Review of some chemical characteristics of selected acid soils of south-western Ghana

No abstract

A Phenomenological Study of International Students in US Graduate Programs Through the Lens of Personal Growth Initiative Construct

Humans, unlike other creatures, have an inherent desire to develop and grow. This desire to grow, Personal Growth Initiative, is an intentional way that humans cognitively and behaviorally navigate their environment and resources to effect change. While many researchers argue that this construct works only in individualistic cultures, others contend that the construct is applicable to collectivist cultures as well. We therefore undertook an exploration of the lived experiences of eight international students from predominantly collectivist cultures, through the lens of the Personal Growth Initiative theory. Using a phenomenological qualitative methodology, we interviewed these doctoral students via semi-structured interview questions. Results of the data indicated that participants cycled through the four factors in the construct to handle both successes and challenges in school. Recommendations for international students’ offices and recruitment agencies are provided

Using the Post-Traumatic Growth Model to Explore Trauma Narratives in Group Work with African Refugee Youth

African American youth and African refugee youth encounter systemic racism in similar yet different ways. Because of the inherent traumatic experiences encountered by refugee youth, the added discrimination during their acculturation processes elevates their trauma and stressor- related symptoms. This paper uses the Posttraumatic Growth Model to explore some steps in facilitating an 8-week group therapy for African refugee youth in the US school system. Culturally-sensitive recommendations are also provided

Impediments to Marketing African Natural products From Ghana: Preliminary Results

For most of the African countries agriculture still remains the mainstay of the economies supplying both food and incomes via marketable surpluses. However, many odds against agriculture such low productivity, poor prices, and drought among others make it unsustainable. Results thus far show that such dependence has contributed little to neither economic development nor growth. Still many of its people living on and from agriculture remain poor, and are susceptible to hunger and malnutrition. Additionally, their over reliance on a few traditional exports such coffee, tea, and cocoa etc., products whose world prices keep declining has not helped either. At most this is futile response to raising incomes of its people, let alone spur any meaningful development. Agricultural may still contribute to development, if the countries could diversify from traditional products to the untapped areas. The continent's rich botanical heritage offers an excellent opportunity to diversify away from traditional exports. The natural products have a greater appeal to consumers especially in the rich west. Thus, development of natural products as alternative or complimentary to the current mix of tradable products will positively impact the social and economic lives of many people, especially those in the rural areas. Additionally, diversification of the production systems to include natural plants provides a superior route to the creating viable agribusinesses in rural communities currently lacking. Natural products happen to have enormous advantages; First, indigenous African plants occur naturally and so are relatively easy to cultivate commercially. Second, natural plant production is labor intensive rather than capital intensive, and so minimizes capital investment while at the same time maximizing job-creation potential. Third, African communities have extensive knowledge of indigenous plants, creating a natural competitive advantage in this sector. ASNAPP (Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plants Products) a non-profit organization formed in 1999 with funding from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is helping create and develop successful African agribusinesses in the natural plant products sector. The organization focuses on the development of high-value natural plant products that enable African agribusinesses to compete in local, regional and international markets. These products include herbal teas, culinary herbs and spices, essential and press oils, as well as medicinal plants. Currently, ASNAPP operates in five countries, namely South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia, working with 25 agri-enterprises that represent more than 2000 small-scale natural plant suppliers. The prospects for natural products market is very bright, for example the global nutraceutical market alone is estimated to be worth $60 billion annually in sales of dietary and meal supplements, as well as specialty products. There is also increasing demand for organic and natural products such as herbal teas, essential oils, herbs and spices, phytomedicines and phytocosmetics. This growth has been supported by a global swing away from synthetic products to those that are natural, healthy, sustainably produced and fairly traded. In the context of world trade in natural products, African country's natural forests supply more herbs, medicinal plants and natural food ingredients. The Americans and Europeans are the major consumers of natural products in the global market. Products such as the herbal tea's, essential oils, cosmetic and spices have readily available markets. Natural product sales was estimated$34 billion in 2001, It is estimated that Global sales for organic and natural products will reach about $100 billion by 2008 at an annual growth rate of 20-30$316 million dollar business in 1996 to over $454 million in 2001(Alberta Essential Oils, 1996; Datamonitor, 2002). Indeed there is untapped potential ranging from raw products to processed ones, which could fetch even higher returns to the farmers. However, it is only a few large enterprises that are active in the sector, leaving rural communities who had in fact been the first to discover the health and nutritional properties of indigenous plants out in the cold. The ASNAPP Ghana program which commenced in 2000 is currently working on essential oils, lippia tea, grains of paradise, cryptolepis, kombo butter, shea butter and Artemisia, with the focus on the Eastern, Central, Ashanti, Volta, Greater Accra and Northern regions of Ghana. The natural products industry in Ghana is characterized by low input- low output; mostly operated by small-scale farmers (suppliers) with low levels of levels of formal education and agricultural production knowledge. In this respect the supply side problems may be summarized as regularity of the supplies, quality and timeliness. Organizationally, the scale of the operations may be a bottleneck one hand, on the other hand, information, capital; product quality and assurance mechanisms hinder successful commercialization. The domestic markets are largely at the low levels of commercialization; the operators have limited technical knowledge about natural products, and limited capital to expand their businesses and exploit the readily available foreign markets. Similarly, on the demand side, there may be lack of consumer information as to the range of products, where to find them and what remedies they offer. This paper has the objective of highlighting the marketing impediments facing the natural products market in the retail and wholesale portions of the chain in Ghana. Specifically, (i) profile the technical, financial, organizational, etc., constraints the traders face (domestically and externally), (ii) profile the natural product range and their functions (iii) suggest policy interventions. Preliminary results from the Ghana business survey show that seven out of ten of the businesses are retailer operated, whose two-thirds supply is dependent on the small-scale farmers. There results also show that virtually all the traders have not received any technical, financial or trade assistance from any organization. At most only 1 out of ten businesses have ventured into external trade. The preliminary results show tremendous potential, however a lot need to be done to tap on this potential. The analysis will be based on a survey that was carried out in Ghana to correct information on; product ranges; the supply chain (from production to the retail stores and potential for exports. The analysis will contribute toward inform policy of which marketing to be addressed and inform domestic and foreign consumers of the presence of such products. References: Alberta Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development, Herb/Spice Industry Fact Sheet. Compiled by Dennis Dey. AG-Ventures, Agdex 263/830-1, www.agric.gov.ab.ca, September 1996. Datamonitor, Nov 15, 2002. Marty T. S., and Patrick R., "Natural Product Sales Top$42 Billion" Natural Foods Merchandiser, 2004, volume XXV/number 6/ p. 1 Organic Natural health, 2001. http://www.health-report.co.uk/organic-cosmetics-usa- opportunity.htm#Organic/natural%20industry%20profileInternational Relations/Trade,

