To: 06/11/2009
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono yesterday read the riot act to banks for their continued reluctance to lend to the productive sectors, setting thresholds to guide their lending.
Investment Opportunites : Agriculture & Agri-processing
One in four South African children under five-years-old suffers from moderate or severe malnutrition, and ongoing climate change as a result of global warming is most certainly going to increase this number as food insecurity becomes more pervasive.
CHARL Senekal holds up a clod of Libyan soil and lets it trickle through his fingers. Behind him endless rows of neglected olive trees stretch into the distance. "This place is easy to fix," says the jovial barrel-chested farmer. "We could turn it into a paradise."
An estimated 8 234 households have benefited from the government's Food Production Programme.
Government has distributed between 400 and 600 tons of food to more than 100 000 people in need of emergency food relief since May, says Minister of Public Works Geoff Doidge.
Arusha farmers will be among those who will benefit from FAO advisory support that will help them better respond to market opportunities and thus heighten food security.
The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has commended Oyo state Government for placing top priority on agricultural research and training as manifested in the establishment of the College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora.
The International Sweet Potato Centre has launched a $21.25 million research project in Uganda that will develop nutritionally enhanced sweet potatoes, in a project to reduce health problems related to vitamin A deficiency and improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
East Africa needs to increase investment in agriculture by over 50 per cent if the region is to avert a chronic food shortage by 2050.
Dairy farmers in Uganda now stand to earn more following the introduction of locally produced nutrient supplement blocks that are expected to improve milk production by cows.
Peasants form the bulk of Uganda's productive population and no genuine efforts to develop country can afford to ignore them. From the mid '80s, several attempts have been made to raise the incomes of peasants but it is distressing to note that, after two decades, the income per capita of the country has only doubled from $264 to $504; implying an increase of below one tenth annually.
On October 9, Uganda celebrated her 47th independence anniversary. Most Opposition politicians didn't attend because national celebrations have turned into the NRM party functions where functionaries wear yellow outfits and dry banana leaves to signify support for the nth term for President Museveni.
All signs show that silk will not be like those schemes which die when donors pull out.
