Agric & Biotech

An Agriculture and seeds company, Agritropic Ltd., says it provides local farmers seeds that are suitable for Nigerian climate and soil. Mrs Nonye Igbo, spokesperson for the company, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday, December 14, 2018. Igbo said: “Getting the right crop or vegetable seed that suits both ...

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has urged member countries to adopt innovations and encourage collaborative efforts at achieving sustainable agriculture and food security globally. The organisation’s Director-General, Mr José da Silva, made the call in his address on Friday, December 14, 2018 at the end of the council’s week-long meeting held in Rome, Italy. He said that no country ...

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has predicted that Africa will need a whopping $7 billion for its rice imports annually by 2020. Abebe Haile-Gabriel, Officer-In-Charge of the FAO Regional Office for Africa, said this in his message on Monday, December 10, 2018 at the opening of the two-day conference on Sustainable Rice Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Ada ...

The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) has appealed to the Federal Government to grant farmers affected by recent flooding fresh loans to enable them to engage in dry season farming. The National President of RIFAN, Alhaji Aminu Goroyo, told newsmen in Abuja on Monday, December 10, 2018 that this would also enable the farmers to service their loans. Goroyo, ...

British pro-GMO activist, Mark Lynas, appears to have angered African farmers over what looks like a misuse of their images on the internet to promote his agenda. The farmers have demanded that Lynas remove their images and names from all online platforms. These developments are documented in a new report by Dr Eugenio Tisselli, an IT specialist, and his co-author, biosafety scientist and ...

Consumer groups in Zambia on Friday, December 7, 2018 took a swipe at a state-run institution that regulates Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for allowing the importation of GMO foods. Genetically modified foods, also known as genetically engineered foods, or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA, using the methods of genetic engineering. ...

Country Coordinator of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), Mrs Rose Gidado, says Nigeria is ready to adopt bio-technology (BT) in boosting production of cowpea. Gidado made this known in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday, December 7, 2018. Bio-technology is a term adopted by an international convention to refer to ...

World food prices declined in November to their lowest level in over two years, led down by much weaker vegetable oil, dairy and cereal prices, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday, December 6, 2018. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) food price index, which measures monthly changes for basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged ...

Ghana’s forestry sector is noted for several things, key among which is the different kinds of debates it generates from time to time. For instance, in the 1990s to the early 2000, the debate revolved around the timber industry’s seemingly hijack of the sector. From 2000 on, the debate dwelt on the lack of transparency, representation and consultation in the ...

Innovation and investments worth trillions of dollars in landscape restoration, climate adaptation and science-based policy advice will be needed if the global community is to meet the escalating threats posed by climate change. To meet these demands, the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), also known as World Agroforestry, the two leading organisations focused on ...