Ghana’s budding petroleum industry is anchored by its biggest oil field- The Jubilee Oil field. Jubilee, which is in the Western Region of Ghana, is managed by a group of partner companies and US oil giant Kosmos Energy is one of them.  Kosmos is an upstream oil and gas company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It also has operations in Cameroon, Morocco, São Tomé and Surinam.

The partners also manage the TEN oil field in the Western Region. In 2017, the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea (ITLOS) delivered a positive ruling in favour of Ghana. Additionally, the Government of Ghana gave its approval for the Greater Jubilee full field development plan and so Kosmos and its partners have commenced activities to drill and complete additional wells to increase oil production.

Social Investment with KIC

Aside paying taxes and contributing to government revenue, the company also offers much-needed employment to many Ghanaians. Companies do not exist in a vacuum; they operate in an environment with many stakeholders. Kosmos has been engaging in social investment initiatives to support the communities in which it operates as well as supporting Ghana’s economy to grow in diverse ways.

However, oil is not an infinite resource; it will diminish one day. As a way of investing in Ghana’s future beyond petroleum, the oil giant launched the Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) in 2016, an innovative mentorship programme that nurtures the next-generation of young Ghanaian entrepreneurs.

SMEs make up majority of businesses in the country. Through business training, mentorship and others, the KIC hopes to share our entrepreneurial ethos and inspire young people to develop new businesses; and create innovative solutions that address some of the socio-economic challenges the country faces.

While the programme is targeted at many sectors, it decided two years ago to focus on the agriculture value chain. This is because agriculture has historically been the backbone of the Ghanaian economy and the sector touches on many Ghanaian livelihoods.  However, agriculturenm has not reached its rightful potential in terms of both modern processes and technology and a massive investment is needed to boost the sector. Agriculture as an industry is also not attractive to the millions of Ghanaian youth, who make up majority of the population. Kosmos envisions that through the KIC, many young people will be encouraged and financially supported to build careers in the agriculture value chain.

Impressively, since its inception, the KIC has mentored and funded the creation of six ambitious startups who are boosting agriculture and creating jobs. Others also continue to receive mentorship support and training to scale up.

In the short term, the Center wants hgkhto showcase KIC and provide a platform for KIC businesses to exhibit and get market for their innovative products. Connect with collaborators to partner with KIC in building “One Entrepreneur at a Time”.

 In August 2017 the KIC launched a new programme called ‘The Business Booster’, designed to help SMEs scale up their businesses by overcoming barriers to continued growth. The Business Booster is focused on Ghanaian agricultural businesses that are in existence for at least three years. The five-

Kosmos explained why it supported the conference: “We believe in the agenda of Agrihouse Foundation so we partnered with them through this sponsorship to grow and develop the agricultural sector of Ghana. It also entrenches Kosmos Energy Ghana’s commitment of being a partner of choice in Ghana by pursuing agendas that will resonate with improved growth in the socio-economic sector of Ghana.”
By partnering and sponsoring the pre-harvest programme, Kosmos hopes to get market for innovative products that KIC businesses have developed, create awareness for more motivated and educated youths to look out for application windows and apply to be part of KIC, and also to secure partners to work with the KIC.

 

As Ghana actively seeks to diversify the country’s commodity export bill, it has become imperative that managers of the economy look in the direction of cashew.

The rationale behind this assertion is not far-fetched. Indeed cashew has in recent years leapt high in order of significance as far as Ghana’s primary export crops are concerned.

Cashew (anacadium occidental) cultivation in Ghana began in the 1960’s with sporadic plantings in the Central and Greater Accra Regions and later spread to the Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions. Between 1970 and 1980, the industry suffered a transient set-back largely due to poor support mechanisms for the sub-sector.

Challenges like weak market structures, poor product pricing and insufficient knowledge in the growing and management of the crop caused the interest of several famers who had initially latched onto the cashew farming bandwagon to wane almost irreversibly.

Crop life cycle

The cashew crop typically requires a dry period of 4-6 months for flowering and fruit development. Cashew thrives well from sea level up to an altitude of 1,000m above sea level. Elevations above 1,000m are not suitable due to cooler temperatures which could cause considerable delay in flowering. The optimum temperature range for cashew cultivation is between 20ºC and 34ºC while the minimum temperature should not be below 18ºC with maximum not exceeding 38ºC.

