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Agriculture in Africa

  • FAO Warns of High Food Prices

    AFRICA, 2015/08/18 The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned of sharp food price increases and an increase in the need for imports in Southern Africa this year because of the low maize harvests in the previous season. Regional maize output this year is estimate at 21.1 million tonnes, or 15 % lower than the five-year average. This is according to the new release of the monthly FAO Food Price Index (FPI) and the new edition of the quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation statement, both issued last month.

  • Ugandan sugar deals continued yesterday,

    UGANDA, 2015/08/18 The political battle over Ugandan sugar deals continued yesterday, with Deputy President William Ruto accusing Cord leader Raila Odinga of owing the ailing Mumias Sugar Company millions of shillings. Without mentioning Mr Odinga by name, Mr Ruto said politicians who owe Mumias money should be made to pay their debts. Speaking in Matungu constituency, in the Mumias sugar belt, Mr Ruto told Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale to ask his colleagues in Cord to pay their debts because they were part of the problems that contributed to the near collapse of the giant miller. "I saw my friend Khalwale at a press conference with some of the people who owe Mumias Sugar millions of shillings and I thought he would tell them to pay up the debts," said Mr Ruto.

  • Over 2000 Volunteers Weed President Jammeh's Rice Field in Sotuma

    GAMBIA, 2015/08/18 Over 2000 volunteers of the seven districts in the Upper River Region, mainly women and security officers, on Thursday descended on the President's rice field in Sotuma-Samba of the Jimara District of URR. The volunteers expressed optimistic that the region will be crucial in making Vision 2016 initiative reality, taken into account that the people are committed towards ending decades-long importation of rice. Speaking to the Daily Observer on the sidelines of the weeding activity, the governor of the region, Alhaji Omar Sompo Ceesay said Vision 2016 is fundamental to the socio-economic development of the country. He commended the leadership for the bold initiative, adding that next all, our development prospects rest, for the majority part, on the hands of our own people. He said the agriculture sector is really improving and that if Gambians continue to hold on to the food-sufficiency initiative the vision will be completed.

  • A girl farms the land during the rainy season outside Gereida, Sudan

    EGYPT, 2015/08/08 The countries covered by the Egyptian project for foreign agriculture have an abundance and diversity of water sources, but declining agricultural development due to lack of funding and agricultural machinery. In Sudan, which has a surface area of ​​1.8 million square kilometers (445 million acres), cultivated areas do not exceed 45 million acres, according to the latest statistics by the Central Bank of Sudan. That is about a fifth of the country’s arable area, estimated at 200 million acres.

  • Initiative with Ethiopia aims to boost opportunities for rural youth

    ETHIOPIA, 2015/07/23 FAO and the government of Ethiopia today signed a partnership agreement which aims to reduce youth mobility caused by poverty, through innovative policies that will create jobs and business opportunities for young people in the agricultural sector and in rural areas additional broadly. The two-year project is being supported with funds provided by the Italian government and aims to obtain a better considerate of the dynamics that lead rural people – youth in particular – to leave their homes and seek employment elsewhere. The improved evidence on rural migration trends and impacts will help policy-makers, improve agricultural and rural development policies in order to increase employment opportunities, and make rural areas additional attractive to young people.

  • Avian flu in West Africa / FAO , prevent spread across region of 330 million

    BENIN, 2015/07/23 Fears are growing that without timely intervention to stem outbreaks of the highly virulent avian flu virus H5N1 across West Africa, further spread across the region and beyond is inevitable, FAO said today. To this end, the agency is calling for $20 million for prevention and response activities. The call follows outbreaks of the virus in poultry farms, markets and family holdings in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. The outbreak comes as nations across West Africa are still recovering from, and in some cases still battling, Ebola. Avian flu could trigger a mass die-off of chicken – a nutritious and inexpensive source of food for a lot of people– with detrimental impacts on diets and on the economy of the region, exacerbating an by presently difficult situation.

  • Italy supports agricultural development in Angola

    ITALY, 2015/07/22 The governments of Angola and Italy plan to sign a memorandum of considerate on agriculture, as part of a three-day visit to Luanda Italian Minister Maurizio Martina began Monday, according to Angolan news agency Angop. The Italian Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry is due Tuesday to attend the Italy-Angola Business Forum, taking place on the sidelines of the 32nd edition of the Luanda International equitable (Filda) . During his remain in Angola, Maurizio Martina is due to meet with the Minister of Trade, Rosa Pacavira and the Secretaries of National for Industry and Fisheries.

  • Mozambique will have the biggest eucalyptus nursery in Africa

    MOZAMBIQUE, 2015/07/21 Portuguese pulp and paper group Portucel Soporcel is due next September in Mozambique to start setting up the biggest eucalyptus nursery in Africa, the group’s CEO said Friday in Setúbal, Portugal. Diogo da Silveira told the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, during a visit to the group’s industrial complex in Setúbal, that the nursery will have an initial capacity of 12 million plants/year, which may double by 2016. Portucel Mozambique, the group’s subsidiary set up in 2009, will invest in the a transversal and integrated forestry project in Mozambique, inclunding forest plantations, and pulp and paper and energy production from biomass.

  • Angola plans to increase corn production

    ANGOLA, 2015/07/19 Angola plans, in the next two years, to produce 63 % of the corn it consumes and to spend 100 billion kwanzas on the Support Plan for Corn Production in Angola, approved by presidential decree. The plan aims to increase corn production to 4.9 million tons, compared to production of 1.3 million tons in 2014 from Explorações Agrícolas Empresariais (EAE) and over 359,900 tons from Explorações Agrícolas Familiares (EAF), an all which covered just 40 % of national needs (4.2 million tons).

  • Saudi Star to restart rice project on disputed Anuak land in Ethiopia

    SAUDI ARABIA, 2015/07/02 Saudi Star to restart rice project on disputed Anuak land in Ethiopia. According to Cropwatch, Saudi Star Agricultural Development plans to pump $100 million into a rice export project in Gambella region of Ethiopia despite allegations of human rights violations surrounding the “villagization” program under which the land has been taken from indigenous Anuak pastoralists to lease to foreign investors. The company is owned by Mohamed al-Amoudi, who was born in Ethiopia to a Saudi father and an Ethiopian mother. Al-Amoudi made a fortune from construction contracts to build Saudi Arabia's national underground oil storage complex. Presently a billionaire a lot of times over, al-Amoudi has invested heavily in Ethiopia where he owns a gold mine and a majority stake in the national oil company.


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