Browsing: Agriculture

Egypt aims to increase its agricultural production by 30 percent by 2024 and increase the gross domestic product of its agricultural sector to 12 percent in the same period.

According to Hala El-Said, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development the sector will create job opportunities and increase small farmers income while increasing the country’s exports in agriculture. The agriculture sector will double its export shares to 25 per cent in 2024 from 17 per cent in 2020.

El-Said was speaking during a high-level dialogue on food security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hosted by the World Bank entitled “Food Security in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis: Pathways from crisis to recovery.”

The minister said that the agro-food sector incorporates food processing and agriculture as well as related inputs and trade. The agro-food sector makes up around 23.2 per cent of the added value labour …

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 14 – South Sudan will benefit from two new projects totaling $116 million that aim to strengthen the capacity of farmers, improve agricultural production, and restore livelihoods and food security.

This comes at a time when the East African nation is facing increasing levels of food insecurity despite increased production, with exceptionally high food prices constraining access to food for large segments of the population and desert locusts devouring crops.

Available data projects that 7.2 million people will face acute food insecurity in the coming months, which is the highest number since the country’s independence.

The first project is dubbed ‘South Sudan Resilient Agricultural Livelihoods Project (RALP)’, and will provide a grant of $62.5 million to support investments in training for farmers to help them efficiently manage their organizations, adopt new technology, and use climate-smart agriculture practices to boost their yields.

The funds will also be invested …

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 13 – East Africa Community (EAC) partner states need to exploit the potential of exporting raw cotton to international markets.

This is according to Kenya’s Principal Secretary for EAC Dr. Kevit Desai who says the region already produced 100,000 metric tonnes of cotton.

This is lower than its existing potential, which is about 400,000 tonnes.

The Principal Secretary said that EAC exports to the world market currently stand at 8 percent, adding that to increase the volume of exports, value chains such as textiles need to be promoted to boost exports.

“We need to harness science, technology, and innovation to boost exports by investing in greater capacity to produce leather and textiles, and turn a crop like pyrethrum into aerosols,” said the PS.

He added that increased investment in the leather and textile sectors would cater to the growing demand in the region for locally manufactured high-quality …

The government of Tanzania is working on a blue print to increase sell of the country’s agro-produce by setting up bonded warehouses in foreign markets in a bid to boost sells.

The bonded warehouses will for starters be piloted in China and Saudi Arabia and are expected to ease access to markets for agro-produce.

Well first things first. What is a bonded warehouse? These are building or other secured areas in which dutiable goods may be stored or even manufacturing without payment of duty.

Bonded warehouses provide specialized storage services such as deep freezers for perishables as well as bulk liquid storage. They also allow for commodity processing and make up an integral part of the global supply chain by giving the importer opportunity to bring in raw goods, process, package and then sell the final …

When one of the World’s richest couples decides to divorce then yes we are all warrant to Tweet our P and Qs. So, as the social media world continues to dot the couples’ i’s and cross their t’s let as look at ‘the poor man’ in one of the World’s wealthiest people.

As of February this year, Bill Gates’ net worth of over $137 billion, keeping the world renown philanthropist right up their with the rest of the World’s richest people.

But that is not what makes Bill Gates standout, it is his willingness to aide the world’s poorest that sets him apart from the other World titans.

Only recently, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, has set aside a $306 million package in agricultural development grants for Africa and other parts of the developing World.

Over the years, Bill Gates has invariably donated and granted Africa …

It is early January, the World is still celebrating the new year , so is Somalia, the Horn of Africa. Two F-35B, single pilot airstrike jets strike at al-Shabaab operatives killing three members of the terrorist group, reported the U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM.

An African Defense Post Abroad

The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), is a joint military command body of the US for African military response against mainly terror threats.

However, AFRICOM is nowhere near Africa, on the contrary, it is across the seven seas in Europe, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. Now Africa wants the command post brought closer to the continent, after all it was formed to address terror threats on the continent was it not?

During its formation in 2007, the White House announced that AFRICOM “will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in …

The agricultural sector is considered one of the most critical industries for the African continent due to its economic potential. There has been significant growth in the past two decades leading to a level of production three times higher than before, and the sector is projected to become a US$1trillion industry in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. However, despite this increase, the African continent is still a net importer of agricultural commodities to meet its population’s basic food needs. 

Nearly 600 million hectares of uncultivated arable land is in Africa; this shows that there is a lot of untapped potential in African Agribusiness. 

Boosting Agriculture Through Technology 

The application of technological innovations in Agribusiness is vital in sustainably boosting productivity, increasing profits, and ensuring food security in the continent and beyond.

Mobile Phones

The foremost benefit of using mobile phones is as a platform for exchanging information through calls, SMS, or …

The 2020 edition of the AfDB Agripitch contest for African agricultural entrepreneurs kicked off on 2 November 2020. The competition pits young entrepreneurs with a focus on agriculture, dubbed Agripreneurs. 

The contestants will exhibit startups plans from their respective businesses in an attempt to win seed funds up to a total of $120 000 as well as mentoring and training opportunities. 

The prize money will be shared by the different winners of each category. Two of the categories are broken down according to the stage of the business with one category featuring early startups, the other for the mature startup phase. The third category is reserved for women empowered businesses.

The Agripitch competition will run in two segments including a series of webinars and a boot camp for selected entrepreneurs. The boot camp will see the business owner receive training on a number of key business shares including product development, …