Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Gambia’s deputy minister of Agriculture, Momodou Seedy Kah, on Thursday launched the US$ 2,094,000 Italian government funded “Food Security through Commercialization of Agriculture” project, PANA reported from here. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- The European Union (EU) Wednesday released 8. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Senegalese Prime Minister, Souleymane Ndene Ndiaye, on Tuesday launched Senegal's Child Nutrition Programme and Food Security (NESA 2 010-2012) in Dakar aimed at enhancing food security and fighting malnutrition in the seven hardest hit regions in the country. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The Gambian government, in an effort to achieve the desi red national objectives of reducing poverty and increasing national food securit y through self-reliance, Tuesday launched the Livestock and Horticulture Developm e nt Project (LHDP). Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Council of Ministers of Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRi ce) has given the green light to the Board of Trustees to sign the agreement establishing the consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres, according to a statement from the organisation, obtained by PANA here Monday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzania is among seven African countries that will benefit from a donation of more than 100,000 tons of agricultural commodities valued at US$170 million from the Ameri can people under the Food for Education programme this year, the US Embassy here said Monday. Full text...

Ikeja- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Russian Federation on Thursday said it was willing t o partner with Nigeria's south-west Lagos State Government in areas of agricultu r e and technology as well as revive cultural ties. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Despite Africaâ?s annual food aid of US$3 billion and U S$33 billion in food imports, about 265 million of the worldâ?s 915 million undernourished people are on the continent, leaving one out of every three African people chronically hungry, according to the Director of Food Security and Sustainable Development o f the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Josue Dione. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's Acting President, Dr. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Japan has granted 4. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is to provide US$2. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Direct interventions of governments in providing agricul tural inputs can be more disruptive than supportive, according to a new report by the Southern Africa Sub Regional Office of the Unit ed Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) - â" Some 7. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Nearly 5,000 West African farmers are now able to take ad vantage of the growing popularity of organic foods in industrialized countries - thanks to a US$ 2. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Ag riculture (IITA) has extended its expertise by assisting Thailand in the biological control of cassava mealy bug, which had rec ently invaded the country and some other neighbouring countries of Laos and Cambodia, an IITA statement obtained by PANA here said. Full text...

Yaoundé- Cameroon (PANA) -- The African Cotton Association (ACA) will meet 11-13 March in Yaoundé, Cameroon, with participants from 22 countries expected to attend. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- More than 1. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has launched a new project, Global Futures for Agriculture, to improve agricultu ral productivity and environmental sustainability in developing countries. Full text...

