Focus on agriculture financing in Uganda

Bimini1002015-06-28T15:20:23-05:00

A new agriculture finance programme has been launched in Uganda to establish a finance programme conducive to local farmers A new platform aims to help farmers secure financing in Uganda. Three organisations, Uganda Agribusiness Alliance (UAA), SNV Uganda and Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) have come together to launch this programme that aims to move agriculture financing higher up on the government’s agenda. UAA chairperson Victoria Sekitoleko, also a former agriculture minister, said in early June, “There is a lot of mistrust [...]

July 15, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

Namibia progressing on agri-tech infrastructure

Bimini1002015-06-28T15:17:30-05:00

Inaugurated in late January this year, The National Agriculture Technology Centre (NATC) in Rundu is about to start operations soon The centre was inaugurated by Agricultural Business Development (AGRIBUSDEV), an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry and has been setting up equipment and other machinery, as well as recruiting staff. It will soon offer farm machinery repair services to commercial and communal farmers and also manufacture nuts and bolts. A local engineer, Reinhold Nsinano has been appointed [...]

July 13, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

UN invests US$32mn to improve Ugandan agriculture

Bimini1002015-07-09T09:23:32-05:00

The United Nations has revealed it has invested more than US$32mn in Ugandan agriculture since 2009  The WFP has trained more than 16,000 farmers in grain storage and handling practices in 2014. Operating through its subsidiary, the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN targeted the funds at infrastructure and training to improve market access and agricultural productivity, particularly with regard to the production of grain. “WFP is providing more than 1,000 farmer groups with critical information, skills and modern tools which enable [...]

July 8, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

New farming methods to help Ethiopian farmers

Bimini1002015-06-21T10:55:36-05:00

A slew of projects focussed on sustainable intensification of farming methods is aiming to improve food and nutrition security and boost incomes for Ethiopian farmers As part of the Feed the Future initiative of the US government, USAID is supporting three multi-stakeholder agricultural research projects looking at farming in Africa. A training workshop for farmers from various states in Ethiopia was recently conducted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT). Held at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, [...]

July 6, 2015 Uncategorized Comments OffRead more...

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...