Bimini100, Author at TractorExport.com

Smartphone technology revolutionising African farming

As Internet access has broadened in Africa, technology firms have been able to reach an ever wider audience. That trend is set to continue, with half of Africa’s one billion people predicted to have Internet access by 2025, according to consultancy firm McKinsey & Co, who also predicted that 360mn smartphones will be in use in the continent in the next ten years. Under these conditions, mobile technology has been revolutionising the way African farmers do business. One such example is Kenyan [...]

April 22, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Ethiopian farming data released by World Bank

The Central Statistical Agency (CSA) has released data from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey (ESS) carried out alongside the World Bank last month The survey, a joint project between the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) and the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (CSA), included data on agricultural practices, as well as other indicators of socioeconomic well being. The project is the eighth of its kind in Africa, with the World Bank having implemented similar programmes in Burkina Faso, [...]

April 20, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Funding scheme aims to strengthen African value chain

The third round of the FoodTrade East and Southern Africa (ESA) Challenge Fund was launched this month The UK-funded programme aims to encourage innovative funding proposals from businesses in agricultural staple value chains in East and southern Africa, providing grants to of up to 49 percent of the total investment cost to successful applicants. This round will award grants from £100,000 to £1,000,000 to companies doing business in two or more countries covered by FoodTrade ESA, that propose innovative investments to [...]

April 16, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Mobile agro-weather tool developed in Kenya

A new agro-weather tool has been developed in Kenya to help local farmers Liberian rice traders will be the first target of the investment initiative. The web- and mobile-based tool was developed by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Organisation (KALRO) and provides farmers with real-time weather forecasts. Financed by the World Bank under the Bank Netherlands Partnership Programme (BNPP) on sustainable development climate change window, the tool incorporates climate information and best-bet agronomic management recommendations for farmers. Farmers register online or through their [...]

April 13, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

New centre to give training on sustainable farming in Zambia

German Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) has announced it will open Zambian-German Agricultural Knowledge Centre (AKTC) to offer sustainable agricultural techniques to the farmers of the southern African country Zambia-farmerTogether with the private sector partners and the expertise of the implementing consortium, AKTC plans to become a state-of-art training centre in Zambia. (Image source: WorldFish/Flickr) BMEL plans to launch the centre in April 2015, it said. According to BMEL, AKTC will conduct trainings for machine operators, farm managers, agricultural institutions, farm [...]

April 9, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

African farmers turn to climate-smart agriculture

Farmers in Africa are increasingly embracing climate-smart agriculture, a recently released book has claimed African farmers turn to climate-smart agricultureClimate-smart agriculture aims to increase productivity using a number of sustainable farming techniques. (Image source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/Flickr) Evidence of Impact: Climate-Smart Agriculture in Africa was written by researchers from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). At a time when the effects [...]

April 7, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

AGCO Africa drives further growth in sustainable agriculture

Agricultural equipment manufacturer, AGCO, held its fourth annual AGCO Africa Summit in Berlin, Germany Tractors-AGCOAGCO Africa discussed the private sector's involvement in the growth of Africa's agriculture sector at a summit held in Berlin, Germany (Image source: AGCO) The summit, which discussed Africa’s agricultural development driven by the private sector, is a joint initiative of AGCO Bayer CropScience, DEG-Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft and Rabobank. “Ensuring food security is the top priority for many African Governments who struggle to afford imported food [...]

March 30, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Kenyan dairy farmers receive US$25.14mn funding

Non-profit group Family Group Foundation and Heifer International Kenya have signed an agreement to provide financial support worth US$25.14mn to small-scale dairy farmers in Kenya The EADD programme will focus on building social capital and will actively pursue partnerships. (Image source: USAID/Flickr) The project will be partly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and will target around 136,000 farmers in Kenya, Family Group Foundation said. According to the foundation, the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) programme has been designed to boost [...]

March 25, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Tanzanian farmers to benefit from weather station technology

The Tea Research Institute of Tanzania (TRIT) in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will install automatic weather stations in all tea growing regions of Tanzania. Benjamin Mtaki, crop water management programme leader at TRIT, said, “The automatic weather stations are able to give different information like weather forecasting, outbreak of pest and diseases as well as soil water deficit for the purpose of irrigation.” Mtaki added that the automatic weather stations can also determine the planting season and [...]

March 23, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Brazil’s corn and soybean crops flattening out influenced by climate conditions

Brazilian growers will sow 8.98m hectares with safrinha, or second crop, corn this year, a decline of 230,000 hectares on the 2014 figure, Conab said in its first evidence-based estimate for plantings. Previously, it had estimated farmers sowing the same area with safrinha corn as last year – a record 9.21m hectare. The decline in safrinha sowings will also result in the first drop in Brazil's second-crop corn production in seven years – albeit of a modest 126,000 tons, to [...]

March 18, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...