Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The latest food security analysis, carried out in South Sudan, indicates that because of conflict, displacement, destroyed markets and disrupted livelihoods, food security has deteriorated at an alarming rate since the outbreak of conflict in December 2013, FAO has said. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – Seven African leaders has reaffirmed their commitment to transforming the agricultural sector across the continent, as part of the process of delivering prosperity to the citizens. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Weather conditions in various countries and political tensions in the Black Sea region have made food markets more volatile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports in its new Food Outlook. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Locally-owned African seed companies participating in a programme to offer high-yield crop varieties to smallholder farmers across the continent have collectively become the largest seed producers in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report released Thursday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday in Rome urged immediate help to end hunger and malnutrition around the world, warning that up to a million people could be at risk of famine in a matter of months. Full text...

Düsseldorf, Germany (PANA) – Tackling the world’s massive food loss problem is a key to reducing hunger and poverty, but governments and companies must step up their collaboration on the issue, an international congress on food losses and waste heard Wednesday. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - African agriculture ministers have revived a continental call to overhaul agricultural policies to effectively fight hunger. Full text...

Douala, Cameroon (PANA) – Cameroon's cocoa exports for the 2013/14 season have dropped by 26% over the same period during the previous season, coming down to 143,374 tonnes from 193,298 tonnes, officials of the Cameroonian cocoa-coffee field organizations told PANA on Thursday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) – As African ministers of Agriculture began their meeting Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, farmers' groups have demanded for more access to land, seeds and credit facilities, to enable them boost food production on the continent. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) – Africa has the potential to increase the value of its annual agricultural output from US$280 billion in 2010 to about US$500 billion by 2020, according to an African Development Bank (AfDB) report, obtained by PANA here. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium ( PANA) - Senegal and the European Union have reached a new fisheries agreement, eight years after the expiry of the previous protocol, according to a statement on Monday in Brussels. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - Mauritania produced 200,000 tons of grains (rice and traditional grains) in the 2013/2014 crop year, Brahim Ould Moctar Ould Mohamed M'Bareck, the Minister of Rural Development, announced here Thursday at the meeting of the Council of Ministers. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - African ministers of agriculture are due for a joint ministerial meeting to discuss the key elements of an African agricultural growth and transformation strategy, a senior African Union (AU) official said. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Scientists have cracked the genetic code of the bloodsucking tsetse fly, prompting hope that the breakthrough will help future efforts to control one of the most devastating livestock diseases in sub-Saharan Africa spread by the insect. Full text...

Rabat, Morocco (PANA) – Guinea's president, Alpha Condé, on Thursday sought the support of Morocco for the development of agriculture in his country. Full text...

Meknès, Morocco (PANA) - Countries need to shift to more sustainable food systems as well as step up action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, according to Director-General of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) José Graziano da Silva. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – The Nigerian Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved a loan of US$152.12 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support further reform of the agricultural sector in Nigeria. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Countries need to shift to more sustainable food systems, stepping up action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva has said. Full text...

Rabat, Morocco (PANA) - Guinea's President Alpha Conde has called for the quick return of Morocco to the African Union (AU). Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A UN-backed summit on the role of oceans in global food security, livelihoods and economic development which opened on Tuesday in The Hague, the Netherlands, said that overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution are atop its agenda for discussions. Full text...

Yaoundé, Cameroon (PANA) - The World Bank is to grant Cameroon FCFA 50 billion francs (US$105.3 million) to enable the central African country implement its agriculture investment and market development project (PIDMA). Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – To mitigate the effects of climate change on Nigeria’s agricultural sector, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has unfolded plans to establish agro-meteorological stations across the country in order to alert farmers on weather conditions. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has urged countries to step up the monitoring, reporting and prevention of one of the world’s most destructive banana diseases, Fusarium wilt, which recently spread from Asia to Africa and the Middle East. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) says from farming to forestry and fisheries, agriculture greenhouse emissions have nearly doubled over the past 50 years and may increase by another 30 per cent by 2050. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) – The Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA), with its secretariat at the African Union Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, has appointed Dr. Benoit Gnonlonfin, as its new Technical Officer, according to a statement, made available to PANA here Friday. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Farmers and herders in Sudan need urgent support to help prevent the food security situation in the country from deteriorating further, the Foof and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned Thursday. Full text...

