Agric & Biotech

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has identified Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) and Zoonosis as one of the major challenges constraining the country’s agricultural sector. Zoonosis is animal diseases transferable to man. Mr Suffyan Koroma, the FAO Country Representative made this known in Abuja on Monday at a three-day training on Good Emergency Management Practices (GEMP). Koroma, who was represented ...

Genetically modified (GM) “male-sterile” mosquitoes are due to be released in the very near future, in Burkina Faso by the Target Malaria research consortium, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has disclosed. Target Malaria acknowledges however that there are no benefits to the proposed GM mosquito release. According to Mariam Mayet, Executive Director of the ACB, “There is absolutely no ...

The Senate Committee on Environment has lauded the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) over its modern state-of-the-art Genetic Modification (GM) Detection and Analysis Laboratory. The senators made the commendation during an oversight visit to the agency in Abuja on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018 while they were taken on a tour of the agency’s laboratory. Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment, Senator ...

No fewer than 75 million cows slaughtered for consumption end up wasting every year, a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says. The UN agency, in a report entitled “Preventing Nutrient Loss and Waste Across the Food System: Policy Actions for High-quality Diets” in New York also stated that regular eating of poor-quality food had become a ...

Ranching cannot end challenges of pastoral migration in Nigeria because it was not successful in the past, an anthropologist, Mr. Roger Blench, has said. Blench, a Briton, made the assertion on Thursday, November 8, 2018 in Abuja at the public presentation of a Brochure entitled: “Towards a Peaceful Co-existence between Herders and Farmers in Nigeria.’’ The News Agency of Nigeria ...

A biotechnology expert, Mrs Eniyekpemi Ebimoboere, has said that development of environment-friendly hybrid seeds will boost production of local vegetables and food security in the country. Ebimoboere, the CEO of Afritropic Farming and Agric Services, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 in Lagos. She said the availability and development ...

Germany has said that it will use all legal options to end the use of glyphosate-based weed-killers. Environment Minister, Svenja Schulze, said on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 that the federal environment agency would announce new conditions for the approval of pesticides. “If other, perhaps even more damaging, pesticides are used instead of glyphosate, the environment won’t be any better off. ...

The African Union (AU) is said to be paving the way for the entry of the latest and most controversial form of genetic engineering – gene drive technologies. In July 2018 the AU released a report endorsing the development of the technology as well as “enabling legislation” for their deployment across its member states. The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), ...

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for partnership with the Federal Government and some universities on the inclusion of food and nutrition security analysis in master’s degree curriculum. The Country Representative of FAO, Mr Suffyan Koroma, made the call in Abuja on Friday, November 2, 2018 at the presentation of October 2018 Cadre Harmonise (CH) Analysis Outcome ...

Australia’s Department of Agriculture says the department is preparing to import grains for the first time over a decade as the nation’s drought takes hold. The department said in a statement released on Thursday, November 1, 2018 that it was assessing five options to import bulk whole grains from the U.S. and Canada. If it goes ahead, it will be ...