Agriculture

Read latest news and features for Agriculture: soil, land, farmer, production, foodstuffs, livestock, animals, peanuts, FAO, land, cultivate, africa.

Ethiopia: Govt Launches Green Economic Funding Facilit

Ethiopia: Govt Launches Green Economic Funding Facilit

The Climate Resilient Green Economy Facility (CRGEF) was launched on September 10, 2012, with the intent of supporting the government's vision of attaining a...
African Farmers are Desperate for Change

African Farmers are Desperate for Change

The use of GM (genetically modified) food crops is a highly emotive issue. What should influence the debate between those who support these developments...
Flag of Mauritius

Mauritius: where they don’t kill the geese that lay the golden eggs

James Meade, British recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics, reported in 1961 that Mauritius faced a bleak future. The country was reliant on...
Mozambique: Brazil and U.S. join in cooperative development program

Mozambique: Brazil and U.S. join in cooperative development program

Mozambique has lots of fertile land and access to the region’s major rivers. Yet the country imports most of its food, much of it...
Ethiopia: A double standard on land related issues

Ethiopia: A double standard on land related issues

Ethiopia Agriculture Ministry, last month, rejected a petition to reconsider the lease of huge forestry lands to foreign companies. Whilst local environmentalists argue that...
Ivory Coast: 40% of world’s cocoa under threat of destruction

Ivory Coast: 40% of world’s cocoa under threat of destruction

Coffee and cocoa producers in the Ivory Coast Thursday morning torched several bags of cocoa in front of the European Union headquarters at Plateau,...
Silence over Ethiopian land grab broken

Silence over Ethiopian land grab broken

A Saudi Arabian investor has broken the culture of silence surrounding a widely criticized farmland acquisition by foreign investors in Ethiopia, which had hitherto...
Africa: Unlocking the Economic Potential of Biotechnology

Africa: Unlocking the Economic Potential of Biotechnology

By 2050 population growth is expected to translate into a 70 percent increase in global demand for food. Add the estimated 27 percent...
Ethiopia’s grain market in danger?

Ethiopia’s grain market in danger?

A yellow wheat rust epidemic, a form of wheat fungus, is devouring crops in three major wheat-growing regional states of Ethiopia. Nonetheless, a grain...
Ghana: Mars Inc. awarded for promoting sustainable cocoa production

Ghana: Mars Inc. awarded for promoting sustainable cocoa production

Much of the world’s future craving for chocolate will be met by cocoa farmers in Ghana planting cacao trees today. Mars Incorporated — a...
Zimbabwe: Magube and Zanu officials own massive farms after land reform

Zimbabwe: Magube and Zanu officials own massive farms after land reform

Almost 5 million hectares of prime agricultural land which include wildlife conservancies grabbed from productive white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe are in the hands...
Ethiopia and Niger get $84 million agricultural assistance

Ethiopia and Niger get $84 million agricultural assistance

The development agenda set by the G20 leaders at their meeting in Seoul, South Korea, November 12, calls for members to help countries reduce...
Zimbabwe: Destitution and fear among remaining White farmers

Zimbabwe: Destitution and fear among remaining White farmers

A handful of Zimbabwe’s remaining white farmers say security in the commercial farms was deteriorating at an alarming rate following the Monday, October...
Ethiopia: Agricultural sector gets positive forecast

Ethiopia: Agricultural sector gets positive forecast

Recent trade statistics in Ethiopia have shown that traders transacted about 6.7 billion birr worth of commodities under the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) trading...
Africa must feed itself

Africa must feed itself

Africa is rising. The 2010 Ibrahim Index of African Governance reveals some very good news: 40 out of 53 African countries have made significant...
Egypt’s conundrum over food security and the Nile’s water

Egypt’s conundrum over food security and the Nile’s water

Russia's decision this year to halt wheat exports has dealt Egypt a severe blow and brought many questions to the fore. Egypt’s population explosion...
African women farmers, an untapped goldmine

African women farmers, an untapped goldmine

In Africa, Women grow most of the crops and perform most of the farm labor, as they do in much of the developing world,...
Sustainable environmental development in Africa gets international backing

Sustainable environmental development in Africa gets international backing

South African researchers are benefitting from a unique partnership between NASA and agencies in Africa and Europe that is sending more than 30 terabytes...
Ethiopia gets multi-million dollar funding for agriculture sector

Ethiopia gets multi-million dollar funding for agriculture sector

The Board of Directors of the World Bank has approved a 150 million dollar fund to Ethiopia. The fund aims to support and increase...
Saving Africa’s lands from ever encroaching desert

Saving Africa’s lands from ever encroaching desert

The United Nations has designated 2010−2020 as the decade to raise public awareness of the threat posed by worsening drought and human mismanagement of...
Ethiopia gets multi-million dollar fund to boost coffee production

Ethiopia gets multi-million dollar fund to boost coffee production

In a bid to boost the capacity of Ethiopian coffee farmers the local NIB International Bank is setting up a 10 million dollar guarantee...
Zimbabwe: Mugabe lambasts Black farmers

Zimbabwe: Mugabe lambasts Black farmers

Zimbabwe's long-time ruler, President Robert Mugabe on Sunday stunned black farmers as he questioned their agriculture skills saying the current new crop of farmers...
A crop field

Ethiopia: Fear expressed over India’s massive land grabs in Gambela

Gambela, one of the nine regional states of Ethiopia is fast growing into what the local media has described as “a land grabbing” hub...
Zimbabwe: Mugabe to denounce corrupt Central Bank officials?

Zimbabwe: Mugabe to denounce corrupt Central Bank officials?

The ongoing looting of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) assets by an elite clique of senior government officials has forced President Mugabe to act. RBZ,...
Niger food crisis: 7 million people affected

Niger food crisis: 7 million people affected

Niger is faced with a serious food crisis. After launching an appeal for international assistance while facilitating the mobilization of NGOs and donors, in...
From Brazil to Kenya agriculture proves essential to development

From Brazil to Kenya agriculture proves essential to development

Nations and governments must recognize that agricultural development is essential to their economic development and security, says Paul Schickler, president of Pioneer Hi-Bred seed...
Africa’s green revolution gets a boost

Africa’s green revolution gets a boost

A second Green Revolution is starting to take root in Africa, says Cameroonian-born agriculture specialist A. Namanga Ngongi. And that is important because agriculture...
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Feed the Future initiative is right

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Feed the Future initiative is right

The Feed the Future initiative — which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger, poverty and malnutrition — is exactly the right program...
Ugandan livestock export to be banned

Ugandan livestock export to be banned

The government of Uganda will soon ban the exportation of live animals to foreign countries. This has today been revealed by Uganda's minister of state...
Zuma vows not to apply Zimbabwe style land reform in South Africa

Zuma vows not to apply Zimbabwe style land reform in South Africa

South African President Jacob Zuma says radical changes need to be effected to the nation’s “willing buyer, willing seller” model for land transactions but...