An Overview of Marketing of Ghana Natural Products

The study finds strong correlations between natural products business performance and the impeding factors. The impediments include access to finance and markets, lack of herbal market information especially relating to external markets. Additionally, there is lack of processing capacity, while at the same time most if not all the natural products business operators lack technical training relating to product handling. However, there is big potential for success, the top ten traded natural products, may be exploited initially, both domestically and for export market, given range of perceived use. The constraints identified require concerted efforts from all stakeholders to recognize the importance of this sub-sector in providing opportunities to successful development.Marketing,

A Comparison of Wholesaler/Retailer Business Characteristics of Natural Products between Ghana and Rwanda

The usage of natural products is becoming an increasingly common consumer phenomenon due to increasing health consciousness, and because of their naturalness, and medicinal qualities of the products. African countries are very rich with natural products resources and supplies. The continent’s rich botanical heritage offers an excellent opportunity to diversify away from other traditional exports. Europe and the USA are particularly promising markets for natural products. Thus, it is advantageous to examine development of natural products exporting as alternative or complimentary economic opportunities for many African people, especially those in the rural areas. This paper has explores both factors which promote and which act as obstacles to the natural products market, specifically in the retail and wholesale portions of the value chain in Ghana and Rwanda.Agribusiness,

An application of hybrid life cycle assessment as a decision support framework for green supply chains

In an effort to achieve sustainable operations, green supply chain management has become an important area for firms to concentrate on due to its inherent involvement with all the processes that provide foundations to successful business. Modelling methodologies of product supply chain environmental assessment are usually guided by the principles of life cycle assessment (LCA). However, a review of the extant literature suggests that LCA techniques suffer from a wide range of limitations that prevent a wider application in real-world contexts; hence, they need to be incorporated within decision support frameworks to aid environmental sustainability strategies. Thus, this paper contributes in understanding and overcoming the dichotomy between LCA model development and the emerging practical implementation to inform carbon emissions mitigation strategies within supply chains. Therefore, the paper provides both theoretical insights and a practical application to inform the process of adopting a decision support framework based on a LCA methodology in a real-world scenario. The supply chain of a product from the steel industry is considered to evaluate its environmental impact and carbon ‘hotspots’. The study helps understanding how operational strategies geared towards environmental sustainability can be informed using knowledge and information generated from supply chain environmental assessments, and for highlighting inherent challenges in this process

Equitable global value chain and production network as a driver for enhanced sustainability in developing economies

Recent studies on the global value chain (GVC) have highlighted the need to better integrate the value chains of developing countries of the global South with that of the global North regions, which are more highly developed. This is aimed at enhancing the economic and social sustainable upgrading of the value chains of the global South regions. The paper thus seeks to answer a critical question as to whether the existing GVC set-up pertaining to global North and South countries is equitable and whether it would yield the needed socio-economic and wider sustainable benefits, particularly to global South countries. a conceptual Global Value Chain (GVC) model is developed based on the economy-wide and system-based Multi-Regional Input–Output methodology to achieve this goal. Subsequently, this was empirically tested to measure embodied flows in capital and labour for sustainable development between global North and South regions. These are achieved using the GVC networks of the UK (from the global North) and some countries in sub Saharan Africa (from the global South) to exemplify these developments. With implications for equitable, sustainable development, our study shows significant imbalances exist in the flows of value added activities from the global South to the global North, particularly in the primary industries, which produce low-value products in their raw state. Subsequently, this creates a disproportionate economic disadvantage for South countries. As such, if global South countries are to fully benefit from GVC, the study shows that these imbalances must be addressed, such as through structural changes in the economies of global South countries from their dependencies on the primary industries

Chapter 10 - Industry

This chapter provides an update to developments on mitigation in the industry sector since the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) (IPCC, 2007), but has much wider coverage. Industrial activities create all the physical products (e.g., cars, agricultural equipment, fertilizers, textiles, etc.) whose use delivers the final services that satisfy current human needs. Compared to the industry chapter in AR4, this chapter analyzes industrial activities over the whole supply chain, from extraction of primary materials (e.g., ores) or recycling (of waste materials), through product manufacturing, to the demand for the products and their services. It includes a discussion of trends in activity and emissions, options for mitigation (technology, practices, and behavioural aspects), estimates of the mitigation potentials of some of these options and related costs, co-benefits, risks and barriers to their deployment, as well as industry-specific policy instruments. Findings of integrated models (long-term mitigation pathways) are also presented and discussed from the sector perspective. In addition, at the end of the chapter, the hierarchy in waste management and mitigation opportunities are synthesized, covering key waste-related issues that appear across all chapters in the Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)