OLAM Nigeria Ltd, has distributed one million hybrid cocoa seedlings to farmers at the beginning of the planting season to enable them expand their production. Olam, he said, believes that a well developed agricultural sector will create employment opportunities, alleviate poverty and guarantee a stable means of livelihood to farmers. Olam distributes 1 million cocoa seedlings to farmers, trains them. Vanguard - Business : Olam distributes 1 million cocoa seedlings to farmers, trains them....

The workshop, which was under the theme "Sensitising the education of cocoa farmers to help improve the economy", was aimed at helping the farmers to change the old ways of farming, which does not yield enough to the detriment of the economy. Cocoa farmers go to school. Mr Bubuama said cocoa is a socio-economic asset of Ghana and therefore, more resources must be channelled into the cocoa industry to enable the country to increase its exports. He said they should embrace modern...

Although some farmers use their own children to help raise cocoa, many other farmers use children that they hire for very low pay, or who work as slaves in the field. However, Ghana has been delayed in monitoring up to 50 percent of its cocoa farms to certify that cocoa is not produced by unfair child labor practices. And the Ivory Coast, which is torn by war, is also having problems trying to monitor cocoa farms, which are often only one to four acres. And despite recent efforts to stop...

Nectarines form part of Fresno County's harvest of fresh produce featured on the fruit trail. If you crave locally grown produce -- or want to give visiting guests a glimpse of Fresno County's broad agricultural shoulders -- you'll want to hit the road this summer for a look at this prime growing area. Simonian Farms, at Clovis and Jensen avenues, offers more than 120 homegrown fruits and vegetables, in addition to dried fruit, nuts and gourmet products -- all sold in a setting surrounded...

But many children on cocoa farms don't get to school, some exchange their childhood for work, a roof over their head and a meal a day. Eight years since reports of child labour and slavery in Ivory Coast - the world's largest cocoa producer - first emerged, progress in eradicating child labour has been slow. In the time that has passed, war, cultural differences and the importance of cocoa revenues to West African economies have all served to obscure the debate. Now chocolate firms are...

But even if prices are rising, most farmers in Ivory Coast are unable to cash in on the bull market. Adjust font size: NEW YORK (Reuters) -- An unusually harsh harmattan -- a seasonal cold, dry wind that carries clouds of dust from the Sahara -- was the first sign of trouble for West African cocoa farmers. Stiff competition between buyers for scarce beans as the October-March main crop limped to a close pushed farm gate prices in some areas over 500 CFA francs ($1. Cocoa prices have risen...

This projection is part of a five-year plan by the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands to export some 1,400 tonnes of the commodity annually. He also noted that the cleaning of cocoa plots was another major area of concern for the organization and the Board was currently working with a number of farmers to address this problem. Additionally, he said that the organization was looking at increasing the density of cocoa plots to some 400 plants per acre. Work, he said, was also being done to...

While the census does not specifically attribute the rise in grapes to the drop in apples, local farmers have been witnessing this conversion all over the valley. The data for the agricultural industry released by Statistics Canada from last year s census show that apple production dropped 14. Some are longtime Okanagan farmers, whose grandfathers began growing apples generations ago, while others like the Andersons are simply here to cash in on the grapes and the lifestyle that comes with...

The damage from the 2003 storms was so severe that the farm's apples were even taken out of the second market - processing plants like Lucky Leaf or Musselman's that would use the apples for food products like applesauce or pies, Lerew said. Crop insurance and disaster payments from the federal government can help if damage occurs, but even then farmers say they don't totally recoup their losses. In comparison to the millions given out in Adams in 2005, farmers in neighboring York and...