Agric & Biotech

The World Bank and Nest in Nairobi announced on Thursday, July 6, 2017 a call for applications for the Agritech Challenge 2017. The initiative is the first open innovation programme of its kind in Kenya. Its aim is to connect promising startups and innovators with one of the region’s leading agribusiness corporates. The challenge, which is sponsored by the World Bank, aims ...

The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) and the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) as part of efforts to regulate genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and its products in the country. Signing the MoU on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 in Abuja, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, NBMA Director General/CEO, ...

Speaking at the Roundtable on Food Security in the Niger Delta on Thursday, July 29, 2017 in Abuja as part of the EU Climate Diplomacy Week, Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), says that food is a human right, hunger arises due to a complex of socio-political realities We are approaching this conversation on Food security in ...

The Additional Financing to the Third Fadama Development Project (Fadama III-AF) has been honoured with the Africa VPU Team Award by the World Bank. The award was announced by the Vice President for Africa of the World Bank, Makhtar Diop. It will be recalled that Fadama-II got the Award in 2007 and Fadama-III secured the same in 2014. The Africa ...

The Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 in Abuja re-emphasised the need to regulate the practice of modern biotechnology in the country. Dr. Ebegba made the submission while receiving members of the Real-Life Civil Society, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), at the NBMA Office. According to him, government in its wisdom established ...

The herbicide glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup, will be classified by California as a carcinogen, “known to the state to cause cancer.” The state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment reported the news on Monday, June 26, 2017 although it will officially take effect July 7. Monsanto sued the state earlier this year to prevent the listing, but ...

Seeds and fertiliser for more than one million people are being distributed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in north-eastern Nigeria for the planting season that began in June, 2017. It is part of efforts, led by the Federal Government, to restore livelihoods and combat critical levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in areas affected by Boko Haram violence. ...

A newly released peer-reviewed paper appears to have drawn attention to environmental challenges associated with genetically-modified (GM) crops, as well as the gaps in scientific knowledge of their effects. GM crops are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the ...

The Delivery Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister of Guinea has launched a study on financing irrigation schemes for farmers in the pineapple value chain. Through the pilot initiative, the Delivery Unit will target several farmer cooperatives in Maférénya and Kindia regions, with the goal of increasing their farm yield (from 30 to +50 tons per hectare), farm ...

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), representatives of the Owan and Okomu communities and a host of civil society groups have urged the Dr. Godwin Obaseki administration in Edo State to uphold a revocation Order on 13,750 hectares of land expropriated by Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc in the rich forest reserves. In a letter delivered to ...