Happy New Year From #TeamFoodFarmNews

Happy New Year From  #TeamFoodFarmNews

The New Year is the perfect time to unfold new horizons and realizing all dreams.

Africa: Zim Earns $870m From Tobacco

Tobacco

Zimbabwe has earned $871, 2 million from 176,4 million kilogrammes of tobacco exported mainly to South Africa and China since the beginning of 2017.

Liberia: Smartphones Take Agricultural Data Collection to New Level

Farmer

The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) with support and funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has engaged several extension workers in a three-day training at the Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko District, Bong County.

Gambia: 60 SECCOs to Operate in 2017 / 2018 Groundnut Trade Season

Groundnut

The Management of the National Food Security, Processing and Management Corporation has informed the press that 60 Cooperative Producers' Marketing Societies have been pre-financed by the National Food Security, Processing and Management Corporation and they are currently operating.

NASS sets to probe 15% cassava bread levy

Speaker of the house of Representative, Yakubu Dogara

·        Cried out on 10m job losses with investment

The House of Representatives, National Assembly, sitting in Abuja has mandated the Committees on Agriculture and Banking/ Currency to investigate the disbursement of 10billion cassava bread fund just as they complained about job and investment losses of growers running to millions of naira due to delay in implementation.

Zambia: Lungu Commissions U.S.$5 Million Fertiliser Plant

fertiliser

THE Government expects the price of fertiliser in the country to reduce as President Edgar Lungu officially commissions the US $5 million Zambian fertiliser blending Plant at the Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ) today.

Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa Govt 'Orders Land Grabbers to Vacate Farms' - Report

A Tobacco farm in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's new minister of lands, agriculture and rural settlement, Retired Air Marshal Perrance Shiri, has reportedly ordered those who have illegally occupied farm lands to leave "immediately" or face the wrath of law.

Uganda: The Money in Making Banana Fibre Products

A hut made of dry banana fibre.

Uganda is the second largest producer of bananas after India with about 9 million tonnes produced annually. All this production creates tonnes of waste in form of stems and stocks. These are returned back to gardens to be used as fertilisers or mulching materials.

HOW TO GROW A SUNFLOWER HOUSE

SUNFLOWER HOUSE

Five steps to growing a sunflower tower: a fun summer activity your kids or grandkids will love. You’ll be blooming sprouts of sunshine in no time!

Does Your Christmas Tree Need to Be Organic Too?

Christmas tree farmworkers cutting and collecting trees

*The answer has less to do with pesticide exposure at home than ag chemicals polluting waterways where trees are grown.

Sokoto Sesame farmers pleaded Gov for quality seeds

Sokoto Sesame farmers group picture

The Sokoto sesame seed farmers have passionately demanded from the State Government improved sesame seeds for planting during the ongoing dry season saying it was an economic crop that is in high demand in the international market, and first in the export earning among others agricultural crops in the country.

Central African Republic: Fish Farming Project Helps Refugees Feed Themselves

Cameroon

The United Nations says humanitarian needs in refugee camps in Cameroon are increasing, exceeding the means available to take care of the growing number of refugees.

Ethiopia: Ministry Strives to Empower Pastoral, Semi-Pastoral Society

Farmers

ADDIS ABABA- Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF) said that it has been working to transform the lives of pastoralist and semi-pastoralist people particularly in drought prone areas of Oromia, Somali, Afar and South Nations Nationalities and People states over the past two quarters of this fiscal year.

Pix @ 12th Dec. 2017 sesame seed farmers training at Sokoto. Upper table and cross section. Farmers were taken through best agricultural practice for better yield from 300kg-500kg to I. 3 tons per hectare so as to meet market demand.

Pix @ 12th Dec. 2017 sesame seed farmers training at Sokoto. Upper table and cross section. Farmers were taken through best agricultural practice for better yield from 300kg-500kg to I. 3 tons per hectare so as to meet market demand.

