Alligator pepper means different things to different people. It is served along with Kola-nuts to guests for entertainment, as communion and used for religious rites by diviners for invoking spirits. It is a common ingredient in pepper soup, a spicy delight in most parts of West Africa.

But since antiquity, alligator pepper has been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of many diseases. The alligator pepper plant has both medicinal and nutritive values and the extracts of its seeds has been used as an antidote to dysentery and diarrhoea. What is more, it is an effective herb for the treatment of snake bite.

But alligator pepper, which is called names such as grains of paradise, Atare (in Yoruba), chitta (Hausa), or Guinea pepper, is one seed individuals with diabetes might find very good in ensuring the regulation of their blood sugar, thus protecting them from complications of the disease such as blindness and limb amputation.

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Cassava, one of the most staple foods in Nigeria, has low nutritional content, but this can be improved using biotechnology, a modern approach in improving agricultural yield. Chinyere Amalu, in this piece, examines the issue.

In many countries, economic growth and sustainability depend on the strong performance of the agricultural sector. Biotechnology which has proved to be one of the modern tools of improving agricultural yields, when combined with the science of breeding, has produced varieties that deliver increased value globally.

Application of some scientific processes (like biotechnology) has in recent times helped in improving nutritional content of some stable foods such as cassava, maize and rice, which about 70 percent of the African populace, including Nigeria, depends for survival on daily basis.

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The Federal Government represented by the ministries of finance and agriculture, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nigerian deposit money banks for the financing of the supply of seeds and fertiliser to Nigerian farmers during the 2012 farming season.

The Minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, while signing the agreement yesterday in Abuja said the aim of the move was to effectively withdraw the hand of the government from agriculture and encourage the full participation of the private sector, which she said was the only way the sector could experience rapid growth.

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Access to improved seeds by smallholder farmers is a prerequisite to increased maize production in West Africa, as climate change hurts yield from traditional varieties, a study by researchers working under the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project (DTMA) has shown.

The study authored by Dr. Abdoulaye Tahirou and others notes that improved maize varieties tolerant of drought are helping farmers in addressing production risks and called for joint efforts to facilitate their wider dissemination across the subregion.

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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation says a new variant of brown streak disease of cassava is affecting large parts of East Africa and endangering sources of food and income.

Experts at FAO say the disease is close to becoming an epidemic, especially in the Great Lakes Region, and have called for urgent increase in funding, research, training and surveillance to help farmers and breeders.

The region is already affected by cassava mosaic disease, another challenge, but it is thought that the appearance of brown streak disease in areas previously unaffected as well as a lack of continued funding for research have added to the present threat from CMD.

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