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In the 1960s, Ghana was the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans; while the country’s cocoa crop took a hit in the 1980s as a result of rampant bushfires, it has since rebounded and is now the second largest producer of cocoa beans in the world. The majority of the raw beans grown in Ghana are not processed within the country, however, and the government has been putting more emphasis in recent years on promoting industrialization of the domestic cocoa value chain by subsidizing the price paid for beans by local cocoa bean processors.

On September 16, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) will highlight the Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal at a panel event held in collaboration with IFPRI, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Secretariat, the European Commission, and the Pan African Farmers Association (PAFO).

With its history of political unrest and armed conflict combined with periodic droughts, widespread poverty, and low levels of food production per capita, South Sudan faces a particularly daunting food security situation. At present, Africa’s newest country relies on private sector cereal imports from Uganda for 30-50 percent of its total cereal supply.

African governments need to establish policies and infrastructure to increase fertilizer access and use, concluded a roundtable meeting between IFPRI and the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), held in Johannesburg in July. Participants agreed that increasing the use of fertilizers is critical in expanding sustainable agricultural production in the region and is in line with the goals of the 2006 Abuja Declaration regarding the use of fertilizers to stimulate a “green revolution” in Africa.

The Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal was presented on September 1 at a side event during the 2015 ReSAKSS Conference. The event focused on “Providing Timely Data and Analysis to Improve Food Security in Africa.”