Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The French Development Agency (AFD) has granted over FCFA 2.4 billion to the regional Chamber of Agriculture in Segou, central Mali, under a financing agreement signed here Monday Full text...

Rabat, Morocco (PANA) - A three-day regional seminar on commercial aquaculture development strategies will commence on 8 June in Libreville, Gabon, to facilitate fishing cooperation between African countries riparian of the Atlantic Ocean (COMHAFAT), based in Rabat, Morocco. Full text...

Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwe has earned US$239 million from tobacco exports since the marketing season opened in February, a national marketing agency said Thursday. Full text...

Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwe's Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said Tuesday foot and mouth disease had broken out in the south of the country, affecting thousands of cattle. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - A report released Tuesday by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Bank has said investing in post-harvest technologies to reduce food losses could significantly increase the food supply in sub-Saharan Africa. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – Ghana, the world's second largest producer of cocoa after Cote d'Ivoire, says it saw a record harvest in the main crop season of the 2010/11 year, which ended a few weeks ago. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has declared the country's current drought a national disaster and ordered the government to use all means within its reach to deal with the crisis. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The quality research and scientific professionalism demonstrated at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in fighting hunger and poverty in tropical countries, has been commended by Ambassadors from Finland, Norway and Sweden, according to a statement made available to PANA here. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) – India has pledged support to Tanzania’s efforts in adapting modern technology for improved agricultural production, Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete revealed here Friday. Full text...

Lome, Togo (PANA) - The World Bank Thursday granted Togo US$12 million, or about 5.6 billion FCFA, to finance the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Project (WAAPP), PANA reported. Full text...

Washington, US (PANA) - The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore ways to help smallholder farmers in Africa through coordinated research, exchanges, training and development activities, an AGRA statement obtained by PANA here said. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has ordered the governors of his country to transfer the management of recently donated tractors to the womenfolk of the West African country. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - A sub-regional capacity building workshop on the theme: "Food standards development", opened Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal, for members of the West African Peasant and Producers Organizations Network. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on Monday announced a financial package of US$ 17.4 million aimed at helping some 132,000 poor people in southern Chad. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - A fisheries project, Ba-Nafaa, aimed at supporting the Gambian government to achieve its fisheries management and development objectives is being funded by the United States Agency International Development (USAID) to the tune of more than US$ 2 million. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The Director-General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Senggen Fan, has said the steep increases in prices of basic commodities, such as cereals, are harmful for the poorest consumers who devote a large part of their incomes to food. Full text...

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Bamako, Mali (PANA) – Potato earns the southern Mali region of Sikasso about 10 to 13 billion FCFA annually, the Malian News Agency (AMAP) reported on Monday. Full text...

Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - As fisheries ministers from around the globe meet in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the future of fishing agreements between EU and foreign countries, Greenpeace Africa has called for a fairer and sustainable fishing partnership that will protect the livelihoods of West African fishing communities. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year - approximately 1.3 billion tonnes - gets lost or wasted, according to an FAO-commissioned study. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Mali is to begin active local processing of cashew nuts, the second commercial crop in the southern part of the country, after cotton, according to the country's Minister of Agriculture, Aghatam Ag Alhassane. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on Monday urged his people to depend less on imported food stuff and eat what is grown in the West African nation, PANA reported from here. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The Malian Ministry of Agriculture plans to reap about nine million tonnes from cereals in the 2011-2012 agricultural campaign, PANA learnt Monday from an official source. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, was due to distribute tractors to farmers in the tiny West Africa country Monday, PANA reports from here. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The Mauritanian government will build 480 dams and dikes to make available 144,000 new hectares to improve grain production, said Secretary General of Ministry of Rural Development, Mohamed Ould Aida, quoted Friday by the Mauritanian Information Agency (AMI). Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Food prices remained virtually steady in April after falling in March following eight months of successive increases, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced here Thursday. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The Congolese government Tuesday in Brazzaville launched a US$252,000 project to support the implementation of a strategy to develop the cassava sector. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) - The European Commission has forwarded to Parliament for approval the text of a new fishing agreement between the European Union (EU) and Cape Verde, as the current protocol is due to expire in August, PANA learned from official sources in Brussels on Tuesday. Full text...

Lomé, Togo (PANA) – The West African Development Bank (BOAD) has granted Senegal's National Agricultural Credit Fund (CNCAS) a loan of 4 billion FCFA to re-finance agricultural productive investment projects. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The Senegalese representative at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Amadou Ouattara, here Monday urged African countries to develop tools to assess the risks of pesticides in order to appropriately inform and sensitize the public and policy makers. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday it suspended operations in two areas of the soon-to-be independent Southern Sudan, following direct attacks on its workers and rising violence in the region. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - With the support of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the African Union (AU) and the African Seed Network have set up a pan-African network of seed testing laboratories to speed up the harmonisation of a continent-wide seed market in traditional and non-traditional crops. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) – Tunis will from 2-4 May host a seminar aimed at drawing up plans to address the rise in the prices of foodstuffs in Maghreb countries. Full text...

Washington, D.C. US (PANA) - An international research organisation says increasing demand for water continues to threaten the livelihood of millions of small-scale farmers who depend on water for their crops. Full text...

Libreville, Gabon (PANA) – The Gabonese government and the Israeli company, LR Group, Friday signed an agreement, worth 9.5 billion FCFA, under which six agro-pastoral farms will be established in the African country, according to Gabonese television (RTG1). Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - A head of 1,562 domestic animals from the Brazilian firm, Endereco do Exportador, have arrived at the port of Boma, in the south-west of DR Congo as part of the re-launch of the activities of the Grands Elevages (GEL) company, based in the Bas-Congo. Full text...

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Lome, Togo (PANA) - The World Bank has granted Togo US$ 37 million to help make agriculture the engine of economic growth in the West African nation, sources close to the institution's mission in Lome said here Wednesday. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) – The Tunisian Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Mokhtar Jallali, announced that wheat stocks available in the country would meet national needs until next July, assuring that the next harvest would enable Tunisia to scale down importation of some varieties of cereals. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - The proliferation of yellow rust wheat disease is a threat to food security and well-being of farmers in North and East Africa, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) warns in a statement issued Tuesday in Kigali, Rwanda. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet has declared that rising temperatures, erratic weather, population growth and scarce water resources - along with growing civil unrest and skyrocketing food prices - are putting unprecedented stress on people and the planet. Full text...

Rabat, Morocco (PANA) - Forty African executives will receive training on food safety and fresh produce quality management systems, starting next week in Agadir, southern Morocco, PANA learnt Friday in Rabat. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf has appointed Manoj Juneja, an Indian, as one of the organisation's two Deputy Directors-General. Full text...

Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwe has earned US$220 million from tobacco exports since February, a national marketing agency for the crop said Friday. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - A new initiative aimed at developing a strong policy support system in Ghana to drive the country towards the attainment of a green revolution was launched in Accra Friday by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in collaboration with the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - World-famous Malian singing couple, Amadou and Mariam, have been nominated ambassadors against hunger by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the European Union (EU), according to a communiqué of the UN agency, made available Wednesday to PANA, here. Full text...

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New York, US (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday global food prices have dropped for the first time after eight months of continuous rise, pointing out, however, that the prices are still 37 per cent higher than they were in March of last year. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday global food prices have dropped for the first time after eight months of continuous rise, pointing out, however, that the prices are still 37 per cent higher than they were in March of last year. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The project launched by Mali's Ministry of Agriculture in 2010, to mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture, is gradually taking shape, according to p Full text...