Northwestern African Agriculture
The majority of farming in Northwestern Africa is done in small scale, often by families. Africa has over 33 million small farms. This makes up about 80% of the farms. This is explained in the video to the right. Despite agriculture being predominantly built on family farms, agricultural production has increased steadily. It's value has almost tripled. Most of this growth is due to a larger workforce which results in improved yields. The increase in workforce is due to a double in population over the past 30 years. Women make up the majority of the agricultural labor force. |
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Crops of Northwestern AfricaThe most common crops in Northwestern Africa are peanuts, sorghum, rice, and cocoa.
Peanuts, also known as "Groundnuts", are grown as a source of Protein. They come in two different forms: the American Groundnut, and the African Groundnut called the "Bambara Nut". Both are grown in Northwestern Africa. Groundnuts contain a healthy amount of fats and carbohydrates. They are used to make flour, soup, porridge, and milk. Groundnuts are usually grown by small family farms in Ghana. |
Sorghum is essential to the diets of poor people in the arid environment of Northwestern Africa because droughts cause frequent failures of other crops. Sorghum makes up 70% of the total cereal production. Since Sorghum is such an important crop, research has been done on it since 1931 (Sorghum June 2015). The research done has been in order to improve the yields of the crops.
However, they studies showed little attempt to increase the nutritional quality improvement along side the yield improvement. In fact, 97% of all sorghum quality improvement efforts have been focused on improving yields. Some research is being done in Northwest African laboratories. They have been working with processing and enhancing the protein quality of the products. On the right is a video explaining a "New Sorghum" that could revolutionize the industry. |
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Above is a man harvesting rice grain.
On the right is a pie chart representing how much rice each part of Africa produces each year. West Africa makes up the majority at an astounding 56%. |
Rice is a very popular African crop. Africa produces around 14.6 million tons of rice per year. This is 2.6% of the worlds total rice production. Among the 14.6 million tons produced, Northwestern Africa contributes the most. Northwestern Africa produces 56% of all of the rice in Africa. This equates to 3.7 million tons. Africa consumes 11.5 million tons of rice per year. Of that amount, 33.6% is imported (Oteng, J.). However, that number is on the decline.
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Cocoa is a very important crop for Northwestern Africa. It accounts for almost 70% of the entire world's cocoa production (Cocoa production in West Africa 2015). There are 1 million cocoa farms in Northwestern Africa. Most of these farms are small and family-run. Many of these farms lack proper roads to travel in order to transport their goods. This means a middleman is often involved in the sale and transport of cocoa, resulting in low profit margins for the farmers. Many children work on the farms instead of attending school.
Cocoa is also the largest cash crop for the country of Ivory Coast
(Economy & Industry 2015). It supplies more than a third, or 1.3 million tons, of the world's cocoa by itself. The industry produces around 2.5 billion dollars worth of cocoa per year.
Although farmers in the Ivory Coast grow the cocoa, most of them have never seen what it can be made into. In fact, many have not even heard of such a thing as chocolate.
Below is a video showing the joy that chocolate brings to the farmers who originally harvested the cocoa beans.
Cocoa is also the largest cash crop for the country of Ivory Coast
(Economy & Industry 2015). It supplies more than a third, or 1.3 million tons, of the world's cocoa by itself. The industry produces around 2.5 billion dollars worth of cocoa per year.
Although farmers in the Ivory Coast grow the cocoa, most of them have never seen what it can be made into. In fact, many have not even heard of such a thing as chocolate.
Below is a video showing the joy that chocolate brings to the farmers who originally harvested the cocoa beans.
Natural Resources of Northwestern Africa
Northwestern Africa is known to produce a diverse number of natural resources. Three of the most important include oil, iron ore, and gold. For a list of other natural resources click here.
Oil is essential in order for our society to continue to function at the rate it is. There are five major oil producing countries in Africa. Together they account for 85% of the continent's oil production (Oil and Gas in Africa 2015). Of those five, one stands out above the rest: Nigeria.
Nigeria is the leading oil producing country in Africa. In 2001, Nigeria was found to contain over 37.2 billion barrels of oil in oil reserves. This put it at the 11th largest oil producing country in the world. Nigeria produces 2.28 million barrels of oil per day. This is enough oil to have 45 years of power if no new oil was discovered. Nigeria exports a lot of it's oil, accounting for 95% of its export revenues. This makes Nigeria the world's eighth largest exporter of crude oil. Nigeria is having a problem of oil theft. It may cost Nigeria as much as $2 billion a year. An average of 100,000 barrels were stolen per day in the first quarter of the year. These oil thieves usually run illegal refineries in the Niger Delta (A murky business 2015). These illegal refineries can lead to easy oil spills. For more information on this topic, click on the videos to the right. |
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Gold is a rich African resource, with many countries containing high amounts of it. Northwestern Africa contains several of those countries including Ghana, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Ghana is one of the top gold producing countries. In 2013, Ghana was the 10th-largest gold producing country with an output of 85 metric tons of gold. There are two major mining companies that have set up shop in Ghana. Those two are Asanko Gold, Perseus Mining Limited (Gold 2015).