N'Djamأ©na- Chad (PANA) -- About two million people are under the threat of starv ation, the resident coordinator of the UN Humanitarian Action, Michele Falavigna , warned in N'Djamena on Friday. Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) -- A senior Cameroonian government official said on Thurs day that the country saw a general rise in the level of production of its main export crops i n 2009. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The President of the African Cotton Association (ACA), Ahmed Bachir Diop, on Tuesday called on African governments to display greater willingness to support the cotton chain in Africa. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Ag riculture (IITA) and two private multinationals have announced a plan to assist farmers to tackle the men ace of weeds to ensure better crop yield in Africa. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika said Sunday that d espite bleak forecasts by agriculture experts that there will be a significant drop in crop production this year, he was optim istic Malawians will not go hungry. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Member states of the East African Community (EA C) Friday adopted a common strategy for food security as the best way for the region to ensure that there would always b e enough food for their entire population. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Member states of the East African Community (EAC) Friday adopted a common strategy for food security as the best way for the region to ensure that there would always be enough food for their entire population. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that smallholder s and rural producers have a vital role to play in overcoming global hunger and p overty. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The chairman of the organizing committee for the Interna tional Agriculture and Animal Resources Fair (FIARA), Boubacar Cissأ©, said on W e dnesday that Dakar would host a sub-regional food caravan that would be a prelud e to the 11th edition of the event planned in the Senegalese capital from 7-18 Ap r il. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Africa needs new policies to fight hunger and mal nutrition to conform with Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharikaâ?s call to make the continent food sufficient over the next five years, a senior African Union ( A U) official said Monday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Ag riculture (IITA) and its partners have developed improved maize varieties that w i ll help enhance food security and incomes of maize farmers in West and Central A f rica, according to a statement from IITA. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A new paper published in Science, an international magaz ine, warned that billions of dollars promised to fund programmes to boost small- s cale agriculture in developing countries are likely to fail in feeding the world â ?s increasing populations, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) , reported here in a statement on Saturday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf , on Friday expressed alarm at the lack of support for Haiti's immediate agricultural needs, the UN f o od and agriculture agency said in a press statement. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The third edition of the Libyan food fair, tagged "Libya Food Expo 2010", ended on Wednesday as participants expressed mixed feelings, w i th those who were pleased with the promotion of their products pitched against o t hers who were disappointed by the low level of turn-out, saying the event was a f lop. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Africaâ?s livestock producers are proving resi lient to climate change and generating huge economic benefits for their nations and regions, researchers said in a book publ ished Monday by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and SOS Sahel. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Ghana is among the countries that Finland and the Food a nd Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have agreed to help develop sustainable and af f ordable land administration systems. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Research on yam improvement in West and Central Africa h as received a boost with a donation of US$ 1 million from the European Union-Afr i can, Caribbean and Pacific Science and Technology Programme (EU-ACP), according t o a statement from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), b a sed in Ibadan, capital of the South West Oyo State of Nigeria. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritius has established a company to facilitate investment in Mozambique, particularly in the area of agro-food, sources close t o the new company told PANA here. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Officials of the UN panel overseeing the Conven tion on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have started the inspe c tion of Tanzania's ivory stockpile which the government intends to auction, desp i te mounting opposition from some African countries that are worried about the su r vival of their own elephant herds. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency, under the departm ent of veterinary services, has outlined plans to introduce fair purchasing and s elling prices of animals, PANA reported from here Tuesday. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger will directly buy 20,000 tonnes of millet from prod ucers at the cost of CFA F 4 billion (about US$ 9 million), PANA reported from h e re Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- About 50,000 mango and passion fruit farmers in Kenya an d Uganda are set to benefit from a new four-year partnership involving the Coca C ola Company and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Unroasted coffee harvests for 2008/2009 in Burundi t umbled to 6,500 tonnes, while the production reached over 30,000 tonnes the prev i ous year, a source close to the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry tol d PANA here. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called f or US$ 23 million from international donors to step up agriculture in Haiti as p a rt of the United Nations appeal for US$ 562 million for that country following t h e devastating earthquake there. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The North Gauteng Supreme Court in Pretoria, So uth Africa, on Wednesday granted permission to three white Zimbabwean farmers, r e presented by AfriForum, to sue the Harare government over loss of farmlands. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Grasslands have vast untapped potential to mitigate clim ate change by absorbing and storing Carbon Dioxide (CO2), according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Orga nisation (FAO). Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Mauritanian Foreign Affairs Minister Naha Mint M ouknass, and his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini, Monday evening signed a US$3 million agreement to e nhance food security in the African nation. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The French Ambassador to Angola, Francis Blondet, here o n Friday advised the Angolan government to continue working for agricultural and human development, noting that they are important areas for the country's progre s s, PANA reported. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Ghana has increased the producer price of cocoa by 8. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Export earnings of fishing products in Mauritani a recorded a 30% rise between 2008 and 2009, from US$149 million to US$190 milli o n. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- In a bid to protect its fisheries industry, the Tanzanian government Wednesday ordered local stockists and manufacturers of restricted commercial fishing nets to destroy the gear immediat ely or risk legal action. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday it had been forced to suspend its operations in southern Somalia due to rising insecurity. Full text...