Agric & Biotech

The National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) has said that Biotech Cotton (Bt cotton) will impact Nigeria’s economy by increasing the growth of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GM Bt Cotton is said to have failed in Burkina Faso, with farmers making claims from Monsanto Dr Rose Gidado, the Deputy Director, NABDA, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on ...

Millions of hectares of sandy, infertile Australian farmland could benefit from the commercialisation of a South African shrub, allowing farmers to better carry sheep over the summer-autumn period. L-R: Cynthia Motsi from the Agricultural Research Council, Professor Ben-Erik van Wyk from the University of Johannesburg, CEO Dr Shadrack Moephuli and President of Agricultural Research Council and Professor John Howieson from ...

The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) says that, despite agriculture loan opportunities, lack of structure along the value chain has remained a major challenge to farmers needing finance. Youths involved in farming. Photo credit: smeonline.biz Aliyu Abdulhameed, Managing Director of NIRSAL, made this made known at end of the 2019 Agriculture Summit Africa, organised by Sterling Bank ...

China plans to roll out environmental-friendly agrochemicals into the Kenyan market, an official said on Thursday, September 5, 2019. Use of agrochemical Dong Qingli, with China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), told a regional agricultural forum in Nairobi that China had developed new solutions that could effectively tackle local pests. This, he said, would go a long ...

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. ...