A LONG time struggle to transform agriculture is bearing fruit, giving hope for a brighter future. That was the implication in President Jakaya Kikwete’s move when launching an agricultural research facility built by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

“Overcoming the many challenges facing African agriculture is a gigantic task that requires addressing many issues including developing adequate capacities for research in order to develop high yielding and disease-resistant seeds,” said president Kikwete.

The president added: “In 2006, the government of Tanzania developed a comprehensive 14-year Agricultural Sector Development Programme to overcome the challenges. The purpose is to increase agricultural productivity through more application of modern science and technology.”

Read the full article HERE

Barring any unforseen developments, the Afram Plains will soon give full meaning to its accolade of Ghana’s major food basket.

A tour of the two farming districts of Kwahu Afram Plains North and Kwahu Afrarm Plains South depicted that farmers there are now able to cultivate four times bigger acreages than they did previously, and their output per acre has more than quadrupled, thanks to such simple-but-effective technologies as irrigation pumps, improved seeds and animal breeds.

The Afram Plains District Agriculture Development Project (APDADP) is the brain behind the mechanisation of agriculture and the wonders it is doing in the Afram Plains.

Read the full article HERE

May 15, 2013, Dakar, Senegal — West Africa has sustained a solid pace of growth for nearly two decades–a welcome change after years of stagnation and decline. The strategic question remains, however: How can the region build on this success to accelerate economic transformation and broaden growth, especially to provide regional food security?

This question will be the central theme of the workshop “Economic Transformation in West Africa: What It Means for Food Security and Poverty Reduction,” to be held on May 15, 2013, in Dakar, Senegal. The workshop is organized by the West and Central Africa Office of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Management of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (FASEG/UCAD) and the Senegalese National Agricultural Research Institute (ISRA).

Read the full article HERE

Although structural impediments such as poor logistics render the search for new avenues of deeper intra-African trade challenging’ there is an immediate and compelling growth potential in the trade of agricultural products’ Standard Bank research analyst Simon Freemantle said last week.

“Here even basic improvements in the continent’s trade’ storage and transport infrastructure’ coupled with ongoing initiatives to elevate agricultural productivity’ have the ability to reap immediate’ and potentially huge gains’” he said.

According to the African Union (AU)’ intra-African agricultural trade has accounted for an average of one-fifth of Africa’s total agricultural trade for the past five years. This compared with an average in the European Union of 78%’ and an Asian average of 60%. In some areas’ Africa’s deficit is even more pronounced: in 2011′ just 3% of all African cereal imports originated on the continent.

Read the full article HERE

LIVESTOCK experts have asked farmers to adopt scientific methods in management of animal husbandry in the country to improve animal health and production.

Assistant Director of Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Jack Ouda warned that wildlife- livestock conflict, animal nutrition and management of diseases in animals must be adequately addressed if the country is to achieve its goals of creating a vibrant livestock industry.

“We have seen the spread of diseases that affect Napier Grass which is the mainstay of forage thereby raising the question of food safety,” Said Ouda who is the vice chairman of Animal Production Society of Kenya.

Read the full article HERE