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Farmers weary as lack of rainfall threatens cocoa cultivation in Ivory Coast

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2023

There are fears of a disrupted cocoa season in the world’s largest producer of cocoa, Ivory Coast, as there is yet to be rainfall in most parts of the country’s region majored in the essential product.

Local report says farmers are concerned about a prolonged dry spell which could weigh on the outlook of the April-to-September mid-crop.

The country is in its dry season which runs officially from mid-November to March and there are concerns that the intensity of the seasonal Harmattan dry wind, which blows from the Sahara Desert for a variable period between December and March and can damage crops, has dropped in central regions and been mild in southern regions.

In November, the two biggest cocoa producers, Ivory Coast and West African neighbour, Ghana pushed for higher prices for their farm products under the Living Income Differential (LID) and vowed to charge a premium of $400 per tonne on all cocoa sales, starting with the 2020/21 harvest.

One of the leading farmers in the country, Arsene Goli, farms near the center-western region of Daloa, where 0 millimetres (mm) of rain fell last week, 1.8 mm below the five-year average, said “If there is no rain before the end of this month, the trees will start to lose a lot of leaves and the harvest will be small after that.”

Another farmer, Eric Dally, who farms near Soubre, where 0 mm fell last week, 3.6 mm below the average, said “if the trees don’t receive the rain this month, the yield will drop.”

Uncertainties around climate conditions in Africa have been of devastating effects in most African countries lately. According to climatechampions, large areas of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are currently in the grip of a severe drought.

For some countries, like Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, and the Central Africa Republic, however, it has been cases of continual rainfall that led to floods that destroyed valuables worth fortunes across the continent.

Related Topics:Cocoa Drought Featured Rainfall

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VenturesNow

IMF, Egypt reach agreement for fourth review of Egypt’s $1.2 billion loan request

Published

11 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Egypt and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a staff-level agreement over the fourth review of the Extended Fund Facility arrangement, which might lead to a $1.2 billion payout under the program.

In March, Egypt, struggling with rising inflation and cash shortages, consented to the $8 billion, 46-month facility. Its economic problems were made worse by a precipitous drop in Suez Canal revenue over the last year due to regional tensions.

Over the next two years, Egypt’s government has committed to raising its tax-to-revenue ratio by 2% of GDP, according to the IMF, emphasising removing exemptions rather than raising taxes.

According to a statement from the IMF, this would allow it to expand social expenditure to support vulnerable populations.

“While the authorities’ plans to streamline and simplify the tax system are commendable, further reforms will be needed to enhance domestic revenue mobilization efforts,” the statement said.

According to the IMF statement, Egypt had also committed to maintaining its commitment to a flexible currency rate and to taking more urgent action to guarantee that the private sector became the primary driver of development.

The IMF’s executive board still has to accept the fourth review’s staff-level agreement.

VenturesNow

Libya’s eastern govt accepts petrol subsidy elimination

Published

11 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In a recent statement, the eastern government of Libya claimed it had reached a consensus on a plan to eliminate gasoline subsidies and would draft a mechanism to carry out the accord.

Additional information on the idea was not released by the administration led by Osama Hamad, a challenger to the internationally acknowledged Tripoli-based government.

However, it is uncertain if Hamad’s government would be able to carry out the plan in the divided nation.

According to the Global Petrol Prices online tracker, a litre of gasoline costs just 0.150 Libyan dinars ($0.03) in OPEC member Libya, making it the second-cheapest in the world.

Following an uprising against former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, smuggling networks have thrived in the ensuing political unrest and armed fighting. In 2014, conflicting eastern and western governments separated the nation.

A World Bank analysis estimates that the annual value of fuel smuggling from Libya is at least $5 billion.

In a meeting with Mari Barrasi, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), located in Tripoli, and four members of the bank’s board of directors, Hamad in Benghazi supported the idea of removing subsidies.

The CBL’s Benghazi branch offices served as the venue for the conference.

The eastern parliament appointed Hamad in 2023 to succeed Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who had been put in position in 2021 under a U.N.-backed procedure that the parliament said had lost its legitimacy.

Dbeibah, who is located in Tripoli, stated in January that he will conduct a public poll on the topic of eliminating gasoline subsidies, but he hasn’t done anything about it since.

According to CBL figures, gasoline subsidies cost 12.8 billion Libyan dinars between January and November of this year. 4.8 Libyan dinars to $1 is the official exchange rate.