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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Food Think Tank Inaugurated in Tamale


Francis Npong, Tamale
An Eleven – member Food for life Think Tank comprises researchers and agriculturists, climate change experts and environmental scientists has been inaugurated in Tamale as part of efforts to ensure that rural livelihoods which depended on agriculture is sustained and also to address the problems of food insecurity in the northern region.

The members of the think tank are experts drawn from the Savannah Agricultural Research institute (SARI), the University for Development Studies (UDS), Irrigation Development Authority (IDA), CARE International, Water Research Institute (WRI), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) among other organizations tasked to re-examine and reformulate strategies to help local farmers cop with the climatic changes.

The initiative is under the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and the Friendship Groups in Denmark (GV) under its Empowerment for Life Programme (E4L,) an intervention aimed to meet the goal of food security, sustainable livelihoods and climate change resilience in northern Ghana.
food security and climate change which he described as most critical and challenging global issues today.

Inaugurating the group, the Northern Regional Minister Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba lauded the GDCA and partners for initiating research think tank to re-examine and formulate strategies to support the region to achieve food security and better livelihoods.
He pointed out that sustainable development and food security could be achieved if stakeholders work around a common thematic area devoid of duplication, parallel focus and inefficiencies.
The minister urged the think tank to come out with concrete research findings and recommendations on 
Mr. Mabengba said the government recognized climate change as an obstacle to achieving the better Ghana agenda and would support any initiative such as the think tank towards finding innovative ways of building community resilience in tackling the situation in Ghana.
The Chairman of the GDCA Professor Abubakari Al-hassan said the formation of think tank is part of the efforts by the organization to deal with food insecurity and climate change.
He explained that though there were policies and interventions aimed to improve food security and sustainable livelihoods in northern Ghana, these interventions have not achieve much because of the uncoordinated and parallel focuses.
The problem he said could be tackled holistically if there were research findings to show the way hence the 
formation of the think tank to undertake research on food security and sustainable livelihoods.
He thanked GV, a Danish organization for the support and urged the group to come out with evidence base research that is implementable and achievable.
The 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicated that climate change is likely to push developing nations back into extreme poverty; hunger and starvation, conflicts, diseases, massive immigration, destructive flooding among other things and proposed the adaptation and mitigation climate change models including protection of environment, reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, among other things.

Forestry Commission cites: DCE, Police In Timber Deal



some piles of rosewood beams
Francis Npong, Tamale
A chain saw operator who allegedly felled over 1000 trees in Saboba District in the Northern Region after securing a permit from the district assembly to do so has been arrested by the Yendi police.
The Chain saw operator identified as Dari Abass who is now helping police investigations and his accomplices, now at large were transporting full loads of rosewood beams in two cargo trucks with registration numbers AS 5237X and ER 7362 E to Accra when the tracks were impounded by the youth in Ugando community in the Saboba district on the suspicion of illegality.
The case, which is now before the forestry commission in Yendi has implicated the District Chief Executive for Saboba Mr. Adolf Ali and a number of personnel in the Saboba District Assembly and Saboba Police for complicity and bribery.
Briefing the Enquirer in his office the Northern regional Director of the Forestry Commission Mr. Ebenezer Djaney Djagletey who suspected complicity in the felling of trees among the major stakeholders in the Saboba District indicated his office readiness to bring perpetrators of the act to book irrespective of the position of people involved.
To help the commission deal with the issue, the Director has petitioned the Northern Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to look into the matter citing uncooperative of the district police, issuance of permit by the district assembly and the growing tension between the communities in that Electoral Area.
The Enquirer information indicated that some key personnel of the district including DCE were alleged bribed with unspecified cash by the chain saw operator to allow then carry out his act.
A receipt in possession of the Enquirer dated 18th August 2011 under the heading “permit” issued to Mr. Dari Abass by the Saboba District Assembly reads “Received from Dari Abass the sum of one thousand Ghana cedis (Ghc1,000) on the account of felling trees in the Saboba District” was in fulfillment of the agreement between them.
The illegal lumbering was done at the time the government was spending huge sums of taxpayers money trying to revamp the depleted forest in Ghana and as measures to check climate change.
Currently this issue of lumbering is said to have tempered with the security as communities such as Ugando, Jagrido, and Nangundo were allegedly bracing fight.
For reasons, the forestry commission has petitioned the Northern Regional Security Council to intervene to allow the law to take it course.
The investigative team of the commission though has not been able to ascertain the actual acreage of the forest depleted but the manager pointed out that number of rosewood beams seen around the bushes in the depleted area so far  suggested about 5,000 hectares of land would have been affected.
The chain saw operator was allegedly hired by a Tema based wood trading company, to deplete the forest at Saboba District after it was realized the rosewood beams which is currently on high demand in the world market in abundant in the north.
Though the law in Ghana forbids commercial wood logging in any part of northern Ghana, personnel of the Saboba District who were supposed to help enforced government directives rather aid the culprits by granting them permit to the illegitimate act.
Speaking in a telephone interview, the Yendi Forestry manager Mr. Henry Kudiabo said alleged that the Saboba District police were frustrating the move by the commission to deal with the lumbering in the area. He said that the police were not cooperating with his office leaving room to suspect some complicity.
He was also unhappy with the personnel of the saboba District Assembly for issuing permit to the chain saw operators to cut down trees when his office was making efforts to revamp the already depleted vegetation in the region.
“The tree felling was going on in the district for month now but the assembly did nothing to stop it
but rather aid”, he said. The efforts to contact the DCE for Saboba District Mr. Adolf Ali for his comment was unsuccessful as all his phone lines available to the Enquirer could not go through. However the
Enquirer was informed the DCE had travelled out of the district when it made a subsequent phone call to the District assembly. Thousands of agricultural farm lands have been affected in the process, which would affect food security by reducing agriculture potentials that engages thousands of youth. The area is predominantly a farming area and the livelihoods of the people depended on agriculture. This means that lost of biodiversity that would affect soil fertility is eminent, while desertification that comes with climate change and its associated effects would also be expected if the forest is not revamped in shortest period.
The government Ghana is currently working closely with its agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA), The Forestry Commission and Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and ministry of lands, and Natural Resources in collaboration with international development agencies to revamp forest in Ghana to increase agriculture potentials, check climate change and enhance food security. These objectives might not be achieved if the deforestation in the region continuous with a larger or commercial scale hence the need to put a stop to the illegal felling of trees.       

