Kigali — The distribution of fertilisers to farmers has played a major role in boosting the country’s agricultural sector and the economy at large, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, told parliament yesterday.

Appearing before parliament to answer questions pertaining to issues raised in the report by the parliamentary Commission on agriculture, Livestock development and Environment, Kalibata said that, compared to previous years, most farmers had now adhered to the government’s call to use fertilisers to improve on their yields.

“The use of fertilisers was so low in 2006 where only four kilograms were used per hectare. We, however, scored some improvement where now the use of fertilisers has increased to ten kilograms per hectare,” she said

Kalibata told the lawmakers that to encourage the farmers to use more fertilisers, the government had taken the initiative to use the bulk purchase method to enable farmers access the fertilizers at affordable prices.

Readt he full article HERE

Nairobi — After steering a business from a simple idea to a multimillion enterprise in five years, Junghae Wainaina is both a happy and a sad man.

Happy because after a rough ride, his efforts are beginning to pay off, but sad because after spending about Ksh5 million ($66,000) to sell the concept of a potato cooling and processing facility to farmers in Nyandarua, central Kenya, he got a paltry Ksh750,000 ($1,000) and was at pains to explain to the board that as the chairman of Midlands, it was worthwhile to commit the funds to the exercise.

But that was then. The company’s shares were being sold through a private placement organised by Suntra Investment Bank at Ksh10.

Mr Wainaina thought farmers would troop in their numbers and snap up the 250 million shares on offer giving the firm a cool Ksh2.5 billion ($33.3 million) investment capital it so badly needed but that was not to be.

After the debacle, the easier option was to quit.

Read the full article HERE

Johannesburg — THE Land Claims Court has made a landmark ruling against restoring land to a community dispossessed under apartheid because the state cannot afford it.

The court ruled that only grave sites on several farms near Rustenburg in the North West, not 7 500ha of highly productive agricultural land worth an estimated R70m, would be restored to the Baphiring community.

The ruling is likely to set a precedent for thousands of outstanding rural land claims on highly capitalised commercial farms, forestry plantations and game lodges, and could offer the Land Claims Commission a neat way out of its chronic budget crisis.

The commission faced massive backlogs worth billions in signed commitments to land owners and claimant communities that it could not afford to honour.

Its budget allocation has dropped to R1,7bn from R2,1bn last year. No extra allocations were made despite several requests to the Treasury last year. This fiscal year the commission plans to spend R1,1bn to meet previous commitments, 25% of which is ring-fenced for post-settlement support. No new commitments will be made this year.

Read the full article HERE

Kampala — This year’s national agricultural trade exhibition has just ended in Gulu. One of the key lessons was that Ugandans can earn big from agriculture if they put their minds to it.

To a large extent, most ‘farmers’ in Uganda are still treating farming as a hobby, instead of a serious economic venture from which they can earn a living and create jobs for others.

Even the few Ugandans who are earning from farming are doing so on a small scale yet they could become millionaires if they did it on a bigger scale.

Holding the trade exhibition in northern Uganda this year was not a coincidence. The region was once the country’s largest food basket but with the rebel insurgency over the last two decades, agricultural activity ground to a halt.

Read the full article HERE

Johannesburg — JSE-listed agricultural services group Afgri said yesterday that it would sell its Australian John Deere business, which supplies agricultural equipment, to concentrate on Africa and expand its poultry business in SA.

Afgri has been restructuring its balance sheet and selling some of its noncore businesses, particularly retail businesses in nongrain-growing areas.

Chris Venter, Afgri CEO, presenting results for the six months to December, said the Australian venture was not a core business and the group was now looking at expanding into Africa.

“We are a major exporter of grain into the neighbouring counties,” Venter said. “We are currently looking at Africa very carefully, that is why we are focusing on the physical movement into Africa.”

Read the ful article HERE

Afgri already has an operation in Zambia and is awaiting approval from the Competition Commission on the sale of its Tsunami business unit and its Lowveld and KwaZulu-Natal retail stores. Venter said 85% of the restructuring work had been done, with just a few more businesses to be disposed of.