Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector To Benefit From Equity Deal
In a landmark transaction announced last Friday, Zeder Investments Limited, a South African listed agricultural investment company is committing $46.7-million to acquire and expand an agricultural business in Nigeria that will be known as Chayton Africa.
Niger Onion Producers in Tears Over Market Glut
Bitterness is written all over Boureïma Hamado’s face as he prepares to return home after selling his onion crop at the Katako market in the Nigerien capital, Niamey. He’s taken a big loss on the harvest.
World Bank approves US$100 million to scale up Agriculture in Ghana
The Board of Directors of the World Bank today approved a US$100 million credit to support the Government of Ghana’s efforts to scale up the development of commercial agriculture nation-wide.
Zimbabwe’s Mopani Worms Disappearing from Rural Diets
Job Mthombeni loves traditional food. One of his favourite culinary delights is Mopani worms, referred to locally as amacimbi, which means caterpillar in Ndebele. At an early age he understood the nutritional value of the worm, which is found in his rural hometown of Plumtree, in southwestern Zimbabwe.
Twice `extinct` trees rediscovered in coastal Tanzania
Scientists have confirmed the rediscovery of two species of trees feared to have been extinct twice, according to a report published in the Journal of East African Natural History.
Deforestation rates double in the Congo Basin: Report
The report, State of the Forest, is the most recent comprehensive assessment of forest cover in the six-nation Congo Basin, Central Africa. It cites population growth, immigration, economic development and global demand for natural resources as the major pressures on the forests.
AGRICULTURE: Saving Kenya’s Maize Crop
While some maize farmers in Kenya’s Western Province are stilling living off the produce from last season’s harvest, Robert Oduor is counting his losses after the deadly Striga weed infested his one-hectare maize field.
Escaping parasites and pathogens
In nature, how do host species survive parasite attacks? This has not been well understood, until now. A new mathematical model shows that when a host and its parasite each have multiple traits governing their interaction, the host has a unique evolutionary advantage that helps it survive.
Linking farmers to markets critical for Africa’s rural development
As a food crisis unfolds in West Africa’s Sahel region, some of the world’s leading experts in agriculture markets say the time is ripe to confront the “substantial inefficiencies” in trade policy, transportation, information services, credit, crop storage and other market challenges that leave Africans particularly vulnerable to food-related problems.
