Agric & Biotech

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) has commended Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, for his assertive stand on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni On Tuesday, August 27, 2019, Museveni for the second time declined to sign a controversial genetic engineering regulatory bill into law, citing safety and security concerns. Museveni sent the bill back to parliament ...

Nigeria has made history by becoming the first country in the world to approve biotech cowpea, thereby adding a new biotech crop to the global biotech basket. Cowpea This is according to the Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM (Genetically Modified) Crops in 2018 (ISAAA Brief 54) and disclosed in a news release by the International Service for the Acquisition of ...

Project Manager, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Dr Sylvester Oikeh, says biotechnology crops have great contribution to global food security, sustainability and climate change. WEMA Project Manager Dr. Sylvester Oikeh, evaluates the performance of conventional, drought-tolerant maize at a field demonstration plot Oikeh made this known in Ibadan on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at the 32nd Annual International Conference of Biotechnology ...

Kenya plans to promote the use of technology in agriculture in order to boost the country’s food security, a government official on Wednesday, August 15, 2019 said. A Kenyan farmer Jerome Ochieng, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology, said this at a region forum in Nairobi. The African Policy Road Show forum was organised by the ...

Nigeria has expanded its biological technology space to accommodate evolving trends, thanks to a piece of legislation that recently received Presidential approval. President Muhammadu Buhari President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law the National Biosafety Management Agency (Amendment) Act, 2019 Bill, which is essentially a modification to an existing regulation. The new law, according to the National Biosafety Management Agency ...

Speakers at a science communication forum in New York have lauded Nigeria’s steady but significant progress in agricultural biotechnology especially the development of BT cowpea. Nigeria’s Patience Koku, Chief Executive of Replenish Farms, speaking at the event The event was hosted by the Cornell Alliance for Science (CAS), an advocacy group championing genetically engineered crops or GMOs around the world. ...

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (ATF) says the Pot Borer Resistant (PBR) variety cowpea seeds may likely be commercialised for farmers by 2020 planting season. Cowpea Dr Issoufou Abdourhamane, the Regional Head of Africa of ATF made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 in Abuja. Abdourhamane said this was feasible ...

German chemicals giant, Bayer, is facing 5,000 more lawsuits in the U.S. against its subsidiary Monsanto due to its potentially carcinogenic pesticide Roundup, the company said on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. A farm is treated with a weed-killer The 5,000 additional lawsuits were filed in the last three months, bringing the total number of charges against the company to 18,400, ...

For every time Stanley Meets Mutesa  as described by David Ribadu, from the pre-colonial days till recently, the story ends with Africa opening up her doors to episodes of exploitation. The first is mental exploitation; making us believe we have a problem and the West has the key to solving them with all holy intention. Critics fear genetically modified foods ...

The Presidential Initiative on Cassava, launched in 2003 during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, was designed to promote cassava as a viable foreign exchange earner for Nigeria. Cassava farming Then President Goodluck Jonathan sustained the programme by launching the cassava flour initiative. The progamme was meant to bring to the fore, the potential of cassava cultivation and to ...