Africa > East Africa > Agriculture

Agriculture in East Africa

  • Kenya's tea industry moves toward strategic diversification

    KENYA, 2016/06/19 Reducing a reliance on bulk black tea is a key objective for Kenya as it looks to boost revenue from one of its flagship agricultural sectors. Kenya is the world’s leading exporter of black tea, which accounts for 95% of the country’s in general tea production, making it one of its major agricultural exports. Tea exports generated earnings of KSh125.3bn ($1.23bn) in 2015, a 23% increase from the previous year. The jump in revenue was the result of higher prices due in large part to a weaker harvest, with 2015 crop yields at 399.2m kg, a 10% year-on-year decrease, according to data from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA). Prospects for 2016 are somewhat additional muted, with overseas tea sales predicted to generate between KSh115bn ($1.14bn) and KSh120bn ($1.19bn).
  • Polish tractors ploughing a furrow to Africa

    POLAND, 2016/06/17 The new transaction worth $50-million (44-million-euro) provides for the delivery of 2,400 tractors, tools and spare parts and includes equipping an assembly hall and service centres located in Tanzania. It's Ursus' third transaction in Africa. "We believe that our currently realized contracts will facilitate negotiations with prospective partners because Ethiopia is the benchmark for other African nations," CEO Karol Zarajczyk said. The Sole transaction as well covers sugar cane trailers and the construction of a tractor assembly plant in the country. Polish tractor maker Ursus signed a huge contract with Tanzania's National Service Corporation Sole. The contract was Ursus' third deal in Africa, a market that many Polish entrepreneurs are looking to boost.
  • China-aided bamboo agri-business pays off Will Istanbul summit offer viable solution

    UGANDA, 2016/05/10
  • Kenyan officials benefit from Chinese-funded training on rice production

    CHINA, 2016/03/23 Gladys Mwafungo, a senior agricultural officer in Kenya's coastal county of Kilifi and her five colleagues have sharpened their skills in rice production thanks to a two month training program sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in June last year. During an interview with Xinhua on Sunday evening, Mwafungo said her study tour to China's Yuan Longping Agricultural Hitech Institute exposed her to cutting edge technologies on production of hybrid rice. "I went to China mid last year for an exchange program on hybrid rice production sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce. The two month training focused on technologies used in production of high yielding rice varieties," said Mwafungo.
  • Agriculture to head discussion list at ATF Kigali event Kigali, Rwanda

    RWANDA, 2016/03/04 At the same time as Africa’s top economists, policymakers, business leaders, and development practitioners gather in Kigali in March for the initial African Transformation Forum (ATF) one of the major discussion topics will be how to use agriculture as a base for the continent’s economic transformation. The ATF, which takes place in Kigali, Rwanda on March 14-15 is organized by the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) and the Government of Rwanda.
  • Why the 'Green Revolution' Is Making Farmers Poorer in Rwanda

    RWANDA, 2016/02/21 A major strategy to reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is through modernisation of agricultural production. The "Green Revolution" policies being implemented promote modern seed varieties and inputs to boost production of marketable crops. This is meant to raise farmers' incomes, develop their nations' economies and, by doing so, combat hunger and poverty. In the 1960s and 1970s similar strategies helped a lot of farmers and transformed economies in Asian nations. Similar attempts yielded poor results in Africa. However, a new wave of Green Revolutions is being implemented across the region. These are justified by governments and donors as an essential response to rising people, limited land and a need for increase to fuel additional general development.
  • Portugal’s Portucel increases investment in pulp project in Mozambique

    PORTUGAL, 2016/01/26 Portuguese pulp and paper company Portucel plans to increase investment in Mozambique from US$2.3 to US$3 billion, the company’s director in Mozambique, Pedro Moura, said. Moura, in an interview with Reuters, said the increase in investment was the result of “technological developments of equipment producers” and would increase pulp production capacity. Portucel’s forestry and industrial project for the production of paper pulp and energy in Mozambique is expected to create 7,500 direct jobs and export worth US$1 billion per year.
  • Hiked Electricity Charges Will Cripple Irrigation Farming

    ZAMBIA, 2015/12/14 JERVIS Zimba has charged that the Patriotic Front government is treating farmers like idiots by failing to engage them before making critical decisions that affect the industry. And Zimba, a local farmer and former Zambia National Farmers Union president, says increased electricity tariffs will terribly cripple irrigation farming and from presently on trigger high prices of wheat and soya beans.
  • Malawi Cotton Farmers to Smile All the Way to the Bank

    MALAWI, 2015/12/14 Cotton farmers in Malawi are all smiles following the raise in cotton prices by over 90 % for those on arrangement farming with Cotton Ginners Africa Limited. The company's general manager Spencer Dzimbiri told a news conference in Blantyre that the cotton firm will splash out K1.3 billion in loans for farm input for over 100000 cotton farmers. Dzimbiri said this planting season, his company will be buying cotton at K375 per kilogram up from K195 kilogram per kilogram last year. "We want to motivate our esteemed farmers to grow additional cotton. In Malawi we have beautiful good land, beautiful weather and hard working people," said Dzimbiri.
  • German multinational, the Bosch Group, wants to help lift the quality and returns from Ethiopian coffee

    GERMANY, 2015/12/08 German multinational, the Bosch Group, wants to help lift the quality and returns from Ethiopian coffee by supplying better processing equipment and expertise. "We believe that technology is the best way that the coffee industry can move up the price chain in Ethiopia and compete globally. This is why the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) works with companies like Bosch to make this a reality," Vandan Rughani, the Managing Director of Bosch East Africa said last week in Addis Ababa. He was speaking at the initial International Coffee Processing and Packaging Round Table organised and paid for by the Group, specifically, Bosch Packaging Technology. According to a statement, participants came from UNIDO, several industrial and agricultural institutions, large business, small and medium business owners, farmers, civil society inclunding local and international aid agencies. Central to the talks was agreeing on a strategic bid to enhance food security.