Tag Archives: Agriculture

Regulator says aggressive marketing and awareness would reverse the poor performance Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda’s agriculture sector has been associated with many risks – unstable prices, drought, pests and diseases – thus hampering its growth. This prompted the government to unveil a Shs5bn Agriculture Insurance Premium Subsidy Scheme last …

Beatrice, Zimbabwe | AFP | Standing outside the gates of the farmhouse from which he was evicted in 2008, white Zimbabwean Deon Theron knows he will never get his land back. But he does believe that Robert Mugabe’s fall after almost 40 years in power could lead the new government …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe has banned the importation of fruit and vegetables to save scarce foreign currency in the face of a worsening economic crisis, state media reported Tuesday. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told The Herald that President Robert Mugabe had directed that the importation of horticultural products be …

Allada, BENIN | AFP | From his chair in the middle of a pile of pineapples, Jean-Xavier Satola supervises cutting and packaging, as Benin — Africa’s fourth-biggest exporter of the fruit — starts trading again after an eight-month self-imposed absence. The fields of Allada in southern Benin are a hive of …

Mumbai, India | AFP | Twenty Indian farmers have died and hundreds of others are in hospital after inhaling poisonous pesticides while spraying crops, officials said Monday, highlighting lax safety standards in the country. The farmers in the western state of Maharashtra, one of India’s most important agricultural regions, died after …

Miami, United States | AFP | Traces of pesticides that act as nerve agents on bees have been found in 75 percent of honey worldwide, raising concern about the survival of these crucial crop pollinators, researchers said Thursday. Human health is not likely at risk from the concentrations detected in a …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  The cocoa crop of Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer, increased 28.5 percent to a record 2.15 million tonnes in the 2016-17 season, the national Coffee and Cocoa Council said Friday. Exports increased by 23.3 percent to 1.9 million tonnes, helping to raise the …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  The chocolate industry is indirectly driving massive and illegal deforestation in Ivory Coast, fuelling a catastrophic decline in wildlife, a green group said Wednesday. “In several national parks and other protected areas, 90 percent or more of the land mass has been converted to …

Farming in Nigeria is not for the fainthearted. Ilorin, Nigeria | AFP | Intermittent electricity means generators are needed half the time. Chronically potholed roads make transport slow and expensive. Fake fertiliser has previously devastated crops, while toxic feed ruined one dairy farm. But for a group of 13 hardy farmers …

Soc Trang , Vietnam | AFP | With a flashy gold watch and a chunky matching ring, Tang Van Cuol looks a far cry from the average Vietnamese farmer as he slings back a shot of rice wine and boasts about his projected earnings. After years scratching a living growing rice …