Kampala, Uganda | STEPHEN NUWAGIRA | Rwanda’s agriculture ministry is changing the process of seed and fertiliser distribution, according to the Minister of State minister for Agriculture, Fulgence Nsengiyumva. Nsengiyumva said Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), which has hitherto been central in the process, will no longer be directly involved, leaving the …
Read More »West African states in joint fight against root crop ‘Ebola’
Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Researchers from half a dozen states in West Africa have joined together in a battle against what one expert calls a root crop “Ebola” — a viral disease that could wreck the region’s staple food and condemn millions to hunger. Their enemy: cassava brown …
Read More »2018/19 budget: Rwanda invest more in Agriculture
Rwanda invest more in Agriculture Targets making sector climate resilient, more productive Kampala, Uganda | FRANCIS BYARUHANGA | Rwanda has again increased its budget allocation to agriculture sector and edged closer to meeting the Maputo and Malabo declarations which require member states of the African Union to allocate at least 10% of …
Read More »Africa struggles for weapons against armyworm curse
Kisumu, Kenya | AFP | On farms across Africa, a seemingly innocuous brown and beige caterpillar is waging a silent war, devastating rural incomes and posing a major threat to the continent’s food supply. In just two years, the so-called fall armyworm has colonised three-quarters of Africa, according to the …
Read More »Mozambique cracks open its cashews to boost the economy
Nampula, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique is going nuts about cashews, and they’re boosting the economy’s health. The country’s cashew nut industry, one of the world’s biggest, was dealt a body blow first by the 1977-1992 civil war and then by a controversial World Bank assistance package. Now, the government …
Read More »Museveni commissions Presidential demonstration farm in Lango
Baralegi, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has commissioned Baralegi Presidential Demonstration Farm, in Baralegi, Okwang Sub-County in Otuke District in Lango Sub-Region. The farm is the third of its kind in the country, after Kawumu Farm in Luweero District and Kityerera in Busoga Sub-Region. President Museveni said …
Read More »Researchers warn ‘Ebola for plants’ hitting Africa’s cassava crop
Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | A new disease infecting cassava — dubbed “Ebola for plants” — could spell a looming food crisis for Africa, researchers have warned, fearful that the emerging blight could decimate one of the continent’s most vital food crops. Africa is the world’s largest producer of …
Read More »UN food agency urges ‘agroecology’ to fight famine
Rome, Italy | AFP | Current food production methods are harming the planet while failing to provide millions of the world’s poor with enough to eat, the UN food agency warned Tuesday. Instead, the adoption of “agroecology”, which improves soil quality and costs less for farmers, would help reverse growing food …
Read More »Centenary Bank allocates Shs500bn for agriculture financing
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Centenary Bank has allocated Shs- 500bn to boost agriculture financing this year, according to the lender’s head of agribusiness and agricultural finance, Evans Nakhokho. Nakhokho, who was speaking during the 16th African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition in Kampala on Feb 15, said the …
Read More »Myanmar farmers going against the grain with apps
Aye Ywar , Myanmar | AFP | A free app on farmer San San Hla’s smartphone is her new weapon in the war against the dreaded stem borer moth that blighted her rice paddy in southern Myanmar for the last two years. As she watches her workers haul in this …
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