In 2013, cashew made remarkable inroads to earn its place as Ghana’s second largest contributor to the non-traditional export crops bracket. That year cashew generated about US$170 million in the form of foreign exchange earnings to record what was a breakthrough year for the export crop.

The introduction and consequent cultivation of Cashew in Ghana has come a long way from when it emerged in the 1960s on a rather casual and intermittent scale where the crop was merely found in domestic backyards in the Central and Greater Accra regions.

After being introduced to the Brong-Ahafo, Northern and the Upper regions, cashew gradually gained ground and is today an essential export commodity with monumental worth.

Through the collective effort of expert groups like the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agro-Forestry Unit, the Forestry Commission, the Ghana Export Promotion Council, the Africa Cashew Alliance, the African Cashew Initiative (which enjoys funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), and other key stakeholders, the sub-sector has slowly but surely emerged as a potentially cardinal foreign exchange earner for Ghana.

Today, Ghana’s cashew industry directly engages at least 300,000 farmers on a full time basis, along with a range of secondary employment avenues for over 200,000 people (who work as agents, transporters, shippers etc).

Production of the  cashew crop in Ghana has grown from an initial 4,000 metric tons per annum as recorded in 1997, to about 70,000 metric tons recorded last year and boasts of some 13 processing companies with an installed capacity of 35,000 metric tonnes per year.

With regards to export, which strategically drives the industry, cashew is estimated to have generated US$244 million for the Government from a total export of 163,000 metric tonnes in 2016 alone.

Cashew Development Plan

Earlier this year, President Nana Akufo-Addo launched the 10-year Cashew Development Plan aimed at diversifying Ghanaian agriculture. The move which is commendable and perhaps long overdue saw the president fulfill the wish of several agric-industry personalities who had long advocated for such a measure.

The president noted that as part of plans to boost the production of cashew, the Rural Development Department of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, together with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, are fronting the preliminary production of seedlings for the cultivation of cashew in the country.

He further stated that as part of renewed efforts to improve cashew yield for the country , the Ghana Export Promotion Authority has  commissioned a cashew mass spraying exercise in Wenchi, involving the provision of GH¢1.6 million for the spraying of some 30,000 hectares of cashew plantation.

These initiatives, the President added, form an integral part of the Cashew Development Plan which will seek to improve research methods, introduce appropriate production and processing technologies, as well as develop marketing strategies, amongst others, along the cashew production value chain.

Speaking at the launch of the plan at Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region, the President said the initiative will hugely improve the livelihood of farmers in the country.

“I reiterated my commitment to assist in diversifying Ghanaian agriculture transforming among others cashew, into a major cash crop and foreign exchange earner for Ghana,” President Akufo-Addo stated.

He tasked the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority to incorporate, policies and interventions that would create additional businesses and job opportunities in the areas of storage, transport, and packaging of cashew, which will ensure that cashew farmers earn higher incomes.

While the Government’s support for cashew cultivation is refreshing, it remains to be seen if the renewed determination will be sustained. If the government manages to do this, it will help diversify the country’s economy and generate adequate foreign revenue to facilitate development.

Cashew exports rake in $981m

Though fraught with a myriad of challenges, the recent performance of the cashew sub-sector is eye-catching. According to a recent report captured by “thefinderonline.com”, Ghana raked in $981 million ($981,158,000) as the value of total exports of cashew in 2016. This meant the country emerged as the number one exporter of cashew in–shell for the year 2016.

A report posted on the web portal of Ghana Export Promotions Authority (GEPA) said this represents 43.8% of total global exports of cashew in-shell. Major market destinations for Ghana’s cashew in 2016 are Vietnam, where total exports amounted to $533 million, and India, consuming $445 million worth of Ghana cashew.

Although Ghana’s hold on the Vietnamese market is remarkable, threats of competition from mainly Tanzania are real, the report said.

Ghana’s sub-regional competitors

Sub-regional competitors in Vietnam include Burkina Faso – $27.3 million; Nigeria – $24.8 million; Benin – $26.3 million; La Cote d’Ivoire – $340,737; Guinea Bissau – $209,390; and Senegal – $1.6 million.

