Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The director of the sub-regional office for the Internat ional Labour Organization (ILO) for Sahel, Franأ§ois Murangira, on Thursday in D a kar urged African governments to implement regional strategies for the developme n t of the fishing sector. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN World Food Programme (WFP), the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Egypt have launched a major project to protect Eg y ptian population from vitamin deficiencies, with the production of vitamin-enric h ed vegetable oil beginning this week. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- A wheat disease outbreak in the Oromia regional s tate of Ethiopia has destroyed 410,000 hectares of wheat field, the Food and Agricultural Organis ation (FAO) said in a weekly report Tuesday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice) Monday in Dakar, Sen egal, launched a project to increase rice production in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal over the next five ye ars. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Agriculture in developing countries must become 'climate-smart' in order to cope with the combined challenge of feeding a warmer, more heavily populated world, a new FAO report said. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika, who is also the c urrent chairman of the African Union (AU), has urged African ministers of Agricu l ture and Finance to lobby for subsidies in the agriculture sector. Full text...

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Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegal plans to increase its horticultural production to 75,000 tons by 2015 , Ibrahima Wade, Permanent Secretary of the Growth Strate gy (AGS) said here Wednesday. Full text...

Lome- Togo (PANA) -- Togo plans to double its rice production by 2018 through the implementation of the National Strategy of Development of Rice Growing (SNDR), w hose document has been submitted for validation at a workshop organised for the p urpose. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Prince Joachin of Denmark has joined voices, urging the Ghana Government not to neglect its agricultural sector against the backdrop of socio-economic fortunes likely to flow from the country's oil and gas exploration. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN said that a food crisis in Niger was averted following generous donor response, intervention by the world body, the government's facilitation of the humanitarian effort and good rainfall. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- A new report by the UN independent expert on Right to Food , has said that about 30 million hectares of farmland is yearly lost to environm e ntal degradation, conversion to industrial use or urbanization. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has called fo r action on key issues related to food security and nutrition, such as land tenu r e and international investment in agriculture, food price volatility and address i ng food insecurity in protracted crises. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Sixteen European football leagues will dedicate their ma tches to the fight against hunger and poverty as an impressive show of footballi n g solidarity during the "European Match Day against Hunger" (22-24 October), pro m oted by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the European Professional F o otball Leagues Association (EPFL). Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) - â" A Japanese food aid of some 5,000 tonnes of rice h as caused a big protest in the Burundian rice farming circles against the backdr o p of fears of a slump in sales of locally produced rice, Burundi's national radi o reported on Monday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) â" Ghana on Saturday marked Wo-rld Food Day with the Ministe r for Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, calling for united action and partne r ship between the state, civil society organisations and the private sector at al l levels to overcome hunger. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) – As the world celebrates Wo-rld Food Day on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Jacques Diouf, have called for global unity in the war against hunger. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Experts are calling for a fundamental shift in food and agricultural research to make it more democratic and accountable to society. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday called for a united stand against hunger, saying "nearly one billion people are still suffe r ing from food shortages around the globe". Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was Friday d ue to appoint Italian actor Raoul Bova, Canadian singer Celine Dion, Filipino singer Lea Salonga and American actr ess Susan Sarandon as Goodwill Ambassadors to help in the global fight against hunger. Full text...

Des Moines- US (PANA) -- Former UN Secretary-General and Chair of the Alliance fo r a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Kofi Annan, on Thursday declared that the r e was an urgent need for a uniquely African green revolution to entrench food se c urity and overcome hunger throughout the continent. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The European Union (EU) Thursday donated assorted food i tems to 45 schools in regions one and two of the Gambia, PANA reported from here . Full text...

