Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The new chairman of the board of directors of West and Central African Centre for Agricultural Research and Development (WECARD), Simon Zok, has expressed the determination of the institution to put producers at the centre of all its activities. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Talks on the future of Africa’s fisheries and aquacultur e development hold 24 November at the Commonwealth Foundation in London, accordi n g to the official Newsletter of the New Partnership For Africa’s Development (NE P AD), made available to PANA here. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- THE Kenyan government has set aside over Shs 4. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- South Africa says it is withholding a 300-million rand agricultural aid package for Zimbabwe until a government of national unity is i n place in Harare, a diplomat said here Friday. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- UN General Assembly President, Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, has called for a new politics that starts from "the b ottom up, not top down'' in the face of the current global food crisis and mass h unger. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Burkina Faso is to see a record rice production of 235,810 tonnes for the 2008/2009 crop year compared with 68,916 to nnes harvested during the previous crop yea. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) Wednesday announced a U S$ 500 million food aid package for Zimbabwe where an estimated four million peo p le are on the verge of starvation. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Friday ha iled the comeback of healthy cassava, one of Africa's principal foodstuffs, to t h e menu of people in the Great Lakes Region. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The potential of irrigation of the basin of the Niger Rive r is estimated at 2. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday assured farmers in the country that th e government will in the next financial year increase budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A new bill that will enable farmers have access to a Shs 30 billion to be created by the Kenya Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) is be i ng formulated to revamp the agriculture sector yearly, Agriculture Minister Will i am Ruto, said on Monday. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Dr. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisat ion (FAO), Jacques Diouf, has called on US President-elect Barack Obama to host a World Food Summit in the first half of next year. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Organisations dedicated to the conservation of turtl es in Mozambique are challenging all strata of the society to adopt an attitude t o protect and preserve the reptiles. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe said Friday it had received US$ 21. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) – The World Bank has called -for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries, urging that the sector must be placed at the "centre of the development agenda" if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized, it said in a report received by PANA on Thursday. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) Thurs day signed a loan agreement, worth US$ 20 million, with Ripple Fish Internationa l towards the establishment of 'eel' farms and wild 'eel' fisheries in the coasta l areas of Mauritius, Madagascar and South Africa. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A group of South African government officials have arr ived in Zimbabwe for talks on a 300-million Rand agricultural financing aid pack a ge which Pretoria has pledged for its troubled northern neighbour. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has signed a US$360,000 project with the Gambian government to support the West African country's school feeding programme, the pro-government newspaper, 'Daily Observer', reported Thursday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- As food and financial crises deepen the risk of hunger, the world's largest alliance on agricultural research will convene more than 700 leading food and environmental scientists, policy makers and donor representatives in Maputo, Mozambique, on 1-2 December 2008 to discuss the best approaches for meeting the food needs of the poor in Africa. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- A UN independent expert, Olivier De Schutter, says nearly one billion people worldwide are now hungry, urging the issue to be viewed from t he perspective of human rights. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma has t urned the sod for the construction of an African Development Bank (AfDB)-sponsored 7. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Malawi will spend US $186m in an ambitious farm input subsidy programme for 1. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- The South African government has agreed to give Zimbabwe R300 million (US$30 million) in agricultural input financing support for the main summer cropping season starting this month, Harare's Ambassador to Pretoria said Friday. Full text...

Bobo Dioulasso- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The governor of the High Basins, Temaï Pas cal Benon, on Thursday laid the foundation stone for a 5-billion F CFA factory in Bo bo Dioulasso, 365 km west of Ouagadougou, that will process 250 tons of fresh to m atoes into 40 tons of tomato paste. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Cereal production is expected to reach 1, 818, 283 tonnes this year in Senegal, 136% higher than during the previous season, Agriculture Minister Hamath Sall said. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has assured that his coun try will be self-sufficient in rice production in three years with the introduct i on of new varieties of rice and assistance from Taiwan. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The largest complex of grain silos in southern Afric a is under construction at the northern Mozambican port of Nacala and should be opera tional by March 2009. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) – A US$12. Full text...

Brussels- Belgium (PANA) -- On the occasion of the World Food Day, the European U nion (EU) has released 15 million euros in favour of the needy people in five co u ntries of the Horn of Africa, according to a press statement from the European C o mmission here Friday. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The French Development Agency has granted US$ 4. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has urged d onors not to reduce aid to developing countries or introduce protectionist trade measures following the current global financial crisis. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Heads of UN agencies and organisations working in Africa will next Tuesday meet here for the ninth meeting of the Regional Consul t ation Mechanism (RCM) under the theme, "Coordinated multi-sectoral response to t h e food crisis challenge in Africa", the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA ) said Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Governments should avoid reducing aid to developing coun tries' agriculture in response to the unfolding global financial crisis, FAO Dir e ctor-General Jacques Diouf cautioned Wednesday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegal's Livestock Minister Oumou Khaïry Guèye Seck and the chairman of the French region of Midi-Pyrénées, Martin Malvy, on Monday evening signed a cooperation agreement to develop the local milk industry in the next three years. Full text...

Washington- US (PANA) -- IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn says specia l attention should be paid to measures aimed at bringing down the high food and e nergy prices in developing economies. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has appeal ed for US$ 140 million to provide vital relief rations over the next six months i n Zimbabwe where more than five million citizens face severe food shortages. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Mango exports fetched Mali more than CFA 10 billion (about US$ 4. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambican Agriculture Minister Soares Nhaca Thursda y denied a claim by the former rebel movement Renamo that Mozambique had fewer r u ral extensionists than Swaziland. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambican Agriculture Minister Soares Nhaca Thursda y denied a claim by the former rebel movement Renamo that Mozambique had fewer r u ral extensionists than Swaziland. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambique's Agriculture Minister Soares Nhaca Wedne sday disclosed that the government strategy towards agriculture was to eliminate the need to import rice and potatoes and slash imports of wheat. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The United States Government has announced a three-year extension of a project that will provide US$6 million for regional agricultural research and technology transfer. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) Tuesday launched an ambitious US$3. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) were billed to launch an ambitious US$3. Full text...

Mombassa- Kenya (PANA) -- In a bold effort to change the way bananas and plantains are produced and marketed in Africa, banana farmers, buyers, trade officials, donors and scientists were gathering in Mombasa, Kenya, this week for the first Pan African Banana Conference, due to open here Friday (3Oct). Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- The European Union (EU) has decided to maintain the fishing agreement signed with Mauritania on 31 July. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, has renewed his determi nation to force down the price of meat in the West African country, insisting "n o negotiation with butchers," the pro-government newspaper, Daily Observer repor t ed Monday. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- The emergence of the military in the politics of Mauritania may have effectively dealt a blow to the fishing agreement signed be t ween the European Union (EU) and Mauritania, the country's local press indicated here Sunday. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea (PANA) -- The Regional Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) for West Africa, Thomas Yanga, disclosed here on Friday his institution was goi n g to increase its cooperation with Guinea. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea (PANA) -- The Regional Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) for West Africa, Thomas Yanga, disclosed here on Friday his institution was goi n g to increase its cooperation with Guinea. Full text...