Ghana’s main competitors outside ECOWAS

Ghana’s main competitors outside ECOWAS include Tanzania ($333,766) and Indonesia ($100,261) in 2016.

Vietnam became a major market destination for Ghana’s cashew in 2016, with an average growth rate of about +168% between 2012 and 2016.

The report noted that over the last decade, Ghana’s cashew has principally been exported to India.

 

Way forward

While the potential in the Cashew sub-sector is huge, there is still a lot of work to be done. First, a perennial issue such as lack of access to cashew nuts by local farmers must become a thing of the past-and quickly!

This will help reverse the unfortunate trend where less than 10% of the country’s production is processed locally despite an inherent capacity to do so and thus add value before export.

Currently, only 10% of African raw cashew nuts are processed (shelled) locally. The vast majority are exported in-shell to some of the world’s main hubs for cashew shelling in India and Vietnam.

From all indications, it’s more prudent for Ghana to consider processing all its production as this will help sustain the industry locally. Indeed, checks indicate that the country is losing some GH₵100 million a year for not processing enough cashew locally.

A recent Aljazeera report dubbed “1,000 Days of Hunger” captured the hunger situation in Ghana thus: “Child malnutrition is a silent tragedy jeopardising the future of more than one million children across Ghana.

Many Ghanaian children under the age of five suffer the irreversible effects of mal-nutrition in their critical first 1,000 days of life. This is the time in children’s lives that determines their health as adults, their ability to learn in school and to perform at a future job.

Over a quarter of children under the age of five in Ghana suffer chronic malnutrition. These children will never reach their full potential in physical or intellectual milestones. This is not a new pattern. Nearly 40 per cent of Ghanaian adults grappled with stunted growth as children.”

This damp narrative of Ghana’s struggle with hunger has loomed large over the country despite spirited attempts by successive governments to combat hunger and malnutrition. As a result, the local economy is estimated to have lost over two billion dollars (6.4 per cent of the country’s GDP) as a result of the impact of malnutrition of Ghanaian children in the last decade.

Buoyed by the need to help Ghana reverse the hunger situation and consequently achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2, the World Food Programme   commissioned the John Agyekum Kuffour Foundation (JAKF) to undertake the Zero Hunger Strategic Review on behalf of the Government of Ghana in 2016.

  The Zero Hunger Strategic Review in Ghana was undertaken by a research team from the University of Ghana, University for Development Studies and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The report advocates for an expansive approach that hinges on advances in agriculture, and other sectors including nutrition, water, sanitation, health, and hygiene, gender and social protection that directly or indirectly affect food and nutrition.

According to the report, despite substantial reductions in food shortfalls since the 1990s, hunger and malnutrition remains a lively threat to the wellbeing of Ghanaians, particularly in the northern regions and among rural and peri-urban communities.

The report further advocates for an all-inclusive measure to stem the tide of hunger and malnutrition by the year 2030 and specifically recommended for a food security and nutrition advisory board at the Office of the President to help inculcate it as a cornerstone of national development.

The report also calls for increased   production and consumption of foods rich in essential nutrients. It highlights the obvious decline in the production foods such as sorghum, millet, groundnuts and cowpeas over the past decade which effectively leaves maize as the most produced staple food in the country.

The report’s emphasis on food nutrition is corroborated by Former President Kufuor who during the official launch of the report, said: “As we seek to achieve zero hunger in our country, we should always remember that food production must be nutrition-sensitive. It is more important for food to nourish the body than simply fill the stomach”, the venerated erstwhile leader said.

In his address, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo noted that Ghana had performed very well in alleviating hunger.

“Indeed, we were the first country on the African continent to attain the Millennium Development Goal No. 1 of halving poverty and hunger, for which the country received an award ‘for reducing the level of its malnourished population from 7 million in the early 1990s to less than 1 million today’”, he said.

The President praised the effort and stressed that efforts like it will facilitate rural development and help achieve SDG 2 by 2030.

“Government’s vision is to modernise agriculture, improve production efficiency, achieve food security, and profitability for our farmers, all aimed at significantly enhancing agricultural productivity,” he said.

The President continued, “The basic objective of the policy is to guarantee food self-sufficiency, i.e. that we can feed ourselves and wean us off the disgraceful dependence on the importation of foodstuffs we can grow ourselves. We are determined to stand on our own feet – hence our mantra, Ghana beyond Aid.”