Pix @ 12th Dec. 2017 sesame seed farmers training at Sokoto. Upper table and cross section. Farmers were taken through best agricultural practice for better yield from 300kg-500kg to I. 3 tons per hectare so as to meet market demand.

Africa: Better Soil Could Trap As Much Planet-Warming Carbon As Transport Produces - Study

Better Soil

The extra carbon that could be stored from rejuvenated soil is equivalent to 3 to 7 billion tonnes of planet-warming carbon dioxide.

Kenya: Why It's Too Early to Write Off Coffee As a Top Income Earner

 Coffee

Every morning, George Kamau wakes up to tend to his coffee farm before carrying out any other business.

He makes sure the trees are free from diseases and pests before joining his wife in their retail shop. The kiosk is located at the edge of his one-acre farm that borders the busy Karatina-Sagana Road.

South Africa Poultry Group Calls for Probe of Forced Labour in Brazil

Chicken

South Africa's poultry industry body has asked the government to investigate allegations of forced labour in the sector in Brazil, the world's largest poultry exporter.

Wheat farmers angered, demand speedy mop-up, quality seed

Wheat Stakeholders

Wheat farmers across the producing states of the nation have expressed their unhappiness to post harvest challenges associated with cost just as they demanded government intervention for mop up the excesses and provision of quality seeds.

We are ever grateful to Fadama 111 AF say Sokoto farmers

 Sokoto farmers

The farmers in Sokoto state of Northern Nigeria have been counting their blessings in the last two seasons harvest since the launch of Fadama 111 Additional Financing (AF) by the  Governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal on May 29, 2016.

VIDEO: Soil Solutions to Climate Problems - Narrated by Michael Pollan

IFAD targets 1.5m farmers under Climate adaptation programme

Journalists Interviewing the Director Department of Agriculture Resources and Climate Change, and Supervising Director CASP. Dr. Sunday Modibo

  * Seven  states to benefit

 

The Climate Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (CASP), a programme under International Food and Agriculture Development (IFAD), was targeting farmers with the aim of reviving their livelihoods.

Agriculture Sector Contributes With 12 Percent to GDP

farmer

The Angolan agricultural sector currently contributes only 12 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a figure still low considering the potential of the country, said today in Luanda, the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Livestock, Carlos Alberto Pinto.

Farmers call for more govt support

Farmers

*Partners Oyaoya for increased market

Farmers under the aegis of Commodity Association for Zero Hunger have called for more support from the Federal Government to enable massive production of food across the country. The call was made during its recently held meeting in Abuja.

ALGON unveils Comprehensive Local Agriculture Plan

Cross section of the Comprehensive Local Agriculture Plan conference held in abuja

·       *  Stakeholders lament local governments absence 

The Association of the Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) has recently in an International Seminar in Abuja unveiled its Comprehensive Local Agriculture Plan project (C-LAP), a project focused at aggregating 774 local government farms, with strong linkages to national retail chains, thereby creating a network for direct agricultural produce delivery from the door step of farmers through its local governments to mega market at state capitals.

Thieves Ditch Shipping Container With Chicken Product Worth R400 000

Chicken

A stolen trailer carrying a 12-metre shipping container with 24 tonnes of chicken, valued at about R400 000, has been recovered in Verulam, north of Durban, police and private security said.

FG, Brazil partner on food security

Chief Audu Ogbeh

*Establishes cottage fish farms in states

Nigeria and Brazil have agreed to explore an inter-ministerial framework for partnership on food security as the Brazilian delegation, led by Minister of External Relations, Aloysio Nines Fereirra, and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh  cemented the cooperation talk on the occasion of the 2017 World Food Celebration.

Nigeria Customs Intercepts 506 Bags of Imported Rice

Rice Bags

The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, said its command in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara zone had intercepted 506 bags of foreign rice concealed in bags of beans smuggled into the country.

