Rwanda Integrated Improved Livelihoods Program (IILP) will soon inject US$ 12.5 to boost access to finance among the rural poor.

Amy Davis, chief of party United States Agency for International Development -USAID said the project locally known as USAID Ejo Heza (A brighter future) aims at building the capacity of low income households to effectively identify and access appropriate financial services necessary to strengthen their enterprises.

The project is a subsidiary of US President Barrack Obama’s initiative of Feed the Future global project and is crafted by CHF international with funding through USAID.

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Agricultural science service provider Farmsecure Agri Science (FAS) has strengthened its position in South Africa’s deciduous and table grape industries.

Through the merging of the well-respected soil science consulting firm, Agricultural Consultors International (ACI), into the services of FAS, as well as the acquisition of the research and development company ExperiCo, Farmsecure Agri Science now offers an extensive, comprehensive and reliable suite of agricultural scientific services.

Farmsecure Agri Science is part of the Farmsecure Group and an integral role player in realising the Group’s vision of making a meaningful contribution to securing the world’s food supply by “Creating Sustainability and Profitability in Agriculture”.

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Machakos — For a couple that has weathered the dual tests of early retirement and repeated crop failures, it might have seemed an impossible dream to former primary-school teacher Philip Ngolania and his farmer wife that their three quarters of an acre farm could one day yield enough staple food to last an entire season.

But a visit to the local office of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) early this year ushered in a fresh beginning for the 62-year-old father of four grown sons, whose land barely produced enough food for the family’s daily meals in this drought-parched area east of the capital, Nairobi. Since that visit, he says, the family’s prospects have improved dramatically.

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The new director general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the world’s flagship agency for food policy, has indicated that Africa will be his priority at a time of limited resources.

In his first press conference, held on Tuesday, José Graziano da Silva said he wanted to see “one FAO” acting at country level.

“Many of these poor [African] countries have no facility of going to donors,” he said. “The FAO will be there to support those countries to achieve the desired results.”

Graziano da Silva, who played an important role in Brazil’s successful “zero hunger” initiative, argued the key to improving food security in Africa was the political will to eradicate hunger, which could in turn be translated into action through financial resources, research and good practice.

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