Yaoundé, Cameroon (PANA) - Actors in the agricultural sector in Cameroon met on Wednesday in Yaoundé for the validation of the seven-year National Agricultural Investment Plan (PANIA) estimated at F CFA 3,550 billion. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – A Nigerian presidential panel on Tuesday warned that famine is imminent in the Boko Haram enclave of Borno State, in North Eastern Nigeria. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The unprecedented crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) is devastating the economy and people's ability to secure basic necessities, two UN food agencies said in an assessment report this week. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A 10-hectare cassava farm pilot project, which aims to contribute to efforts to ensure food security and reduce poverty in Nigeria, is due to be launched in the country's South-west Ogun state next week, the project's promoters said. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The locust invasion, which started in the eastern part of Libya, has spread to other parts of the country, including Zlitin in the west, a local agriculture official announced Friday. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The World Food Programme (WFP) has secured permission to cross the Ethiopian border to deliver relief supplies to Southern Sudanese people and is seeking permission from Sudan to open its border. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Food Price Index rose sharply in March, up 4.8 points, or 2.3 percent, to an average of 212.8, the highest level since May 2013. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The Malian Prime Minister Oumar Ly Tatam has launched a campaign for artificial insemination of cows, PANA learned on Monday from the Malian Ministry of Livestock in Bamako. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ONE.org has launched one of the continent’s biggest musical collaborations ever, ‘Cocoa na Chocolate’, in support of a new campaign to boost investments in agriculture: ‘Do Agric, It Pays’. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The Government of the United Kingdom has released US$13.7 million in emergency funding to the UN Food and Agriculture Oorganization (FAO) to help conflict-affected families in South Sudan restore their agriculture-based livelihoods and stave off an increasingly alarming food security situation. Full text...

Douala, Cameroon (PANA) – The export of Cameroonian coffee dropped by about 50% last month compared to the same period last year, says the Cameroonian national coffee and cocoa office (ONCC). Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Dr Evelyn Nguleka of Zambia was on Friday picked to serve on the World Farmers Organization (WFO) board. Full text...

Tunis, Tunsie (PANA) - The prospects for cooperation between Tunisia and FAO were the main top for discussion Friday between the Tunisian President, Muncef Marzouki, and the Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) – A three-day international conference on ‘Getting Nutritious Foods to People’, expected to attract more than 200 high-level stakeholders from public, private business and civil society, is to hold in Kigali, Rwanda, from 31 March to 2 April. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - A unique, Africa-led fund designed to improve food security across the continent has become a reality for the first six countries slated to benefit from the initiative. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Getting more African youth involved in agriculture and boosting support for the region's vulnerable family farmers will be pivotal to improving food security and economic well-being in the years to come, FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, told participants at the Organization's Regional Conference for Africa. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Senegal, Vincent Martin, on Tuesday in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, presided over the opening of a workshop on management strategies on risks linked to pastoral and agro-pastoral activities in Senegal and Sahel. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) - The European Union (EU) has placed Guinea on the blacklist of countries which are not doing enough in the fight against illegal fishing, the organisation said in a statement here Tuesday. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Despite important economic progress and agricultural successes, Africa remains the world’s most food insecure continent, with relatively low levels of agricultural productivity, low rural incomes and high rates of malnutrition, FAO said here Monday. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - New data released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the occasion of the International Day of Forests confirm that forest areas continue to decline globally, with the biggest losses of tropical forests occurring in Africa and South America. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The World Bank has approved US$122 million to target nearly 22 million pastoralists in the Horn of Africa region, who are in need of life-saving support to cope with climate change, bank officials said on Thursday. Full text...

Durban, South Africa (PANA) - The 10th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform opened in Durban, South Africa, on Tuesday. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – Zimbabwean National Defence College students arrived here Monday on a study tour of the nation’s food security programme and understand the pivotal role food security play in ensuring Nigeria’s security. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwanda plans to introduce a new mobile phone technology that will use treated waste water from purification stations across all 30 districts of the country, to irrigate plantations, according to the Rwandan Minister of Agriculture, Agnes Kalibata. Full text...