Agric & Biotech

A San Francisco judge made a surprise ruling on Monday, October 23, 2018 and upheld a jury’s verdict that Monsanto‘s Roundup weedkiller gave a California groundskeeper cancer, and that the company failed to warn him of the danger, CNN reported. Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos had issued a tentative ruling on Oct. 10 ordering a new trial over the punitive damages awarded to plaintiff Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, ...

Cashew Desk Officer in the Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Chijioke Egbo, has called for planting of cashew in the southeast to prevent and control soil erosion. Egbo,who gave the advice in Enugu, the state capital, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, October 29, 2018, said cashew trees have the potential of saving ...

The Head of Training, National Water Resources Institute (NWRI) Kaduna, Dr Martin Eduvie, has cautioned farmers against the use of waste water for irrigation. He told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, October 20, 2018 in Kaduna that some farmers rely on water from drains, lavatories, septic tanks or soakaway, among others, for irrigation, which are not ideal for agriculture. He said ...

Global food movement leaders and organisations representing hundreds of millions of farmers and food workers in Rome on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 (World Food Day) set out their clear opposition to “gene drives” – a controversial new genetic forcing technology. Their call for a stop to the technology accompanies a new report, “Forcing the Farm”, that appears to lift the ...

Managing Director, American International Insurance Company (AIICO), Edwin Igbiti, on Wednesday, October 17, 2018 in Lagos advised Nigerian farmers to insure their crops against flood and other natural disasters. Igbiti told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the recent loss of farm produce to flood called for a rethink, especially knowing that many of the farmers affected did not ...

The Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), and Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IITA), Ibadan on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 launched a five-year “Cocoasoil Project’’ to improve cocoa production in Nigeria. The programme is themed: “Sustainable intensification of cocoa production through the development and dissemination of integrated soil fertility management”. Speaking at the occasion in Ibadan, the Oyo State ...

The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 said patenting of its Automated Irrigation System (AIS) would enable mass production and improve mechanised farming in the country. Dr Bonaventure Okere, the Acting Director of the agency’s Centre for Basic Space Sciences (CBSS) in Nsukka, Enugu State, made this known in an interview with the News ...

Agriculture economists have expressed concern about how agricultural activities in the country have taken the back stage since the discovery of oil. They note that agriculture sector, comprising the cultivation of and keeping poultry and livestock, among others, has played a dominant role in the country’s economy in the past. They observe further that as the major hub of the ...

A cross section of line Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in collaboration with the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) have reviewed and validated a National Biosafety Mainstreaming Strategy that will further strengthen the biosafety regulatory regime and its inclusion in various sectors of the economy. The National Biosafety Mainstreaming Strategy document developed by the NBMA was presented, reviewed and validated ...

An international organisation, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), has advised Nigerian farmers to take advantage of the newly approved Genetically Modified (GM) cotton varieties to boost cotton production. Country Coordinator of OFAB, Dr Rose Gidado, gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday, October 12, 2018. She said that ...