The launch of the report further underlined the enormous commitment of the World Food Programme (WFP) to Ghana. The global body hopes that the report will act as a roadmap that will guarantee hunger eradication and culminate in the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 2 in Ghana.

Mr Abdou Dieng, WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, explains that  the review endeavour is geared towards propelling governments agricultural interventions that have shown potential “We are using this review as the basis for WFP’s five-year country strategic plan in Ghana which is built to support the government’s excellent flagship programmes and agricultural policies.”

He further stressed that as part of this collaboration with government, the WFP works more closely with the private sector to reduce post-harvest losses and malnutrition using a market-based approach which would be self-sustaining.

Background

The Zero Hunger Strategic Review in Ghana is a country-led, open and all-inclusive process involving the input and expertise of key stakeholders. The outcome of the review established a standard that helps explain the challenges and gaps in the country’s response to food and nutrition security, leading to a joint agreement and consensus on priority actions required to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2.Sustainable Development Goals (SDG2) is targeted at ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030.

The five broad aims of SDG’s are:

 

• By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people ,in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations ,including infants ,to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

 

• By 2030,end all forms of malnutrition ,including achieving ,by 2025 ,the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age ,and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls ,pregnant and lactating women and older persons.

 

• By 2030,double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishermen, including through secure and equal access to land ,other productive resources and inputs ,knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.

 

• By 2030,ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increases productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems ,that strengthen capacity for adoption to climate change ,extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.

 

• By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels and promote access to and fair equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.

 

Relevance

With a central objective of creating a national report and roadmap to zero hunger, the Ghana Zero Hunger Strategic Review is timely and hugely relevant. The reason for this assertion is not far-fetched-Ghana was only four years ago, cited for lagging in the fight against hunger.

In 2014, Ghana failed to achieve the target of halving hunger before the target year of 2015, after the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced the list of countries that had made exceptional headway in the fight against hunger.

Ghana could not make the list of thirteen countries recognised by the FAO for outstanding progress in fighting hunger.

The FAO that year, honoured achievements of Brazil, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Iran, Kiribati, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, the Philippines and Uruguay.

Brazil, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Iran, Kiribati, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, the Philippines and Uruguay were tipped by the FAO to make great strides in combating malnutrition.

Conclusion

Ending hunger and malnutrition is a possibility. Indeed the examples of developing countries who have successfully achieved this feat are a clear indication that it is not beyond Ghana to soon consign hunger and malnutrition to history.

While the battle in winnable, a collective national resolve will be required. One can only hope therefore that the inspiring rhetoric by the president and other stakeholders will reverberate across the country so that together we can work to see the back of the malignant canker of hunger and malnutrition in Ghana.

If there is any country which has made the most significant leap in national growth and global significance in the last half century, it has to be China.

Having made significant strides in virtually every area of national life, China has in the last decade emerged as a key global agricultural nation that Ghana and other developing countries could emulate in their quest to emerge as globally significant agricultural nations themselves.

Despite initially struggling with bouts of food shortages in the twentieth century, China is currently estimated to be directly responsible for feeding 22 percent of the world population with only seven percent of the planet’s arable land.

With very little arable land at her disposal, the Chinese ensure that whatever space they have available is heavily utilized for agriculture. Vegetables are planted on road embankments, in traffic triangles and right up the walls of many buildings.

Even so since 1949 China has lost one fifth of its arable land. Only about 10 to 15 percent of the land in China is good for agriculture (compared to 1 percent in Saudi Arabia, 50 percent in India, 20 percent in the United States, and 32 percent in France).

China is rated the world’s top consumer of meat and grain; and with an ever increasing consumption of cooking oil and meat, the country has seen a sharp rise in the demand for soybeans as an oil source and feed for livestock.

 

Agricultural Regions in China

A great percentage of the country is agriculturally unproductive. Arable land is concentrated in a band of river valleys and along the southern and eastern coasts of the Asian country.

Wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, sorghum, millet are grown in the north and central China. Rice is the dominate crop in the south. Some places produce double crops of rice. Most crops for export are grown in the coastal areas. These areas have relatively good roads and access to ports used for exporting produce.The Northern Plain, which includes Beijing, is home to 65 percent of China’s agriculture as it produces half of China’s wheat and corn.

