Africa: New Report Proposes Steps to Boost Food Growing

Africa has 60 percent of the world's arable land and most of its countries depend on farming as the mainstay of their economies, yet productivity is low, the average size of land… Read more »

Mali: Transforming a Country Through Rice

Aspen Institute 2013 New Voices Fellow Salif Romano Niang is the co-founder and chief impact officer of Malo, a company working to revolutionize the rice industry in Niang's home… Read more »

Africa: U.S. Can Invest in Africa On Bipartisan Basis

President Barack Obama's recent visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania was written off as a "guilt trip" by some and a "last chance" to salvage an Africa policy legacy by… Read more »

Africa: Obama Re-Commits to Promoting Food Security and Health

An excerpt from President Obama's speech at the University of Cape Town: Read more »

Nigeria: Lowering Pesticide Exposure Risk With Mobile Phones

John Gushit from the University of Jos' department of science in Nigeria nearly lost his eye when herbicide in a syringe he'd been working with splashed into it. "Only speed saved… Read more »

Africa: Supporting Women in Agriculture for a 'Prosperous' Africa

The African Union (AU) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, but instead of looking back, the current chair, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, seems intent on casting her vision… Read more »

Ethiopia: Africa's First Commodity Exchange Revolutionizes Economy

While government leaders, NGOs and corporations devise strategies to churn out more food for future generations, Eleni Gabre-Madhin is taking a different approach. Concerned by a… Read more »

Africa: Farmers Increasingly Seen as 'Engine for Economic Development'

At the recent African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Arusha, Tanzania, fertilizer was a hot topic. Government leaders, policy makers, NGOs and businessmen and women in freshly… Read more »

Africa: Govts Must Lay Foundation for Private Investment in Agriculture

Government leaders, private business representatives, civil society groups and NGOs met recently in Arusha, Tanzania, at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) to discuss… Read more »

Africa: Disparate Partners Find Promise in Africa's Agriculture

With the world's population climbing steadily, crops withering around the globe and weather patterns wrecking havoc on growing seasons, the world has a pressing … Read more »

Africa: African Herders Help Eradicate Deadly Livestock Disease

The last known case of rinderpest, a lethal livestock disease, was confirmed 10 years ago in a buffalo wandering Kenya's Mount Meru National Park. In May 2011 the disease was… Read more »

South Africa: Target Local Markets, Smallholder Farmers Told

Farmers who grow food on smallholdings should target local, informal markets to sell their produce, a conference on strategies to overcome poverty and inequality in South Africa… Read more »

Africa: Pumps, Policies and Private Investment

As World Water Week draws to a close, a new report highlights the promise of small-scale irrigation schemes. "Water for Wealth and Food Security" touts simple interventions, such… Read more »

Congo-Kinshasa: Efforts Under Way to Rehabilitate Agriculture Sector

The United Nations Development Programme's Africa Human Development Report 2012 released today said the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to become sub-Saharan… Read more »

Kenya: Cultivating Traditional Crops to Fight Malnutrition

If growing up in an agricultural community were the key to health, the children of Kiamwangi would be thriving. But Jane Hunyu, who farms a quarter-acre plot here, says the… Read more »

Africa: Feeding the Planet by Leveling the Plowing Field for Women

In 1900, there were a mere 1.6 billion people on our planet. Today, there are seven billion and by 2050 we will be nine billion. One would expect that with such rapid population… Read more »

Liberia: The Plantation Blues

Fiercely contested during different stages of Liberia's civil war, the western region of Grand Cape Mount County now plays host to a very different kind of confrontation. Read more »

Liberia: The Cocoa Comeback

"That is still a tall order," Michael Titoe says with a chuckle as he contemplates Liberia launching its own brand name chocolate. A fellow of the World Cocoa Foundation and… Read more »

Kenya: New Seeds Boost Yields for Drought-Hit Farmers

For a couple that has weathered the dual tests of early retirement and repeated crop failures, it might have seemed an impossible dream to former primary-school teacher Philip… Read more »

Africa: Aid Can Spur 'Historic Progress' - Bill Gates

Bill and Melinda Gates, who co-chair the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, say that they are responding to a challenge from Warren Buffet by taking on "the really tough… Read more »

Liberia: 'Anything That Moved Became Dinner'

Liberia is recovering from a 14-year civil conflict and quarter century of instability that killed an estimated 250,000 people and displaced three-quarters of the population. Read more »

Zambia: Climate Information Alerts Boost Poor Farmers

A herder shepherding his animals in Zambia's Eastern Province winds up a solar-powered radio and crouches down to listen to a local FM station. The news broadcast includes a… Read more »

Liberia: Resources, Post-Conflict Recovery Draw Global Investment

In the latest of several major investment deals, the Liberian government has signed an estimated U.S.$3 billion agreement with Australian mining giant BHP Billiton. Read more »

Africa: Obama Administration Planning 50th Anniversary Festivities to Honor 'Significant Gains'

President Barack Obama will host a town hall meeting next month with African youth leaders as part of a U.S. celebration of 50 years of independence being marked this year by 17… Read more »

Nigeria: Banking on Agriculture in Kwara

The Nigerian state of Kwara has received international attention for its invitation to dispossessed white farmers in Zimbabwe to come to Nigeria. The oil-producing nation -… Read more »