Kenyan farmers grow chives to meet growing export demand

Bimini1002015-12-18T13:42:19-05:00

Chives, a herb belonging to the onion family, has become the crop of choice for a group of farmers in Kenya’s Nakuru County After reaching maturity in about 45 days, chives are harvested every 20-25 days for up to three years. More than 80 farmers from Bahati constituency of Nakuru County who used to earlier farm maize and beans have switched to growing chives. Forming a group together, and in a partnership with seed company Premier Seeds and Chase Bank, they [...]

December 4, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Three agri-tech start-ups chosen for business incubation programme

Bimini1002015-12-01T21:08:16-05:00

Three African agri-tech start-ups have been chosen to be part of an incubation programme meant to educate them on business know-how and bring up the condition of agriculture Technology and digitisation are needed to improve Africa's agriculture sector. Ampion Venture Bus, a start-up boot camp with 40 participants, along with the German Ministry for International Cooperation and Development (BMZ) will support young African entrepreneurs to build agri-tech start-ups in southern Africa. The participants were from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, France and [...]

December 2, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Agricultural expansion main factor of Brazil’s deforestation and it’s expanding

Bimini1002015-11-07T21:20:25-05:00

The study, prepared by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, says the destruction of Amazon jungles and the savannahs of central Brazil went faster between 2010 and 2012 that in the previous 10 years. While between 2000 and 2010 destructive changes were inflicted on some 7% of Brazilian territory, in the two-year period between 2010-2012 the process was speeded up and about 3.5% of the country's natural vegetation was destroyed. One of the contributors to the study, Eloisa [...]

November 30, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Wealthy nations expenditure on its farmers far outstrips global food aid

Bimini1002015-11-07T21:17:56-05:00

Wealthy nations spend 20 times more on farm subsidies than the US$12 billion they allocate to food aid and support for poor farmers annually, John McArthur, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, the think-tank which led the new research, said. Japan spends 59 times as much supporting its own farmers than on food aid and nutrition support, while countries in the European Union spend 42 times as much and the United States spends 16 times as much, the Brookings [...]

November 25, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Farmers bank on precision farming to increase food production and get value for their effort.

Bimini1002015-11-07T21:12:46-05:00

By Victor Amadala | Thu 05 Nov, 2015 A recent study by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on how to scale up farming practiced in order to maintain the resource base on which farmers depend on termed precision farming as a sustainable way of agricultural production to enable farmers increase production and cut on production cost while taming environmental degradation that has direct effects on agricultural production. The study indicated that farmers can reduce inputs by 30-45 per cent, [...]

November 23, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

New world agriculture census round to begin in 2016

Bimini1002015-11-07T21:10:42-05:00

A new global round of country-driven agricultural censuses is set to begin in 2016 to gather information and statistics on the sector Mobile phone applications and other user-friendly dissemination tools can help to ensure broader access to census results. To support the process, FAO has published a set of updated guidelines to assist governments in carrying out their national-level agricultural censuses, tailored to various different country needs and capacities. This is the latest edition of guidelines, which FAO provides every 10 [...]

November 18, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

US$12mn grant for maize production in sub-Saharan Africa

Bimini1002015-11-07T21:08:01-05:00

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has received a US$12mn grant to boost maize production in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania in the next four years The project will adapt modern technologies to promote maize value-chain strategies. (Image source: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture/Flickr) IITA has received the money in collaboration with the Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa (TAMASA) project, and the grant has been given by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. TAMASA was launched in May this year, [...]

November 16, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

New potato varieties to boost productivity in Tanzania, Kenya could borrow some tips

Bimini1002015-11-07T21:04:15-05:00

By Brian Moseti | Wed 04 Nov, 2015 Mtanga Farms Limited (MFL), in partnership with the Tanzanian government, has announced the registration of four new potato varieties – the first to be released in Tanzania in 30 years. MFL, a commercial farming operation in the southern highlands of Tanzania – rehabilitated in partnership with Thirty Degrees East, a Mauritian investment company, through impact investments by UK-based Lion’s Head Global Partners, U.S.-based Calvert Foundation, Nigerian investment firm Heirs Holdings and its [...]

November 11, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Satellite data to help Ugandan smallholder farmers

Bimini1002015-11-07T21:02:23-05:00

The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has launched a US$4.96mn project in Uganda to benefit more than 350,000 smallholder farmers The multi-year project will use satellite data to improve production and marketing of the value chains of maize, soya beans and sesame. This is in collaboration with six other partners, with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and will run till August 2018. Designed as a demand-driven, market-led, user-owned ICT4Ag-enabled information service, the programme aims to [...]

November 9, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Electronic system to check fake agro products in Uganda

Bimini1002015-10-24T20:36:20-05:00

Uganda’s government plans to unveil an electronic system that will enable farmers determine if their agricultural inputs are genuine or counterfeits at the point of sale. The new system is called Uganda National Bureau of Standards e-tag Goldkeys Agro-verification. It will use the e-tag quality certification and auditing service of Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) and mPedigree’s Goldkeys serialisation and authentication engine. This would create a channel for verifying not only the source and supply chain status of agro-inputs, [...]

November 4, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...