The Government has struck at the heart of beneficiaries of cheap sugar imports after setting up a committee to monitor the flow of the commodity into the country from the Comesa region.

FARMERS' leaders have expressed concern with the rate at which fertilizer is being supplied given the impending summer cropping season.

Sugar import and export regulations recently introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture contravene the Comesa Treaty, Attorney-General Amos Wako has ruled.

The Presidential Rubber Plantations Task Force has described as regrettable and unfortunate recent incident at the Sinoe Rubber Plantation.

The first fuel ethanol project in Africa, worth N14.4billion will take-off today in Ekiti State.

Maize and wheat farmers in the country's grain basket of the North Rift region have expressed fears of incurring heavy losses this season following erratic weather conditions and the increased cost of farm inputs and fuel.

FOUR years after the government expropriated a once flourishing commercial farm, the Ministry of Land wants to rehabilitate its irrigation infrastructure.

Egyptian fund for technical cooperation has presented ninety tonnes of rice and four hundred cartoons of cooking oil to the people and government of Sierra Leone.

Namibia's meat exporter, Meatco, will next week introduce a new meat brand to coincide with the 2009 World Meat Congress in South Africa.

A Ugandan scientist, Dr. Ben Ssekamatte, has developed an anti-bollworm pest trap.

A delegation of visiting Japanese businessmen has expressed interest in forming partnerships with Mozambican companies in agriculture and forestry, according to Henk Son, the Deputy Chairperson of the Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA).

A sugar company intending to grow cane in Msambweni District has been sued by area residents seeking compensation for crops it had allegedly destroyed.

With a score of 90%, the coffees of Mike Burema and Fako Rulindo were the winners of the first Cup of Excellence ever to be held in Africa. The competition closed last Friday in Kigali.

ZIMBABWE is on course to surpass its production target for flue-cured tobacco of 130 million kilogrammes for next year as seed sales have gone beyond 400kg.

Fruit farmers have been exploited by middlemen in the fruit business for long but now there is hope since. There is proposal to invest in a fruit juice processing, factory.

Sugar is one of the commodities likely to be endangered if standards are not harmonized as the East Africa member states prepare for the impending opening up of markets regionally and globally.

The Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) is asking Mzee Jamuel Kiragu to pay back a loan they advanced him last year to expand his farming activities.

The Nigerian High Commissioner to Uganda, Fidel Ayoyu, has said that Uganda will start exporting beef to Nigeria because the country's big population provides market opportunities to Ugandan farmers.

THE Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco) will pay out an additional premium to cattle farmers due to exceptionally good prices received for Namibian meat products in Europe over the past months.

MEATCO will launch a new product brand name, Nature's Reserve, next week, coinciding with the 2009 World Meat Congress in Cape Town on September 9.

Leaders from the eastern region have asked the government to develop the agriculture sector if the country is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The first spinning factory in the country opened its operations yesterday.

Faced with falling tea prices, Kenya, one of the world's largest producers, may be forced to cut down production.

The Meatco Oshakati Abattoir resumed cattle slaughtering last week after closing down because of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the Mukwe Constituency of the Kavango Region.

Grain millers and traders have asked the Government to loosen maize importation rules and taxes in order to bring down food prices.