‘We are incurring Demurrage. Collection of import duties on imported agric equipment will make production cost high’ says GM, Goshen Greenland

motor cultivated tractor

The effort of the past administration to diversify and reposition the country’s economy through the removal of import duties on agricultural equipment has been reversed by the Nigerian Customs Service, and this has led to high production cost with negative consequences on small holder farmers across the country.

Revival of Mozambique Grain Institute

Grain

The government has revived and restructured the Mozambique Grain Institute (ICM), giving it the power to coordinate agricultural marketing, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Max Tonela, told the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday.

Fishery groups merged to enhance productivity

Fish

In a bid to enhance opportunities and productivity in the fisheries industry, various groups in the sector have united to become an Amalgamated Association of Fish Farmers and Aquaculture of Nigeria, said the chairman of the new body, Hon. Hussaini  Abdullahi Roha .

Researchers and policymakers meet in Tanzania to discuss cassava agronomy

IITA Drirector for Central Africa Hub, Dr Bernard Vanlauwe addressing participants at the ACAI meeting in Tanzania

Scientists across Africa and their colleagues in other parts of the world are meeting with policymakers in Tanzania under the auspices of the African Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) to discuss the progress made in the last two years in providing clues to the agronomy of cassava.

Palm oil: Stakeholders reject Olam importation under ETLS

·     

Oil palm stakeholders at a meeting held yesterday

   * Ask FG to collect 35% duty tax

The application requesting Federal Government (FG) for the importation of ninety five (95,000) metric tons of crude palm and other affiliated finished products running to billions of dollars under the covers of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) by Olam Nigeria Limited, an Indian agro based company in the country may have hit the rock as major indigenous stakeholders have out rightly rejected the proposal saying all importers must pay the agreed 35% duty tax without ETLS exception that would short change the nation’s economy.

Trade Minister Rules Out On Govt 'Cutting Down Sugar Prices'

Sugar

The minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Amelia Kyambadde has dismissed reports that cabinet plans a tax waiver for imported sugar to drive down sugar prices in the domestic market.

EDITORIAL- Reducing post-harvest food losses

post-harvest food losses

That farmers produce more than enough food to go round is a truism which is not easily realized because millions of people still go to bed on empty stomach every day.

Kwa Didi - Closure of Kicukiro Abattoir Leaves Bitter Taste for Many

Leaves Bitter

The City of Kigali's decision to permanently close down SATRA abattoir, commonly known as "Kwa Didi," has been greeted with mixed reactions from business operators and other stakeholders such as persons who have been working with the entity.

FCA staffs ask FG to sack provost

Hon. Linus Okorie

·        *  NASS says bring your petition, declares strike illegal 

Despite the 4^th December reconciliation meeting held at the National Assembly (NASS), the members of three staff unions at the Federal College of Agriculture, Moorplantation have demanded the removal of the school provost by the Federal Government (FG) as they expressed dissatisfaction for not being heard at the Abuja meeting chaired by the House committee on colleges of agriculture, Hon. Linus Okorie who reacted saying the illegality of the unions’ strike was the reason why all the parties were not allowed to talk.

Zim Urged to Develop Strategies for Horticulture

Horticulture

Zimbabwe should develop strategies to foster growth of the horticulture sector for it to retain its position as the country's second largest foreign currency earner after tobacco.

How to Manage Egg Breakage By Layer Chickens

Egg

Egg breakage by layer chickens is something most poultry farmers are familiar with.

Aflatoxin: African experts declare war, lament low awareness

Group Picture at the Country-Led Situation Analysis and Action Planning Validation and Stakeholder Workshop on Aflatoxin, held in Abuja

As an effort to ensuring food security across the country, experts in the agricultural sector have jointly declared war on "Aflatoxin", a silent killer and a threat to food security just as they have agreed to create awareness on dangers posed by the fungus to human and animal health and food production.

ECOWAS Charged to Enforce Gender-Friendly& Inclusive Agricultural Laws

ECOWAS

ECOWAS countries have been tasked to enforce gender-friendly and inclusive agriculture laws to increase production and value-chain in order to meet up with Africa's Zero Hunger target by the year 2025.