The Yangtze River delta is another important agricultural area. It is home to 30 million people and fertile soils produce a tenth of the country’s crops. The crop yields there are expected to decline as large scale industries expand from nearby Shanghai and occupy productive agricultural land.

China is very mountainous. A lot of slopes and hillsides have terraces built on them so crops, particularly rice, can be grown on them. In barren Qinghai province, the only locally-grown food is raised in crude greenhouse made from plastic stretched over a bamboo frames.

Fertilizer use

Chinese farmers have a huge appetite for Fertilizers. It is estimated that China consumes more than 25.4 million tons of nitrogenous fertilizers yearly, which represents 30 percent of total world consumption and more than double the consumption of other major users such as India and the United States. This includes 9.9 million tons of phosphate fertilizers (29.5 percent of the world total) and 4.2 million tons of potash fertilizers (18.2 percent of the world total).

Crop pollution challenge  

Despite a fledging agricultural sector, China has had to grapple with huge concerns over food safety caused by pesticide abuse from some quarters. Most crops in China are raised with pesticides, chemical fertilizers and sewage sludge. Fertilizer is subsidized and is cheaper than its real cost.

Chinese farmers enjoy the services of cutting-edge agricultural research centers and laboratories that do research and churn out piles of data on the latest fertilizers, pollution risks and genetically-engineered crops.

The bottleneck that confronts these research centers is that the data and insights these researchers come up with rarely finds its way to farmers, who mostly rely on the pesticide and fertilizer salesmen to keep them informed.

To help stem the spiraling incidences of crop pollution, the Chinese government has developed a Green Food program where produce is certified for low pesticide input. This has been articulated into Green food Grade A and Grade AA. This Green Food AA standard has been aligned with IFOAM international standards for organic farming and has formed the basis of the swift growth of organic agriculture in China.

Cross border agriculture

In what is a radical measure aimed at guaranteeing food security for its mammoth population, Chinese investors have taken to buying and in most cases renting sprawling fields for crop cultivation and other agricultural endeavors in neighboring countries like Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Though Beijing has refused to consider the trend as a solution to its food safety concerns for being “an unreliable policy”, many wealthy Chinese individuals and corporations have invested in the trend which has been termed “mega farming”

“We don’t believe that going to rent and farm in other countries is a reliable policy option,” a Chinese government official said recently.

Support for Ghanaian agric

Ghana and china share historic Relations dating back to 1960 when the countries first established diplomatic relations. Since then, Ghana has provided considerable diplomatic support to China with the country reciprocating with funding for key areas like the agricultural sector.

Late last year, China, through its grants for agricultural development in the Ghana, donated  13 sets of corn grinders, two sets of soya bean flour milling machines as well as one set of millet milling machine to the Development Authority in charge of the Northern Savannah zone.

During a short presentation formality, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana at the time, Sun Baohong, praised the government of Ghana for launching such initiatives as “One District-One Factory”; “One Village-One Dam”; and “Planting for Food and Jobs”, while assuring the country of Chinas unwavering commitment to helping Ghana succeed in agriculture.

“Over the years, China and Ghana have conducted win-win and fruitful cooperation in agriculture. China provides a good number of training opportunities to Ghana for bringing up the agriculture talents that will one day lead an increasingly expanding local agricultural industry.

A number of Chinese enterprises are also here investing in agriculture, from planting to processing. As an important partner, China will strengthen cooperation with Ghana in agriculture in the future,” she concluded.

The forgoing demonstration of support by the Chinese for Ghanaian agriculture is only a fraction of the immense effort the Asian powerhouse has invested in Ghanaian agriculture.

Indeed China appears to be Ghana’s new found best-friend, and the “love affair” between the two countries looks destined for unprecedented heights, particularly in agriculture.

 

country that easily rubs shoulders with greats like the United States and Canada.

Hard work, focus and resilience are strewn all over the story of China’s emergence from the dark days of famine to brighter days of food security. A worthy example is always worth emulating; and with an ally that has one of the most inspiring grass to grace stories, Ghana should perhaps pay as much attention to China’s resilient rise to the top than it does loan and grant acquisition-this is the most realistic way to emerge victorious from the many challenges that has serially impeded the growth of our local agricultural industry.

