Cotonou, Benin (PANA) – Benin's president Boni Yayi on Monday rallied his country to increase agricultural production saying the West African state must aim at becoming "a real agricultural power". Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) – Malaysian oil palm giant, Atami, is to invest 150 billion FCFA in an agro-industrial oil palm complex in Congo that will produce some 900,000 tonnes of palm oil per annum, an official of the Congolese agriculture and livestock ministry told PANA on Monday. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - Paris, the French capital, is to give an emergency aid of 200,000 euros to assist the victims of famine of the Horn of Africa, according to a statement obtained by PANA here Thursday. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has resumed his meet-the-people tour, with a call on the youth to get into farming and partake in the “country’s poverty and hunger eradication crusade,” PANA reported from here Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The UN Central Emergency Rapid Response Fund has released US$ 13.5 million in response to the hunger situation in Kenya, the UN office said in Nairobi Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyan Co-operative Development Minister Joseph Nyagah, on Wednesday called on the co-operative movement in Africa, governments in the continent and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) to assist victims of severe drought in the East African region. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian Government, citing the acute food shortage experienced last year due to inadequate rainfall in Chad, has donated a total of 5,000 metric tonnes of sorghum to the Republic of Chad. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Th UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on Monday said emergency Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) is funding a project that will enable scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA) and other national partners to double yields of Nigeria’s major staples, according to a statement from the Ibadan-based institute. Full text...

Lome, Togo (PANA) - Determined to accelerate agricultural growth and eradicate poverty in West Africa, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) has commissioned a feasibility study for the establishment of a mechanism for crop insurance in the area. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Germany, Norway and Switzerland have contributed a first donation of US$ 1 million to a new, FAO-managed fund designed to help developing countries conserve and sustainably use their livestock breeds. Full text...

Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwean tobacco merchants said Thursday the country had netted US$344 million in export earnings for the crop since February when auctions began. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – The French socialist party (PS) has strongly denounced "the indifference of the international community" towards the famine that has hit countries in the Horn of Africa. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Wednesday declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia following the worst drought in decades, and appealed for urgent resources to assist millions of people in desperate need of help. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday said 11.3 million people are in need of food assistance due to drought in the Horn of Africa, and declared the situation as ``a humanitarian priority''. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The UNDP, technical partners and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) have granted Mali over FCFA 3 billion to manage ecosystems in Faguibine, a chain of lakes located in the Northern part of the country. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said Saturday that it had given out loans totalling 133.65 billion naira (about US$ 891 million) from the 200 billion naira (US$ 1.3 billion) Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) earmarked for farmers across the country, according local media reports which quoted CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, on Friday called on South Africa to build a food economy that is inclusive and benefits all segments of the population, especially the millions who are poor and food insecure. Full text...

Praia, Cape Verde (PANA) – The Government of Cape Verde has concluded agreements with American businessmen in the fisheries sector that would make it possible, in the short term, to export fresh and frozen fish to the United States. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A newly-published report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said reforming forest tenure systems and securing forest ownership rights can significantly improve peoples' livelihoods and enable them to gain income from forest products. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – France is concerned about the deteriorating food situation in Somalia following a drought after poor rains, the spokesman of the French ministry of foreign affairs, Bernard Valero, said on Tuesday in Paris. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The coming years will be crucial to Africa's food security, with the continent's population rising steadily, the outgoing Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf, announced Sunday in Bamako, after meeting with President Amadou Toumani Toure. Full text...

Juba, South Sudan (PANA) - As South Sudan celebrates its independence Saturday, 9 July, the world’s newest nation faces many challenges in building a strong and stable economy that supports the food security and livelihoods of its population. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - From mega-emergencies such as the earthquake in Haiti or the floods in Pakistan, to headline-grabbing humanitarian crises such as the conflicts in Cote d'Ivoire or Libya, the international community has stepped up to help those impacted by disaster and tragedy over the last few years. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has confirmed Senegalese national, Abdou Dieng, the new Country Director for Ethiopia, to lead the UN organisation’s largest relief programme. Full text...

Cairo, Egypt (PANA) - Egypt has denied being the source of an E.Coli outbreak which caused the death of 48 people in Germany and one in Sweden out of a total of 4,178 individuals infected in Europe. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Rice farming stakeholders have said the lack of mechanisation is seriously undermining the productivity and competitiveness of the produce in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a statement from Africa Rice Centre, made available to PANA here Wednesday. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – A non-governmental organization (NGO) in Senegal is calling for land reforms in favour of women. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Christian Aid, an international non-governmental body working to end global poverty, has launched an emergency humanitarian appeal to help people across the East and Horn of Africa, following two failed rainy seasons that have left ten million on the brink of starvation. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Wednesday confirmed that two Ethiopian staff members who went missing after a deadly incident in mid-May have returned safely. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Ms. Josette Sheeran, on Wednesday expressed concern over the plight of nearly ten million people facing severe food shortages as a result of a prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday declared that the world has completely eradicated a cattle disease that has killed millions of bovines for millennia. Full text...

Washington, D.C., US (PANA) - A new report by the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute has outlined measures that could help to reduce food waste as a means of meeting the needs of a growing human population, alleviating hunger and conserving resources. Full text...

Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - A Pan-African high-level meeting on the future of African cotton is being held in Cotonou, under the aegis of UNCTAD, to define the outline of a road map for the sector over the next ten years. Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) – The World Food Programme (WFP) has developed a tool to fight hunger in DR Congo called "food vouchers", a WFP communiqué reaching PANA on Monday said. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The European Commission (EC), FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP), here Monday signed a new Strategic Framework of Cooperation to increase the capacity of the international community to deliver effective, coordinated, timely and sustainable support to food security and nutrition. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Outgoing Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Jacques Diouf, has thanked Angola for its support during his years in charge of the UN Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chairs the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, has warned that the current food security crisis that has left almost one billion people hungry could turn into a permanent disaster, endangering millions of lives as well as international cooperation. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Member nations of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Sunday elected José Graziano da Silva of Brazil as its new Director-General. Full text...

Praia, Cap Verde (PANA) – Cape Verde will back the candidature of Brazilian José Graziano for the post of managing director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in an election due to take place on Sunday in Rome, official sources said in Praia on Friday. Full text...

Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The West and Central African Council for Research and Development (WECARD), Thursday in Cotonou, launched a research and development project on ticks in West and Central Africa. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Flanked by heads of state, international dignitaries and entertainers, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf will unveil a plaque to celebrate global freedom from rinderpest or cattle plague, one of the deadliest animal diseases and a longtime threat to human livelihoods and food security. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - Foreigners are dominating the race for the acquisition of agricultural lands in Mali with some 450,000 hectares of land waiting to be allocated to them, a source close to the government told PANA here Thursday. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing food vouchers to 7,500 households in 26 districts of the town of Ziguinchor, southern Senegal, through the implementation of a pilot project launched in April, according to an official statement received Wednesday by PANA. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Wednesday Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Ms. Josette Sheeran, on Wednesday congratulated the former presidents of Ghana and Brazil, John Kufuor and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who have been honoured for their contributions to improving the quality, quantity and availability of food in the world. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) – The Malian Meteorological Service has forecast a "normal or even above normal" rainy season this year, assuring farmers of enough water for their cropping season, PANA learnt here from the Ministry of Agriculture. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – About 290,000 hectares of agricultural lands have been "withdrawn" from inefficient foreign investors by the Malian government, sources close to the Malian government told PANA on Tuesday. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Tuesday in Rosso (south), launched the 2011-2012 crop year, PANA learnt from official sources here. Full text...