Ngororero — The Minister of Finance James Musoni has advised tea growers in the country to increase the capacity of production and the quality in order to meet the set target of 100,000 tons per hectare in the next five years.

He was speaking after visiting Rwanda Mountain Tea, Rubaya-Nyabihu Tea Factories which occupies over 200 hectares employing 8000 people. Musoni commended the investors who benefited from government privatization of the factories in 2006 for doubling their capacity through factory extension, installation of new machines and a $2.5million investment.

The chairman of Rwanda Mountain Tea, Egide Gatera said that the company is committed to increase production, improve product quality and to access worldwide markets.

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Minna — Niger State government has concluded arrangements to procure 15,000 metric tonnes of assorted fertiliser at the cost of N1.153billion for the 2009 planting season. The permanent secretary in the state Ministry of Agriculture, Engr. Aliyu Ndagi, disclosed this in Minna yesterday at a press briefing on the outcome of the state executive council meeting.

Ndagi said the government had initially requested for 30,000 metric tonnes from the federal government but which was scaled down to 15,000 metric tonnes because of the global economic recession. He explained that the 15,000 metric tonnes is made up of 8,000 urea and 7,000 NPK fertiliser.

According to him, the commodities have been subsidised by 30percent by the state government and as such, NPK would be sold at the rate of N2,900 per bag.

The permanent secretary said to make up for the short fall, 8,000 metric tonnes of assorted fertiliser which are the left over from the 2008 supplies would be added to the 15,000 metric tonnes to be procured this year. Ndagi explained that the state government will not purchase additional fertilizer from private firms this year, but would only rely on the supplies from the federal government.

Accra — There has been a lot of talk about the wonders agriculture could do for the economy of a developing country like Ghana should the industry be handled well. Agricultural lending in Africa is the lowest in the world. Less that 1percent of commercial lending in Africa goes to agriculture, with average grain yields being one quarter of the global average.

Low farm productivity is also identified as the underlying factor for widespread poverty and hunger. Ghana?s Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffour, acknowledged this in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the 52nd branch of the Agricultural Development Bank, thus encouraging more financial institutions to go into agricultural financing. However, the picture that easily comes to mind when farming is mentioned is that of poverty and hunger.

A story is told of a man who asked his three children what they would like to do in the future. One said, “Daddy, I will like to be a doctor,” and the man was happy. Another said, “I would like to be an engineer,” the man also commended him. The last boy said, “I will like to be a farmer” and hell broke lose in the house. The man and the other two children laughed their heads off and one of the boys told the prospective farmer, “You want to be poor?”

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Harare — THE media should play a pivotal role in extending information to farmers for them to acquire important skills and knowledge on farming. Extension services are critical in farming especially to resettled farmers who lack adequate skills on production.

Speaking at a National Women’s Land Rights Conference, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said information was key towards production and this could be passed to farmers through the media and farmer organisations.

This was attributed to shortage of manpower and poor resources such as transport problems. The ministry of agriculture provided cars at district level and bicycles were helping extension officers but the latter were not suitable for mountainous areas. Extension workers were travelling long distances to reach farmers while in some cases they were attending to cases late.

“We have 960 000 farmers and we cannot have an officer for each farmer but farmers can also be reached through other means. The media would be key in disseminating information,”said Dr Made.

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- Hembree Brandon, Delta Farm Press, March 27, 2009 http://deltafarmpress.com

Think of cotton as a major source of protein to feed people on a global basis. Forty years ago, agronomist Norman Bourlag’s “Green Revolution” used improved seed and fertilizers to dramatically increase yields of grain crops, saving millions from starvation and earning him a Nobel Peace Prize.

Today, many in agriculture believe a second green revolution is under way, this one based on advances in biotechnology that will significantly increase food production while reducing farming’s environmental footprint. To meet the nutrition needs of a world that adds 77 million more people each year, cotton may play an increasingly important role as a food crop, thanks to genetic advances that can produce cottonseed without the gossypol that makes it inedible for humans.

“Sustainability continues to influence key decisions in cotton research,” Drayton Mayers, president and chief executive officer of the Cotton Board, said at the annual meeting of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association at Memphis. “Cotton will play a key role as a sustainable choice for food and fiber production, as opposed to synthetic fibers that are produced from non-renewable petroleum.”

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