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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 mission concludes 4th loan program assessment in Egypt

Published

2 days ago

November 22, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Following the completion of a recent visit to Egypt, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that its mission had achieved significant strides in policy talks aimed at concluding the fourth review of the IMF loan program.

The review is the fourth in Egypt’s most recent 46-month IMF loan program, which was authorised in 2022 and increased to $8 billion this year following an economic crisis characterised by high inflation and chronic foreign exchange shortages. It may unleash more than $1.2 billion in financing.

Along with reaffirming its commitment to maintain a flexible exchange rate system, the IMF stated that Egypt “has implemented key reforms to preserve macroeconomic stability,” including the unification of the currency rate that facilitated imports.

Earlier on Wednesday, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Cairo has asked the IMF to modify the targets for the programme not only for this year, but for its full duration, he added without giving more details.

“Discussions will continue over the coming days to finalize agreement on the remaining policies and reforms that could support the completion of the fourth review,” the IMF added in its statement.

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Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

4 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.