94 farmers drag to court over GhȻ2.9 million defaults

Francis Npong, Bimbila N/R  
Nanumba North DCE, Hon. Mohammed Ibn Abass
About ninety-four (94) farmers in the Nanumba North District Assembly have been dragged to court over GhC2.9 million.
This amount is said to be the total cost of fertilizers and farm inputs supply to these farmers by the ministry of agriculture under the government block farm project two years ago.
This came at the time the minister of Food and Agriculture Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi is advocating the stoppage of the government funding of agriculture as the ministry is subtle with huge debt under the block farm programme. The minister who recently proposed this when he met with the public account committee to answer questions relating to his ministry indicated that it was difficult recovering the money from farmers.
The culprits allegedly defaulted in payment in spite of the consistent reminders from the District Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture to repay.
The 94, who were served with the writ filed by the District Director of Agriculture Mr. Eugene Yelfaanibe at Bimbila Magistrate Court are supposed to appear before it later this month to answer charges on dishonesty and default.
The District Director of Agriculture Mr. Eugene Yelfaanibe who disclosed this to the Enquirer in an exclusive interview in his office at Bimbila indicated that his action to sue these farmers was to ensure the sustainability of the programme.
The programme, the Director described as “fantastic agriculture programme” is to ensure not only food security but support the development of agric sector and enhance the livelihoods of the people.
It also has the objectives to improve economic conditions of these poor farmers, make Ghana food sufficient, food reliable and reduce the difficulties farmers often go through in acquiring farm implements to undertake farming activities.
The Director who is now be threatened by some of these disgruntled farmers pointed out that politicking on all the government programmes including the government highly subsidized fertilizers and farm inputs, were responsible for the failures or unsuccessful implementations of most government programmes and livelihoods interventions.
The farming activities had increased tremendously in the Nanumba North District after the introduction of the government lock farm programme that engages thousands of unemployed youth. Currently the district is doing 1, 500 hectares of maize as against 100 last year, 500 hectares of rice as against 200 last year, 200 hectares of soya beans as against 90, and 35 hectares of sorghum this year alone.
The improvement of farming activities is a result of the government agriculture initiative including the supply of highly subsidized fertilizers and other agriculture inputs, the Director said.
Mr. Yelfaanibe disclosed that his office was compelled to take action against these defaulting farmers after the office’s consistent reminders and threat of prosecution could not compel them to voluntarily pay back the money belonging to the government.
“Some of them are reluctant to pay because their thinking is that the fertilizers were freely supplied by the government”, he said.

Cashew for Alternative Livelihood for Women









group of women in agric
Francis Npong, Bimbila: The women in the Nanumba North District Assembly have been encouraged to go into cashew production and bee keeping as alternative livelihoods activities to reduce extreme poverty among them.
“Though a larger number of women in the district were engaged in farming activities they are still wallowing in poverty and deprivation”, he said.
He said that about 28,000 women are active farmers and involved in agriculture businesses ranging from production, processing and marketing and were playing key role in the development of agriculture and food security.
The Nanumba North District Director of Agriculture Mr. Eugene Yelfaanibe who made call at a district partnership platform (DDP), an initiative by Ghana Communities Developing Association (GDCA) to ensure social accountability to facilitate development at local level.
Under the programme, all district development partners are brought together to deliberate on development policies and programmes being implemented to improve people’s livelihoods.
Mr. Yelfaanibe said that about 28,000 women in the district were engaged in farming, processing and marketing of agricultural products but were still living under abject poverty.
The Director said cashew and bee keeping programme which is new in the district was under the Blinda and gate’s Africa cashew farming programme and geared towards improving economic and social wellbeing of women in society.
The Director noted with concerns the problem women faced in acquiring land to undertake farming activities and appealed to men to release parcels of land to women to undertake cashew farming and bee keeping to augment their livelihoods activities to enable them cater for their wards.
The District Director disclosed that the district had cultivated 1,500 acres of maize, 500 acres of rice, 200 acres of soya beans and 35 acres of sorghum under the government block farm programme this year.
Farmers in the district according to the director could not access Northern Regional Growth Programme (NRGP) because there was no rural bank in the district and appealed to the authorities of the programme to make special provision for farmers in the district to help expand their production to increase food security.
He also appealed to the ministry of agriculture to as a matter of urgency resource his office to facilitate easy monitoring to improve security in the district.
The field officer of GDCA, Mr. Ibrahim Abudu explained that the district partnership platform is an initiative to monitor and check development progress in the beneficiary district.
The organisation, he said release GHc 1,200 every quarter to the beneficiary district bring together stakeholders in development to deliberate and share opinions on the how the districts were faring in terms of development and social justice.
The programme is aimed to ensure social accountability, facilitate collaboration, to aid development at the grass root levels in five beneficiary districts including Tolon/Kunbumgu, Tamale Metropolitan, Yendi Municipal, and Karaga district.
The programme would be expanded to cover another ten districts by next year as part of the organization’s plans to encourage accountability and popular participation of governance.