Des Moines- US (PANA) -- Crop specialists in Kenya and Uganda have laid the groundwork for confined field trials to commence later this year for new varieties of maize genetically modified to survive recurrent droughts that threaten over 300 million Africans for whom maize is life. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The Malian company Toguna Agro Industries has bagged an aw ard for the quality of its work. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Director-General of the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- A report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) has called for long-term solutions to help c o untries to deal with recurring food crises and high prevalence of hunger. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Twenty-two countries are facing enormous challenges like repeated food crises and an extremely high prevalence of hunger due to a combination of natural disasters, conflict and weak instituti ons, the Food and Angriculture Organisation (FAO) said in its ''state of food insecurity in the World 2010'' report published together with th e World Food Programme (WFP). Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The world's forest biodiversity is threatened by a high global rate of deforestation and forest degradation as well as a decline in prim a ry forest area. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- In a bid to upscale its activities in the honey sector among the countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) will host the APITRADE AFRICA/APIEXPO 2010 in Zambia 26-29 October, according to the latest edition of ACTESA newsletter. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- An international organization, the Macronutrient Initiative (MI), has said it is committed to supporting efforts to combat malnutrition in ECOWAS' member countries. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednes day announced a US$ 27. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Making smallholder dairy production more competitive could be a powerful tool for reducing poverty, raising nutrition levels and improving the livelihood of rural people in many developing countries, FAO said in a news report on smallholder milk production, published Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- For policy makers and urban planners in poor countries, greener cities could be the key to ensuring safe, nutritious food, sustainable livelihoods and healthier communitie s, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement in Rome Tuesday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Scientists drawn from various nations are converging on Dakar, Senegal, this week to attend the Fifth World Cowpea Research Conference, according to a statement made available to PANA by the International Institute o f Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The Beninese government will next week release 3,960,937 FCFA to subsidise the cost of cotton inputs for farmers, the government has announced in a statement. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Experts from more than 75 FAO Member States agreed on Fr iday that while there were no grounds for complacency, there was no indication o f an impending world food crisis. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Gambia's vice president and minister for women affairs, Mrs. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- A fisheries expert on Friday urged African countries to come together and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their te r ritories. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, has stressed the need f or Africans to push for fair and better deals for fish products in international trade, PANA reported from here Friday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The United States Agency for International Development ( USAID) is to provide FAO with US$ 16 million to support wheat planting, prevent f urther livestock losses and desilt irrigation systems in Pakistanâ?s Khyber Pakh tunkhwa, one of the provinces most severely affected by last monthâ?s floods. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- West African journalists at the ongoing African Union M inisters' Conference on Fisheries and Aquaculture (CAMFA) in The Gambian capital , Banjul, on Wednesday called on government officials to reach an agreement with t he European Union (EU) on sensitive issues, including illegal fishing, responsib l e fishing, migration and post-harvest fishing. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Food production in Haiti is slowly recovering but still remains significantly below the levels that existed prior to the January 2010 ea r thquake, according to the report of an FAO-WFP joint assessment mission released Wednesday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- African fisheries ministers, meeting in Banjul, Gambian capital, to tackle the problem of illegal fishing on African waters, have vowed to put in place policies to end once and for all, the problem of illegal fishing and illegal use of African resources. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Fisheries Adviser to the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), Tim Bostok, told participants at an on-gong first African ministers of fisheries and aquaculture in Banjul, The Gambia, that Africa was losing between US$ 2 billion and US$ 5 billion annually due to the mismanagement in the sector. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Ghana Cocoa Board's 17th annual pre-export finance facility (COCOBOD) has secured a record number of commitments, Stanbic Bank Ghana, a member of the Standard Bank Group, has confirmed on Monday in Accra. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The resident representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in The Gambia, Dr. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- As harvest time approaches in the Eastern Sahel, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday warned that rates of malnutrition among children remained critical in Chad. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- East African countries will face more devastating food crises in future unless governments take action now, international aid agency Oxfam warned Thursday in a new report aimed at tackling world hunger within the next five years. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Farmers and crop scientists worldwide are engaged in an ambitious new effort to add 3,000 yam samples to international genebanks with the aim of saving the diversity of a crop that is consumed by 60 million people on a daily basis in Africa alone. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Cotton merchants in Zimbabwe said Wednesday the countr y had earned more than US$100 million from exports of the commodity since April, when this year's marketing season ope ned. Full text...