Crop production is vital to Japan notwithstanding the Asian country’s sparse arable land (13% of the total area) and the highest degree of industrialization in Asia. Steep land (more than 20°) has been terraced for rice and other crops, carrying cultivation in tiny patches far up mountain sides.

Despite this obvious snag in the countries wheel of progress, Japan has demonstrated an uncommon resilience that today, her agriculture sector is enjoying a steady rise that experts believe could see the country rival other traditional agricultural heavyweight like China and Brazil.

Agriculture exists in every part of Japan, but is especially important on the northern island of Hokkaido, which accounts for 10% of national production. Since World War II (1939–45), modern methods, including commercial fertilizers, insecticides, hybrid seeds, and machinery, have been used so effectively that harvests increased substantially through the 1970s.

Overproduction of rice, as a result of overplanting and a shift to other foods by the Japanese people, led the government in 1987 to adopt a policy of decreasing rice planting and increasing the acreage of other farm products. For many years, the government restricted imports of cheaper foreign rice, but in 1995 the rice market was opened to imports, as the government implemented the Uruguay Round agreement on agriculture.

As a result of the US-occupation land reform, which began in late 1946, nearly two-thirds of all farmland was purchased by the Japanese government at low prewar prices and resold to cultivators on easy terms. By the 1980s, nearly all farms were owner-operated, as compared with 23% before reform. A more telling trend in recent years has been the sharp growth in part-time farm households. Farmers are aging, and 77% of farm income is derived from other sources, such as industrial jobs. Although agriculture accounts for only 2% of GDP, about 10% of the population lives on farms.

Rice is supreme

Rice is by far the most important crop in Japan and planted on the best agricultural land. Other crops grown in Japan include soybeans, wheat, barley, and a large variety of fruit and vegetables.

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MAFF) has a Crop Production branch that collects agricultural data at the prefecture level, monitors crop development using weather data and satellite imagery, and publishes crop estimates. Rice forecasts are made in August and October, with final estimates coming out in December. Production data for minor crops (wheat, soybeans) are collected after the harvest and published in December.

Emphasis on Quality

The quality of the impressive automobiles and household electronics that the world has come to acknowledge japan for is reflected in the countries insistence on quality agricultural produce. Consumers in Japan are highly sensitive to quality issues in their food, demanding fresh, uncontaminated, and attractive products. In Japan, many of the convenience store chains are very important outlets for moderately priced pre-cooked meals. These are prepared at central locations and delivered daily (sometimes more often), and the quality is very high.

Niigata, Japan’s largest rice-growing prefecture strongly promotes the locally-grown rice and is branding itself as a center of farming and fine cuisine. Last year, Niigata opened an innovative, high-tech education center designed to teach children (and adults) about farming, cooking, and nutrition, and the city sponsors food festivals each year.

The per capita consumption of rice has been dropping for decades due to urbanization, adoption of western foods, and an aging population, but it remains the most important grain in their diet. The Japanese strongly prefer to eat the native Japonica (sticky) rice.

 

Innovation

Like many of the world’s leading agricultural nations, japan has prioritized innovations that are unique to the country’s agricultural development needs.

Top of the pile of these indigenous innovations is a robotic wolf designed to protect farms from natural pests and maximize harvest.

According to a recent BBC report initial tests have proved successful and could be set for production in commercial quantities in a matter of weeks.

 Its manufacturers say the robot wolf which will cost around $4,840 will be powered by solar-rechargeable batteries and has a range of howl noises so that animal threats don’t become accustomed to it.

The Japan Agricultural Cooperatives in acknowledging the importance of the new invention pointed that crop losses has remarkably shrunk in regions where the “Super Monster Wolf” has been station since preliminary trials began late 2017.

Before its introduction, The Japan Agricultural Cooperatives remarks that previously, farmers around the country’s Kisarazu were hapless against wild boars that destroyed local farms with reckless-abandon and ensured farmers perennially lost a substantial part of their crops prior to harvest.

The “Super Monster Wolf” device has an effective radius of about one kilometer; a feature that makes it more effective than an electric fence.

 

Another interesting way the Japanese are foraying into agricultural excellence is through an effective use of the internet. Though the country is challenged by an ageing farmer population and youth apathy for agriculture, there seems to be a ray of hope for the country’s agriculture as some youth have begun latching on to an agric-blogging fad that serves to tap into the incredible influence of the internet.

