October 18, 2012
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 »
September 27, 2012
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 »
September 13, 2012
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 »
September 05, 2012
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 »
August 30, 2012
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 »
May 15, 2012
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 »
March 26, 2012
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 »
March 14, 2012
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 »
February 29, 2012
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 »
January 27, 2012
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 »
January 24, 2012
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 »
August 22, 2011
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 »
July 14, 2011
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 »
July 12, 2010
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 »
July 01, 2010
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 »
December 02, 2009
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 »
December 01, 2009
Liberia: Govt Secures Huge Investment in Palm Oil Production
The Liberian government has announced that it is in the final stages of securing a U.S. $1.6 billion Indonesian investment in palm oil production which is expected to create… Read more »
November 23, 2009
Tanzania: President Kikwete - 'Agriculture is Everything'
As President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania was about to leave Dar es Salaam on November 15 to attend the World Food Summit in Rome, he sat down at State House to discuss a… Read more »
November 03, 2009
East Africa: Saving Lives, Securing Livelihoods
Mount Kenya rises majestically from the Kenyan landscape, dwarfing all around it, a magisterial monument. The mountain is a fertile giant, but this year it became a killing field… Read more »
October 30, 2009
South Africa: Land Reform Moves Slowly in Post-Apartheid Era
Land reform has always been a popular part of political rhetoric for a democratic South Africa, but agrarian transformation has not been realized in the post-apartheid era. The… Read more »
South Africa: Urban Subsistence Farmers Spread Wings
A project which began as an effort to empower citizens of Cape Town's poorest neighbourhoods to grow their own food has mushroomed into a scheme for selling vegetables for the… Read more »
September 22, 2009
Africa: Continent's Leaders Hold Talks With Obama at UN
African issues will be in the spotlight Tuesday when President Barack Obama hosts a luncheon for some two dozen African heads of state and government at the United Nations on the… Read more »
January 08, 2008
Nigeria: New Agriculture Projects Focus on Processing, Marketing
It smells of freshly ground peanuts inside the mud-walled room where Dr. A. A. Oredipe is standing. His eyes are focused, but moving—inspecting the machine that this small… Read more »
Liberia: Market Women Help Revive Economy
To the untutored eye of a visitor from elsewhere, the markets in Liberia and many other African countries seem chaotic, noisy, smelly, dirty and often dangerous. Traders and… Read more »