Agric & Biotech

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 ...

Gov. Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State has urged the federal and state governments to set up grazing areas to address the incessant clashes between herders and farmers in the country. Al-Makura made the call on Wednesday, October 31, 2018 in Lafia, the state capital, at the stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Presidential Committee on Farmers/Herders crises in collaboration with the ...

Expansive lush sugarcane plantations stretching to 8000 hectares in Kenya’s semi arid Kwale County along the coastal line is a clear testimony that irrigated agriculture could be the magic bullet for a green revolution in Africa. Yields at the Kwale sugar plantation are higher than they would be were it to be rain-fed, and there is no need to worry ...

In developing and middle-income countries including Ghana, women generally make up almost half of the farming population. And, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the agricultural productivity of these women could increase by 20 to 30 percent, if they could have access to productive resources as men do. This assertion by the UNDP is an indication of the ...