Africa has seen a recent wave of investments and other encouraging developments in agriculture, including:

1. Ghana is on track to achieve “most, if not all” of the Millennium Development Goals – including halving poverty by 2015 – said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, in a recent report by the Christian Science Monitor. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), “Ghana is the only country that has experienced two decades of sound and persistent annual growth of around 5 percent.”

“Increasing fertilizer use is commonly believed to be key to closing the [40%] yield gap in Ghana, particularly for grain crops such as maize,” it said. Based on field trials it conducted with inputs, IFPRI – which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – says Ghana will reach 6% average annual agricultural growth during the next 10 years.

Fertilizer use in Ghana is low due to high transportation costs along the distribution chain, but herbicide use has made the bigger impact in increasing yields: “The only significant difference in yields is related to herbicide use; with herbicide use, maize yields come close to two metric tons per hectare.” Two metric tons per hectare is the level Ghana’s government has identified as the achievable yield, it says.

2. Rwanda has received $13 million in funding from the World Bank for agricultural developments. AllAfrica.com reported last week that funding will be devoted to increasing the productivity and commercialization of hillside agriculture in targeted areas, enhancing food security and the livelihoods of the population.

"We have a lot of farmers who have land but do not have the means to make the land productive because it is rugged, inaccessible, arid and prone to soil erosion. This fund will facilitate farmers with the capacity to develop the land in question," says Agnes Kalibata, Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, according to AllAfrica.

3. Sofitex, the biggest cotton company in Burkina Faso, secured a $151 million loan to finance crop purchases in the 2011-12 harvest, Bloomberg reported the company’s CEO, Jean Paul Sawadogo as saying.

Sofitex, which got the loan from 10 local lenders, began buying cotton in December, it said. Its cotton-seed production will increase 5% to 300,000 metric tons in the 2011-12 harvest, according to Sawadogo.

4. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation last week announced it would partner with Texas A&M University’s Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture to promote African agricultural research, extension, and education.

The partnership will be based at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation’s Ukulima Farm Research Center in South Africa’s Limpopo province, where scientists will research smallholder agricultural systems, emerging rural enterprise, wildlife and ecosystem conservation and conservation agriculture technology. It will also promote short-term technical training programs and leadership seminars on topics such as seed technology or water management, according to Texas A&M.

Howard Buffett, the eldest son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, was quoted on the Texas A&M site: “I have traveled extensively across Africa and have seen the degraded soils, the lack of access to quality inputs, the inefficient market systems, and the underdeveloped agricultural support systems that contribute to keeping 239 million Africans hungry. Ukulima Farm and this collaboration is a direct response to these needs. It is my hope this collaboration will improve agricultural productivity across the African continent, particularly for Africa’s poorest farmers.”

5. Tanzania approved 26 new seed varieties for planting, including varieties with resistance to drought and diseases, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA). The seeds also have shorter maturing periods and increased yields of two to three times those of other commercialized varieties, it says.

Mohamed Muya, permanent secretary of the country’s agricultural ministry, says the seeds passed verification process and were certified by the country’s National Seeds Committee, according to ISAAA. They include nine varieties of maize, five varieties of Arabica coffee, four tea varieties, four cassava varieties and one ach of barley, millet and beans.