Philip Brasher, Des Moines Register (Iowa) (Blog), Nov. 25, 2009

Africa must do something to produce more food, given the challenges of climate change and a fast-growing population. Kenya alone is expected to need nearly three times as much maize, or corn, to feed its population in 2050 as it does today.

Could genetically engineered crops be the answer? I’m going to look into that question over the coming weeks in Kenya, where research is underway on new drought-tolerant varieties of corn, and in South Africa, the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that has commercialized a biotech food crop.

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The Bill Gates Foundation has approved a $19 million (about Shs35 billion) grant in support of surveys in agricultural information in Uganda, Tanzania, Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Malawi. The money is expected to help the countries generate accurate data for food security and agriculture planning.

In a statement issued from Washington DC, officials said the Gates Foundation would spend the money in funding activities involving at least two household surveys in each of the six countries, covering approximately 25,000 households.

The surveys will entail designing and implementing panel household surveys emphasising agriculture. “The data being generated by the LSMS-ISA project will have innumerable applications in national and international policy making in the fight against poverty,” said Mr Martin Ravallion, the director of the World Bank’s development research group.

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Gitarama — Clement Bizimungu, a widow and carer for three orphaned children, beamed broadly after receiving a heifer from the Bureau Social De Gitarama in Kabacuzi sector, where a cattle restocking is under way.

“This is the happiest day of my life; I will do whatever it takes to rear this cow well; most importantly, it may soon start giving me milk,” she told IRIN.

Bizimungu, an ethnic Tutsi, lost her husband and three children during the genocide. Like most people in the area, Bizimungu says it has been hard to come to terms with life after 1994, which in addition to leaving many orphans and widows, also led to the massive slaughtering of cattle, a hitherto vital economic asset and source of protein, in a country where “close to half of all children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition”, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

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Scarcity of food in the region has had a negative impact on the poultry industry culminating into increased in prices of chicken on the market.

“A year ago a kilogramme of chicken was Ush6, 000 (about $3.1) but now it costs $4.7,” Immaculate Nabatte, the sales manager Ugachick, Uganda’s leading poultry breeders told East African Business Week in an interview.

On the local market, one local chicken breed currently costs about $13. Ms Nabatte said that the scarcity of grains has been aggravated by the export of unprocessed grains which denies the industry the opportunity to get chicken feeds.

“For the poultry industry to grow more I think the government should come up with some kind of regulation to encourage people to export processed grains such that the bi-products can be used as chicken feeds,” she said.

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NIGERIA – The Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR), Lagos has identified disease outbreaks as a major challenge in fish farming.

The Executive Director of NIOMR, Mr Olajide Ayinla told The Daily Triumph this earlier in the week at a training workshop on fish diseases and control.

The workshop was ‘Jump starting nationwide healthcare delivery in fish farming through hand-on practical training’.

Mr Ayinla said that outside the problem of high cost of fish feeds, health problems in fish farming constituted a serious threat to sustainability in the industry.

“Farms are closing down due to losses incurred as a result of heavy mortalities experienced in disease outbreaks,” he said.

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