New app to help Kenyan farmers with climate-smart seeds

Bimini1002015-06-21T10:52:59-05:00

A new mobile phone app in Kenya could help farmers by providing information on seeds best suited to the changing climate and growing conditions A new app provides climate-specific seed information to farmers in Kenya. MbeguChoice, meaning seed choice in Swahili, is a free app developed jointly by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, seed companies and Agri Experience, with support from the Kenya Markets Trust. Philip Leley, an advisor to the United Nations’ Food [...]

July 1, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Agriculture must be treated as a business, says Buhari

Bimini1002015-06-15T20:44:05-05:00

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has spoken of the importance of agriculture to his economic plan President Buhari says Nigeria must stop treating agriculture as a development program. Speaking at the 55th annual general meeting of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in Calabar this week, the new head of state said the full potential of the industry in Nigeria had yet to be explored. “Nigeria has huge agricultural potential with more than 84mn hectares of arable land, [...]

June 29, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Challenges after harvesting and how to deal with them

Bimini1002015-06-25T09:25:05-05:00

Following harvest professional producers today face three important challenges, the first his crop residue management, also growers need to eliminate compaction and reestablish the pore space into the soil to improve internal drainage and water holding capacity, the final step is to level the soil afterwards so that all the corn plants can come up and emerge uniformly. Crop residue management today presents several challenges or opportunities for producers, the first is to look at the nutrient value residues after [...]

June 25, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Argentina’s soybean crop forecasted to be comfortably above 60m tons

Bimini1002015-06-06T22:21:21-05:00

Surprising Argentina: with over 90% of the soybean crop harvested, (approximately 17.2 million hectares), the Buenos Aires Cereals Stock exchange has again risen the total 2014/15 crop estimate to over 60 million tons. “So far the average yield stands at 3.300 kilos per hectare, we can thus estimate the current total harvest at 57.4 million tons”, said the Cereals chamber. The areas with the highest yields were to the south of Santa Fe and Cordoba provinces with an average of 4.100 [...]

June 24, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

USAID Zimbabwe agricultural programme draws to close

Bimini1002015-06-06T22:10:18-05:00

An agricultural development programme run by the US government in Zimbabwe will reach its end this week The five-year Zimbabwe Agricultural Income and Employment Development (Zim-AIED), which has been run by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since October 2010, will officially close at a ceremony in Lupane tomorrow. The event, which will be attended by Zimbabwean agriculture minister Joseph Made and US Ambassador Bruce Wharton, will be held at the site of Tshongokwe irrigation scheme in Zimbabwe’s northern [...]

June 22, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Nigeria’s first sugarcane bio-factory opens

Bimini1002015-07-02T14:31:51-05:00

Production has begun at Nigeria’s first sugarcane bio-factory in the city of Zaria at Kaduna state. The facility, which will have the capacity to produce one million sugarcane seedlings per annum, was declared open by Nigerian trade minister Olusegun Aganga at Zaria’s Ahmadu Bello University in May 2015. “A bio-factory is a facility where disease-free crop seedlings are rapidly micro-propagated under a controlled laboratory environment for planting in the fields,” Aganga explained. “This facility is designed to address a critical constraint facing [...]

June 17, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Ethiopia to resume teff exports after ban lifted

Bimini1002015-06-15T20:33:29-05:00

The Ethiopian government plans to lift ban on the export of local gluten-free grain teff Ethiopia to resume teff exports after ban lifted Teff is indigenous to Ethiopia, and is high in protein, amino acids, calcium and iron. It is understood that the indigenous Ethiopian grain could follow in the footsteps of its South American counterpart, quinoa, in becoming the next superfood. Teff seeds are high in protein, amino acids, calcium and iron, and low in saturated fat, prompting interest from health [...]

June 15, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

World Bank extends loan for Ethiopian agriculture

Bimini1002015-06-15T20:38:19-05:00

The World Bank has extended a US$350mn loan for the development of the farming sector in Ethiopia World Bank extends loan for Ethiopian agriculture The Ethiopian farming sector suffers from various problems, including poor access to markets. The agreement, which was signed late last week by Ethiopian economic development minister Ahmed Shide and the World Bank’s Ethiopia director Guang Z. Chenon, will see additional funds channelled to various projects, following the successful first phase of the country’s Growth and Transformation Plan. Ahmed [...]

June 10, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Antibiotic alternative wins Africa innovation prize

Bimini1002015-06-15T20:32:53-05:00

The Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2015 has been awarded to Moroccan researcher Adnane Remmal Remmal won the US$100,000 grand prize at the event, hosted by the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) in Skhirat, Morocco this week, for his antibiotic alternative for livestock farmers. The patented all-natural anti-microbial formula reduces health hazards in livestock and prevents the transmission of multi-resistant bacteria and carcinogens to humans through consumption of milk, eggs and meat. “My innovation provides farmers with solutions to improve their production,” said [...]

June 8, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Mobile phones to boost productivity and incomes of 30,000 Tanzanian farmers

Bimini1002015-06-15T20:31:20-05:00

Vodafone Group, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and not-for-profit organisation TechnoServe has announced it has signed an agreement to deploy mobile technology to increase the productivity of thousands of low-income, smallholder farmers in Tanzania Under the agreement between the CFA, agribusiness Olam International and Vodacom Tanzania, around 30,000 of Olam’s coffee, cotton and cocoa smallholder farmers in Tanzania will receive farming advice via text message, stated Vodacom Tanzania. According to the company, notifications will also be sent out about [...]

June 3, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...