Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The African Union (AU) is not opposed to the acquisition of fertile farmland in the continent by foreign investors, Rhoda Peace Tumusine, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Economy of the AU Commission, has said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The export of high-value horticulture from developing countries into developed economies is a significant opportunity for economic development, but wages in the sector are insufficient to enable a decent standard of living for workers and their dependants, according to a new joint study by Oxfam and International Procurement and Logistics (IPL). Full text...

Nairobi,Kenya (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the international Slow Food organization agreed Wednesday to develop joint actions to improve the livelihoods of smallholders and others working in rural areas. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Forests, trees on farms and agroforestry are critical in the fight against hunger and should be better integrated into food security and land use policies, Director-General of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Mr. José Graziano da Silva, said Monday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete will on Monday inaugurate the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture(IITA) science laboratory building in Dar es Salaam, aimed at boosting food security on the continent, a statement from the research Institute said. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said global food prices rose for a second straight month, while global production of coarse grains could set a new record this year with strong growth also projected for global wheat and rice production. Full text...

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Thursday called on global leaders at the World Economic Forum on Africa to recognise agriculture’s rightful place at the heart of Africa’s growth. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) – African agriculture has achieved significant progress over the last decade and reduced the alarming pace of increases in rural poverty, thanks to the implementation of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), a senior official of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said here Tuesday. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - African countries need urgent collective action to end hunger and ensure better livelihoods for their people, Ethiopia’s State Minister in the Agriculture Ministry Wondirad Mandefro said here Tuesday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina has canvassed a greater partnership with Brazilian investors in order to boost agriculture potentials in the African nation. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The FAO representative in Senegal, José Luis Fernandez, on Monday urged African governments to give priority to small-scale farmers and producers in the market. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - Billions of dollars in foreign investment in agriculture are now compromised in Mali because of the ongoing battle by Malian and international forces against armed jihadi groups, according to an estimate obtained by PANA in Paris Tuesday. Full text...

Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The first Partnership for Aflatoxins Control in Africa (PACA) Strategy Development Stakeholder Consultation Workshop has ended here, with a call on participants to utilise knowledge acquired to address the problem of aflatoxins in their countries. Full text...

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The Vice-Chancellor of the Njala University in Sierra Leone, Prof. Felixtina Ellis, has called for increased funding of research to control aflatoxins, which pose great damage to food and health. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The Food Price Index (FPI) of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) crept higher by 1% in March compared to the figure a month ealier, driven mainly by an 11% increase in dairy, according to a press statement, issued here Thursday, by the Media Office at the FAO. Full text...

Dar Es-Salaam,Tanzania (PANA) - Participants at the ongoing consultation workshop on Partnership for Aflatoxin control in Africa have called for the scaling up of activities aimed at controlling the damage caused by aflatoxin to trade, health and food safety. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Tanzania is to play host to the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) during the first Strategy Development-Stakeholder Consultation Workshop to be held in Dar-Es Salaam, the capital, from 10-12 April, according to organizers. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina has attributed the private sector investments in agriculture, which has hit US$8 billion, to the ongoing transformation in the sector. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Post harvest losses (PHL) recorded at the various levels of the agriculture value chain is frustrating efforts at achieving high growth rates, food security, reduction of poverty and creation of wealth in Africa, according to stakeholders in the sector. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Political will from national leadership and action are crucial and governments have the primary responsibility for assuring the food security of their citizens, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General José Graziano da Silva said Thursday in Madrid, Spain. Full text...

Ebène, Mauritius (PANA) - The Indian Ocean commission (IOC) has launched a platform, ''Women, sustainable development and food security (FDDSA),'' in Mahajanga, Madagascar, official sources told PANA on Saturday at the IOC headquarters. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A simple but innovative use of insecticide-impregnated nets to protect livestock is doubling milk output in Kisii, Kenya, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement Wednesday. Full text...

Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The 9th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform Meeting ended here Wednesday with member countries tasked to put into practice the lessons learnt, in order to improve nutrition and agricultural production, create jobs and reduce poverty on the continent. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Participants in the ongoing CAADP partnership meeting have underscored the need for an effective and strong leadership at all levels of governance to translate various policies formulated to fight hunger into action in the agricultural sector across Africa. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) – The African Union (AU) said Tuesday Africa remained the most attractive destination for foreign investments in agriculture, which would further boost continental agricultural growth. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Madagascar needs more than US$22 million of emergency funding by June to start fighting a severe locust plague that threatens the country's next cropping seasons and the food security of more than half the country's population, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - African countries have been told to invest more in Youth development and put in place incentives that will encourage them to take to farming as way of solving the unemployment problems, reduced poverty and create wealth, according to the NEPAD Director of Programmes, Estherine Fotabong. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The ninth edition of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) partnership platform meeting opened here Monday with a call on stakeholders to sustain and improve on the achievements recorded in the last decade of the programme. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)-Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network, aimed at strengthening the coverage of agriculture-led development in the African media, was launched on Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Some 20 African countries will benefit from the African Development Bank's (AfDB's) US$63.24 million-fund initiative known as the Support for Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops (SARD-SC), one of the three implementers of the project in Africa, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), said in a statement obtained by PANA here Sunday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva, attending the inaugural Mass for Pope Francis I at the Vatican on Tuesday, said the United Nations would look up to the Catholic Pontiff as a “friend of the poor” to support the fight against hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The ninth edition of the meeting of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP) is to hold in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 25-26 March, according to a statement from the organisers, obtained by PANA here Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Urbanization, economic growth and other transformations are causing changes in lifestyles and diets in many parts of the world and countries are not coping as well as they should, FAO said on Friday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - After more than a decade, scientists at the Ibadan-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have developed a biological control product named aflasafeTM that is used to control aflatoxins in grains, according to a statement from the organisation made available to PANA in Lagos on Monday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria’s earnings from global cocoa export have steadily increased from US$882.9 million recorded in 2011 to US$900 million last year, according to Trade and Investment Minister Olusegun Aganga. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Jose Graziano da Silva, on Friday met with Ugandan Vice-President Edward Sekandi to discuss ways to ensure food security in the East African country. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (Dakar) - Agriculture is the driving force behind industrialization in Africa, the president of the Institute for Research on Development Issues and Counseling (CESS), Gaston Gohou, said here Friday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Farmers and veterinarians across Africa are increasingly using cell phones to issue alerts quickly about possible animal disease outbreaks at a very early stage and to track wide-scale vaccination campaigns, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The attainment of food and nutrition security in West Africa requires an all-inclusive approach in which civil society and farmer-based organisations have a crucial role to play, according to an agriculture expert. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Child labour in the livestock sector is widespread and largely ignored, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which has released the first global study on child labour issues related to livestock. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The way certification schemes for biofuels are structured makes it difficult for smallholder producers and many developing countries to participate in export markets, according to a new report from UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Some dozen African researchers and policy makers who gathered Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the first international conference on agricultural biotechnology research, have agreed to work together to harmonize their methods in the fight against food insecurity, particularly in the East African sub-region. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – Greenpeace on Saturday urged the Senegalese authorities to urgently put in place a strategy to save the white grouper fish, which has become an endangered species due to years of over-exploitation. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) – Mali, the European Union and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday signed a partnership agreement of about 9.8 billion CFAF to fight food insecurity in the West African country. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is working in partnership with the Egyptian and Sudanese governments to control the latest threat from desert locusts. Full text...

Lomé,Togo (PANA) - Issues related to the trading in and health of animals are the subjects of discussion at the 20th conference of the Regional Commission for Africa of the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) underway in Lome. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), through its flagship programme - the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) - is set to hold a special workshop on nutrition from 25 February to 1 March in Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) – The Nigerien government Tuesday launched an international appeal for funds, targeting 177 billion CFA Francs, to enable it finance and co-ordinate its humanitarian needs. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has re-appointed, for another four-year term, Nigerian-born Kanayo F. Nwanze, as the organisation's President. Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) – Japan will give Burundi food aid, worth US$ 6.8 million, diplomatic sources here told PANA, saying that an agreement to that effect was signed Wednesday between the Burundi Minister of Foreign Relations and International Cooperation, Laurent Kavakure, and the Japanese ambassador to Burundi, Takata Toshihisa. Full text...