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Agribusiness / Food in Africa

  • Stanford University Business Program Takes Root in East Africa

    UNITED STATES, 2016/05/11 Building on the success of its program in West Africa, Stanford Seed, the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, has announced the launch of the Seed Transformation Program in East Africa. In May, the initial group of promising business leaders selected by Stanford Seed will gather in Nairobi to begin a 12-month transformational process led by world-renowned faculty from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Aimed at driving sustainable increase in the East African regional economy through private-sector-led development, Seed will train these established entrepreneurs from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia, in a yearlong, interactive, educational journey based out of Seed’s new regional center in Nairobi, Kenya.

  • Done Sensibly, Agricultural Development Can Reduce Poverty in Africa

    AFRICA, 2016/04/21 The recovery and acceleration of economic increase in sub-Saharan Africa since about 1995 has been widely recognised. But less is known about the extent to which this increase has led to improvements in welfare and poverty reduction in particular. In our recently published, open-access book, we attempt to provide a comprehensive assessment of increase and poverty on the sub-continent. We researched 16 detailed country case studies. Together, these represent nearly three-quarters of the people of sub-Saharan Africa. An significant message from ten of the nations we looked at is that there are potentially high returns to policies that take agriculture seriously. Nations that place a particular emphasis on upgrading the capabilities of small-scale farmers are additional likely to achieve broad-based development objectives. And failure to take agriculture seriously, particularly smallholder agriculture, will leave people behind. It will as well drive up food prices and imports, and dim increase prospects.

  • Egypt rejects Canadian wheat cargo again over fungus fears

    EGYPT, 2016/04/16 Egypt rejected a cargo of Canadian wheat for a second time due to a dispute over the level of ergot fungus, deepening a standoff with traders presently reluctant to sell the grain to the world’s major importer. Quarantine officials at the Ministry of Agriculture turned away the 8,000-metric-ton cargo again next a initial rejection before this month, according to a Cairo-based trader familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the data isn’t public. The supplies met the acceptable levels of ergot, a naturally occurring fungus, the trader said.

  • Egypt to ban rice exports amid hoarding

    EGYPT, 2016/04/04 Egypt will ban rice exports in its effort to end a surge in prices half driven by local traders hoarding the grain. The ban, effective April 4, will help “achieve stability in rice prices for consumers,” the ministry of trade said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. The decree comes just days before the government’s grain purchaser seeks to buy rice in an international tender on Saturday. Even as Egypt produces a surplus of the grain, the country has been hit by local traders holding back supplies to try to push up prices.

  • Kenya: Uhuru Waives Coffee Licensing Fees, Levies in Sotn Address

    KENYA, 2016/04/02 President Uhuru Kenyatta has waived, "with immediate result," coffee licensing fees and levies in an effort to improve the livelihoods of farmers and to make the sector additional lucrative. President Kenyatta has as well directed the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Treasury and Attorney General to undertake a review of tea and sugar levies. He said he expects the waiving of coffee licensing fees and levies to boost the earnings of farmers by four %.

  • Tanzania: Fish, Fruits, Tobacco Lift Local Export Price Index,

    TANZANIA, 2016/04/02 The increase in prices of fish and crustacean, edible fruits and tobacco contributed significantly to the rise of the in general export price index by 4 % to 125.3 in the quarter ended December last year. The sub-index for 'Fish and crustacean, mollusk and other aquatic invertebrate' which account for 9.5 % of the total weight increased to 122.4 in the quarter under review representing an increase of 1.2 % compared to 121.2 recorded in third quarter.

  • Tanzania: Sugar Board Denies 'Shortage'

    TANZANIA, 2016/03/08 Deceitful traders allegedly conspiring to create artificial sugar shortage in the country came under strong condemnation yesterday, with authorities describing them as economic saboteurs who deserve stern punitive measures. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT), at different forums in Dar es Salaam, has assured the people of sufficient stock of the essential commodity, pleading with the public to volunteer any data that could lead to the arrest of all those who connive to hoard sugar. SBT Director General Henry Semwaza directed all major distributors at a press conference held in the city to urgently release all the stocked sugar to the market.

  • Africa: Bees Can Help Boost Food Security of Two Billion Small Farmers At No Cost

    AFRICA, 2016/03/06 The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today highlighted the publication of a new study that quantifies, for the initial time, how much crop yields depend on the work of bees that unknowingly fertilize plants as they move from flower to flower. In doing so, the agency says bees may have a key role to play in improving the production of some two billion smallholder farmers worldwide and ensuring the food security and nutrition of the world's growing people.

  • Rwanda: Maize Farmers

    RWANDA, 2016/02/22 Stakeholders in maize price chain have vowed to stamp out speculative buyers in order to streamline trade. During a maize stakeholders conference in Kigali on Wednesday, speculative buyers were cited as the major challenge impeding maize trading in the country. Evariste Tugirinshuti, the president of maize farmers' association said lack of maize collection centres was the major cause of persistent speculative buyers. He said, "farmers have organised themselves in cooperatives through which they sell their produce. However, a lot of of them sell to speculative buyers to avoid walking long distances to transit collection centres. If we had enough collection centres as it is for Irish potatoes, I think the issue of speculative buyers could be addressed."

  • Coffee farmers from Mount Kenya want to hold a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta

    KENYA, 2016/02/09 Coffee farmers from Mount Kenya want to hold a conference with President Uhuru Kenyatta over the sector's crisis at the same time as he tours the region threatening to uproot the crop if no solution is reached. The 400 farmers converged at Kerugoya Stadium on Monday to chat the way forward. They spoke of how cartels have infiltrated the coffee market and exploited them for decades. They said only the President, who will be in the region Wednesday, could intervene and save the situation.
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