In a move that has been hailed as the solution that will make agriculture in japan more appealing to the youth,  an increasing  horde  of youngsters have taken advantage of the internet and are on the path to creating an attractive image of agriculture that will reverse the youth apathy trend in the Asian country.

Though the youth don’t fancy traditional peasant farming that the older Japanese population had practiced for centuries, blogging about agriculture and selling agricultural produce to online customers is proving attractive to the youth who are consistently seeking innovative ways of attracting more traffic to their personalized online platforms by giving potential clients helpful information on the products they sell through the conduit.

Local authorities are pleased with the development and are extremely hopeful that they can take advantage of the unprecedented youth interest in agriculture to fill the void expected to be created by its current aging farming population who have sustained the countries agriculture since time immemorial.

 

High-Tech Agriculture

The Japanese have taken a high tech approach to agriculture as they have with everything else. The country is miles ahead in biotechnology; they grow their rice with an amazing variety of mini-machines, including mechanical rice transplanters and harvesters, helicopter spraying, vinyl sheeting, concrete banked paddies and massive use of chemical fertilizer.”

The Japanese have produced a tomato plant that bears 10,000 tomatoes with the aid of a rotating-lens system that filters out harmful sun rays and focused beneficial rays where they are needed most. One tomato plant at the Tsukuba Science Expo in Japan produced 16,897 individual tomatoes.

The modernization of rice paddy agriculture includes consolidating small fields into large ones, replacing open canals with underground drainage pipes, installing pumps to pump in water and periodic draining of the paddies. These changes have made the paddies easier for farmers to work.

Japan has been producing the square watermelons since the 1980s. They are grown in tempered glass cases and sell for around $80 a piece.

Biofarms in which temperature, humidity and light are controlled by computers permits managed growth of plants and vegetables. In Mie Prefecture, farmers are using remote-controlled cameras and instruments that measure temperature, daylight hours and water content of the soil to determine whether trees need special assistance such watering, to help fight pests and diseases and choose the right time to pick crops.

Mebiol Inc. is marketing a hydrogel film in which seeds can be planed and seedlings can be grown with very little water. The material can retain large amounts of water. The film is only 0.06 millimeters thick and allows water and nutrients to permeate through it but blocks viruses and germs. The technology is particularly useful in desert environments.

Mito-based Pattruss Inc. has recently also developed a pyramid-shaped plastic package that doubles the shelf life of lettuce and other agricultural products. Patented in 2007, the packaging is already widely used in southern Europe where people like a lot of fresh greens in their salads.

 

Support for Ghanaian agriculture  

Japan is a great ally of the Ghanaian agricultural sector with a lengthy history of support. Through a grant assistance, which started in 1981, the government of Japan has contributed to the Ghanaian government’s efforts to mechanize agriculture and ensure food security, particularly rice production.

Recently, the Embassy of Japan handed over agricultural machinery under Japan’s Grant Assistance for underprivileged farmers in the country.

A statement issued by the embassy indicated that a total Grant which is ￥330,000,000 (approximately 9.7 million Ghana Cedis) had been disbursed alongside  machinery comprising 77 agricultural tractors with matching implements, 49 power tillers, 20 rice threshers, 11 rice reapers and six rice mills.

Annually, Japan invests huge sums and equipment into Ghanaian agriculture, particularly the area of rice farming.

 

Lessons for Ghana

The resilience of japan en route to its current status 0n the world agricultural scene is full of practical lessons for Ghana to emulate. Indeed if a country with as little arable land as japan is able to stand out in agriculture, then Ghana should be doing a great deal than what we currently have achieved in agriculture.

The brilliant innovation that employs the use of a wolf-like robot to scare off crop pest is particularly interesting and must serve as a challenge to our local industry to train young Ghanaians with technological expertise to create such simple yet realistic agri-solutions that will propel agriculture in Ghana towards development.

It is obvious from the achievement of countries like japan, that the future of agriculture is innovative technology. We must embrace this reality and work towards encouraging our youth particularly, to use the internet for productive initiatives akin to what their Japanese counterparts are doing. This could prove a panacea for the perennial challenges of unemployment and youth apathy for agriculture.