Author:
Publisher: CIMMYT
ISBN: 9785000451
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

Get Book Here

Book Description

Author:
Publisher: CIMMYT
ISBN: 9706481834
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 78

Get Book Here

Book Description

Author: Edwin Akonno Gyasi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Corn
Languages : en
Pages : 508

Get Book Here

Book Description

Author: Ragasa, Catherine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 4

Get Book Here

Book Description
Maize is an important food crop in Ghana, accounting for more than 50 percent of the country’s total cereal production. The Ghana Grains Development Project (1979–1997) and the Food Crops Development Project (2000–2008) made major investments to improve maize yield. Despite these efforts, the average maize yield in Ghana remains one of the lowest in the world, much lower than the average for Africa south of the Sahara.

Author:
Publisher: CIMMYT
ISBN: 607826303X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 86

Get Book Here

Book Description

Author: Zegeye Hailu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural innovations
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description

Author: Gabriella Mamley Djangmah
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Currently, almost 33 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are undernourished and is the only region of the world where hunger is projected to worsen over the next two decades. According to the World Food Program, over 2 million people were most vulnerable of becoming food insecure throughout Ghana in 2012. The issues of food security in northern Ghana has gained a top priority in many areas of policy making. However, the prevalence of food inadequacy as a result of insufficient resources to access food among individual household has led to increasing food insecurity in the country. By using the sixth round of Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) data conducted from 2012/2013, the study aimed at analysing food security status across farming households in Eastern region and compare it to the Northern region of Ghana. The food security index generated from Cost-of-Calorie method was adopted and the recommended daily requirement was used to determine the household food security status. The factors influencing household food security status was then examined using logistic regression model. The analysis indicates that almost half of the sampled farming households in Eastern region (42.7%) and Northern region (46.0%) were food insecure. The depth of food insecurity indicates that farming households in Eastern region consumed 34% less than their daily calorie requirement while farming households in Northern region consumed 40% less than the requirement. The logistic result shows that monthly household income, off-farm activities and total quantity of own farm production positively and significantly influenced households' food security in Eastern region. It was revealed that household size negatively and significantly affected food security in Eastern region. Further, monthly household income, total quantity of own farm production and dependency ratio positively and significantly affected households' food security in Northern region. The factors that were negatively and significantly affecting household food security in Northern region included the size of households and the number of years spent in education. Policies which targeted to increase income of farmers through the provision of other activities aside farming, to help boost total yields of farming households, and intensive family planning awareness raising programs have key roles to play in these areas in order to improve households' food security in Ghana. The study recommends special training that relate to agriculture so that farmers can utilize whatever knowledge or skills acquired in their production activities to achieve food security in the future." --

Author: Mauricio R. Bellon
Publisher: CIMMYT
ISBN: 970648096X
Category : Plant breeding
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Get Book Here

Book Description

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789463952286
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 157

Get Book Here

Book Description
Food security is a critical issue in the Guinea savanna of Ghana where about 60% of the rural population, mostly smallholder farmers are food insecure. Food insecurity results from poor crop yields due to low soil fertility compounded by erratic unimodal rainfall and the inability of households to purchase required supplemental food. Rapid population growth means that the numbers of food insecure people are likely to increase, necessitating sustainable intensification and diversification to increase crop production per unit area of land. This thesis focused on testing spatial and temporal intensification and diversification options suitable for the variable biophysical and socio-economic conditions of smallholder farming systems in the Guinea savanna to increase productivity, mitigate the risk of crop failure, and thus to increase food self-sufficiency. One site in the southern Guinea savanna and one in the northern Guinea savanna were selected which differed in biophysical and socio-economic resources. In each site, field experiments were conducted on three fields differing in soil fertility (fertile, medium fertile, poorly fertile) to quantify: N2-fixation and N contribution to soil fertility by grain legumes in sole and intercropping; impact of replacement intercropping on increasing resource use efficiency and crop productivity; and productivity of relay (additive) intercropping and rotation of grain legumes with maize. Scenario analysis was performed with data from the N2Africa Ghana project supplemented with data from the on-farm experiments and literature to test the impacts of intensification and diversification options on household food self-sufficiency. Sole legumes fixed larger amounts of N2 than under intercropping. The soil N balance was generally positive and similar between intercrops and sole crops suggesting that both systems could be sustainable intensification and diversification options. Poor fields stimulated grain legumes to rely on atmospheric N2 for growth leading to more positive soil N balances than in fertile fields. Consequently, legumes in poor fields were more competitive with maize and led to greater intercrop yield advantage than in fertile fields. Across all fields and sites, intercropping enhanced the efficiency in resource use resulting in a 26% to 46% yield advantage over sole cropping. Intercrops were more efficient and productive in the drier northern Guinea savanna than in the wetter southern Guinea savanna. Yet the absolute larger grain yields achieved in fertile fields and in the southern Guinea savanna with more favourable soil fertility and rainfall resulted in greater net benefits. This suggests that intercropping is beneficial both in poorly fertile and fertile fields though the benefits take different dimensions. Legume-cereal rotation was superior in increasing the yield of maize without N fertiliser ranging from 0.38 t ha-1 in NGS to 1.01 t ha-1 in SGS due to residual N and non-N benefits compared with continuous maize cropping. Sowing cowpea first and relaying maize decreased maize grain yield substantially from 0.29 t ha-1 (14%) in SGS to 0.82 t ha-1 (83%) in NGS, representing 14% and 83% grain yield reductions relative to maize sown at the beginning of the season. These grain yield reductions were due to inadequate rainfall received by the relay maize. When maize was sown from the onset of the season and the cowpea relayed, the cowpea grain yield reduction was relatively smaller compared with that of maize. Such cowpea grain yield decline was similar between the SGS and NGS and ranged from 28% (0.18 t ha-1) to 47% (0.26 t ha-1) relative to the cowpea sown from the onset of the season. The cumulative grain yield of this relay system over two seasons was similar to that of the legume-cereal rotations even with cowpea failing to yield in the first season. The scenario analysis revealed a high incidence of food insufficiency among smallholder farm households in the Guinea savanna of Ghana. This ranged from 56% in the Northern region with relatively favourable rainfall, soil fertility and larger land area cropped per farm to 45% in the Upper East and Upper West regions with comparatively less rainfall, poor soils and smaller land area cropped. In addition, 21% of households in the Northern region and 37% in the Upper East and Upper West regions could only survive on their own food production for six months or less. However, the scenario analysis suggested that through intensification and diversification with grain legumes, the proportion of food self-sufficient households in the Guinea savanna could increase by 25 – 43% and those self-sufficient for a maximum of half a year decreased to 3 – 15%. Households could also generate substantial marketable surpluses to earn income. However, the total size of land cropped by a farm household matters, and improved access to markets and credit are needed to acquire the relevant inputs. Also, multi-year analysis using modelling would be relevant in providing insights on long-term nutrient balances, especially of N and soil organic matter to understand the long-term sustainability of the various options.

Author: Jules N. Pretty
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136529276
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.