Rural Economy, Medical Professional Brain Drain and Other Reports
Every week, RuralReporters.com collate reports on development issues in rural Africa and its environs.
This report includes some of our top picks from recent must-read research, interviews, blogs, and in-depth articles, carefully selected to help you keep up with global issues.
Here are some of the updates you may have missed from the previous week:
Brain-drain: 50% of Nigerian doctors serving abroad – Don
A don, Prof. Christopher Obionu on Wednesday said brain-drain had adversely affected the health sector as 50 per cent of Nigerian doctors were currently practicing abroad.
Obionu said that the shortage of health care professionals and their uneven distribution in the country was compounded by accelerated migration of health workers to other countries and away from the rural poor communities. “Aside the case of Nigerian doctors trooping abroad, we are also battling with the rural-urban migration of our health personnel which largely left those at the rural areas not cared for medically. “In lieu of this, we urgently need to reduce unnecessary lapses and setbacks that have bedeviled the health system in recent times.
World Bank: Farmers Earned N303bn under Fadama III Additional Financing Project
The World Bank Fadama III AF Project Task Team Leader, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, has said that farmers participating in the Fadama III Additional Financing have earned about N303 billion from the cultivation of four advantage crops supported by the project.
The crops are rice, cassava, sorghum and tomato, since the introduction of the project about four years ago.
Lagos takes HIV screening to rural communities
The Lagos State AIDS Control Agency (LSACA) has conducted a free counselling and testing for HIV and AIDS in three communities/areas with difficult terrains.
The three-day outreach was held simultaneously in Ikorodu (Odogunyan, Igbo Okuta and Aiyegbami); Eti-Osa (Alpha Beach, Lafiaji and Bamboo) and Ojo (Alaguntan, Okun Baba Tope and Agaja).
Residents trooped out to access the free HIV testing services (HTS) in the three areas, just as the LSACA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Oluseyi Temowo told Southwest Report that the initiative was part of efforts to meet the 90-90-90 strategy of the United Nations in Lagos.
GH¢20m sweet-potato processing factory to transform rural economy
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is hopeful that the new GH¢20million Sweet Potato Processing Factory under construction will transform rural communities in and around Gomoa Bewadze in the Gomoa West district of the Central Region.
The factory, to be operated by CASA de ROPA Limited – a wholly-owned Ghanaian private agribusiness company financed by the Ghana Export-Import (EXIM) Bank – is yet to be completed and inaugurated. However, the factory has started producing bread, chips, and other pastries from potato for local consumption.
How African youth are leveraging ICTs to tap into Africa’s agribusiness market
Agriculture experts argue that some of these young people are discouraged by long standing challenges in accessing funds and land, reliance on manual technology in smallholder agriculture and minimal profits from farming.
These challenges they say can be addressed by modernization of agriculture through use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
There is a need to spark transformation of agriculture sector in Africa by seeking and supporting youth-led initiatives that leverage ICTs to respond to challenges faced by African youth today, experts argue.
Africa’s agribusiness (food and beverage) market is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030 from over $313 billion in 2013, according to the World Bank.