Asanko Gold operates the Asanko Gold Mine. This project has a resource of 7.5 million ounces of measured and indicated gold. The company expects to have the mine producing more than 200,000 ounces of gold per year in the second quarter of 2016 (Gold 2015). Perseus Mining Limited has two gold projects in Ghana. One of them is the Edikan Gold Mine, which has 5.3 million ounces of measured and indicated gold. The other project in Ghana is the Grumsea Gold Mine (Gold 2015). The country of Mali produced 67.4 tons of gold in 2013, making it Africa's third-largest gold producer after South Africa and Ghana. Mali is known for its illegal mining activity. The government recently canceled 130 mining permits (30% of permits) in order to clean up its mining sector. Mali is home to two major mining companies as well. Those are IAMGOLD, and AngloGold Ashanti (Gold 2015). IAMGOLD operates two mines: the Sadiola Gold Mine and the Yatela Gold Mine (Gold 2015). AngloGold Ashanti has mines at Morila, Sadiola, and Yatela (Gold 2015). Burkina Faso's economy is strongly dependant on the price of gold on the international market. When the price of gold fell in 2013, the country's real growth percent went from 9% to 6.9%. Burkina Faso's mining industry is the largest and most impactful industries in the country. Because of the popularity of the gold industry, Burkina Faso's government is promoting major roads being paved and created in order for the country to further develop. There are three major mining companies in Burkina Faso. They consist of: TrueGold, Roxgold, and Endeavour Mining (Gold 2015). TrueGold started mining in Burkina Faso in 2003, when gold was first being discovered in Burkina Faso (Gold 2015). Roxgold operates only one project called the Yaramoko Project in Burkina Faso. There, Roxgold is advancing a discovery of a high-grade gold (Gold 2015). Endeavour Mining is known over much of Northwestern Africa. It runs a mine at the Youga project, of which it owns 90%. The mine has been in service since 2008 and yielded 89,448 ounces of gold in 2013 (Gold 2015). |
The above video depicts the process for illegally mining and selling gold extracted in Ghana.
The video above depicts children being exploited in the mining process in the country of Mali.
Above is a video depicting children being exploited in the mines of Burkina Faso.
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References
Economy & Industry. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.our-africa.org/ivory-coast/economy-industry
Cocoa production in West Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.orkla.com/Sustainability/Responsible-purchasing/Workers-rights/Cocoa-production-in-West-Africa
Oteng, J. (n.d.). Rice production in Africa: Current situation and issues. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x2243t/x2243t05.htm
Groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea), Women and Deveopment: Impact on Nutrition and Women's Roles in Western Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://forest.mtu.edu/pcforestry/resources/studentprojects/groundnut.html
West Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/geog1000/Notes/Notes_Exam4/WAfrica.html
http://www.un.org/africarenewal/sites/www.un.org.africarenewal/files/Agriculture%20in%20Africa.pdf
Sorghum June Grain of the Month. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/sorghum-june-grain-of-the-month
Oil and Gas in Africa - Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/af/p0005.htm
Africa's Natural Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from https://www.courses.psu.edu/test/test100_hkr/AFIM/Main_HTML/NR_W.html
A murky business. (2013, October 3). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2013/10/oil-theft-nigeria
http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/167.htm
Gold. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://goldinvestingnews.com/46088/africa-ghana-mali-burkina-faso-iamgold-roxgold-true-gold-randgold-perseus-askano.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julien_harneis/1871875063/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Gates_of_Oil_reifnery_in_Port_Harcourt.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Chuao_003.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Sierra_Leone_rice_farming.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut#/media/File:Peanutjar.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5367322642/
https://www.meta-chart.com/share/percent-of-rice-produced-in-africa-per-region
Cocoa production in West Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.orkla.com/Sustainability/Responsible-purchasing/Workers-rights/Cocoa-production-in-West-Africa
Oteng, J. (n.d.). Rice production in Africa: Current situation and issues. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x2243t/x2243t05.htm
Groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea), Women and Deveopment: Impact on Nutrition and Women's Roles in Western Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://forest.mtu.edu/pcforestry/resources/studentprojects/groundnut.html
West Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/geog1000/Notes/Notes_Exam4/WAfrica.html
http://www.un.org/africarenewal/sites/www.un.org.africarenewal/files/Agriculture%20in%20Africa.pdf
Sorghum June Grain of the Month. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/sorghum-june-grain-of-the-month
Oil and Gas in Africa - Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/af/p0005.htm
Africa's Natural Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from https://www.courses.psu.edu/test/test100_hkr/AFIM/Main_HTML/NR_W.html
A murky business. (2013, October 3). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2013/10/oil-theft-nigeria
http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/167.htm
Gold. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://goldinvestingnews.com/46088/africa-ghana-mali-burkina-faso-iamgold-roxgold-true-gold-randgold-perseus-askano.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julien_harneis/1871875063/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Gates_of_Oil_reifnery_in_Port_Harcourt.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Chuao_003.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Sierra_Leone_rice_farming.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut#/media/File:Peanutjar.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5367322642/
https://www.meta-chart.com/share/percent-of-rice-produced-in-africa-per-region