Angola Imports Over 400,000 Tons of Rice a Year

Rice

Angola imports 400,000 tons of rice a year to add to its locally grown 25,000 tons and thus meet its market needs.

One Third of Food Lost, Wasted - Enough to Feed All Hungry People

Food Waste

Believe it or not, the way to eradicate hunger from the face of the Earth is as feasible as it is handy. In fact, the current loss and waste of one-third of all food produced for human consumption would be just enough to feed the nearly one billion people who go to bed hungry every single night.

Maize: PAN promises against importation

Eggs and chicken

On maize importation, the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has pledged support to the policy that will ensure banning maize import and entrenched backward integration for wealth and job creation.

Rice Importation Drops By 95% - Ogbeh

Chief Audu Ogbeh

The minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh,  disclosed that rice importation into the country has dropped by 95 per cent in the last two years due to consistency in the federal government's efforts at drastically reducing importation of the food product into the country.

PRESS STATEMENT; FG GOES TOUGH ON SMUGGLING ACTIVITIES OF RICE, FROZEN FISH AND POULTRY PRODUCTS

Chief Audu Ogbeh

The attention of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been drawn to the alarming rate at which unpatriotic Nigerians are smuggling agricultural products such as rice, frozen fish and poultry products (Turkey and Chicken) into the Country through the border routes especially as Christmas and New Year approaches.

Importation of rice and frozen fish through land borders is illegal and prohibited. Importation of poultry and poultry products through any means are also illegal and prohibited.

Maize Stakeholders, FAO disagree

Group Picture at the 2017 Maize Day held in Abuja.

·         *Say no to aflasave

Against the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recent report on low maize production in the country, the Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN) has punctured  this position, argued that it was a deliberate act to under rate the country’s performance position in the world rating.

Alert! Maize lethal necrosis disease

*Expert warns Nigeria

As maize farmers in Nigeria were still battling with losses incurred by army worm, experts have cautioned on another very devastating disease called “Maize Lethal Necrosis” (MLN).

Tizeba Warns Suppliers of Substandard Maize Seed

Maize Seed

THE Minister for Agriculture, Dr Charles Tizeba, has said that the Southern Highlands Zone regions are leading in the country for supplying and selling substandard and fake maize seeds causing serious consequences to farmers, including low productivity of the crop.

Johannesburg's New 'Agripreneurs' Dig for Green Gold On Skyscraper Rooftops

View from the top of the "Chamber of Mines" building in the central business district of Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 15, 2017.

The soaring "Chamber of Mines" building in central Johannesburg, a hub for South Africa's mining industry, is a symbol of a bygone era when pioneers began flocking here in the late 19th century to dig for gold.

From Thorny to Tasty - UN Agriculture Agency Looking At Cactus As Climate Resilient Food

Cactus

With the reality of climate change becoming more real by the day, including its impact on food sources, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is urging communities around the world not to take the prickly cactus for granted.

World Bank Trains 1300 Kano Farmers On Addressing Agronomic Problems

World Bank

One thousand three hundred Kano State farmers received training on measures to adopt in addressing agronomic problems as a way of improving agricultural practices in the state under World Bank's Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMMING) project.

UBL MD Tips Farmers On Quality Production

farmer

Mark Ocitti, the Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) managing director, has advised farmers and suppliers of locally-grown raw materials to aim for top quality of products.

BOA differs on recapitalization

The Executive Director, Bank of Agriculture (BOA) Limited, Mr. Olabode Abikoye

The Executive Director, Bank of Agriculture (BOA) Limited, Mr. Olabode Abikoye has expressed that the Federal Government’s fund injection into commercial banks for onward lending to farmers may not really proffer solution to finance challenges of farmers saying government cannot continue putting money for the purpose of lending, but rather the farmers should engage in saving and lending to do farming business.