement signed in 2010 between MoFA, GIZ and MASHAV to support research and development into citrus production with the view to promoting a citrus industry in Ghana.

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A Brazilian processing company, Usibra Ghana Limited, is to establish a $25 million cashew processing plant in Ghana. The plant, which is expected to process 300 metric tonnes of cashew daily, will provide about 2,000 direct jobs in the country.

The Director of Usibra Ghana Limited, Mr. Tarisco Falcao, announced this when he paid a call to the Minister of trade and Industry, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, in Accra. Usibra is the largest cashew nut processing company in Brazil, with two units capable of processing 70,000 metric tonnes of cashew nuts per season.

The company has a subsidiary, Nutsco, in Camden, New Jersey, USA, which processes and distributes cashew and other nuts in the US market. Usibra has an investment potential of $45 million.

Briefing the minister, Mr. Falcao said 80 per cent of the cashew processed in Ghana would be exported to the US and European markets. He stated that growers would be paid a good price for their cashews, in order to stimulate further production.

Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghana is to receive 7.2 million Euro from the European Union to help with the production and export of Bananas.

Finance Minister Seth Tekper signed the financing agreement on behalf of the government, while EU Ambassador, Claude Marten initialed on behalf of the EU. The money will be used for the Banana Accompanying Measures Project (BAM).

Trade Minister Haruna Iddrisu said, “It is to improve the livelihood of banana farmers in the Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta regions.” The Minister added “it will include expansion of social amenities and basic amenities in that area to encourage them to increase volumes of production.”

The EU Ambassador also revealed that Ghana exports about 50,000 tons of bananas to the European Union.

Source: business.myjoyonline.com

Barring any unforseen developments, the Afram Plains will soon give full meaning to its accolade of Ghana’s major food basket.

A tour of the two farming districts of Kwahu Afram Plains North and Kwahu Afrarm Plains South depicted that farmers there are now able to cultivate four times bigger acreages than they did previously, and their output per acre has more than quadrupled, thanks to such simple-but-effective technologies as irrigation pumps, improved seeds and animal breeds.

The Afram Plains District Agriculture Development Project (APDADP) is the brain behind the mechanisation of agriculture and the wonders it is doing in the Afram Plains.

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Agri students from the Kwadaso Agricultural College in the Ashanti Region have set up a company to recycle waste cassava peels into animal feed. Could this be an alternative to maize as raw animal feed material?

The company, Kwadaco Company Limited, was formed by Mr Albert Adombile Ayingura, Mr Eric Agyei Gyansah and Mr Marcellinus Babai, all students of the college. The three have subsequently become the Managing Director (MD), Marketing Manager and Head of Operations respectively.

The establishment of the company falls under the agri-business course offered in Agricultural Training Colleges nationwide. The course is to help identify and nurture entrepreneurship among students by inculcating in them the need to establish their own businesses after school instead of waiting to be employed.

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