Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Harvest estimates for 2002/2003 in Malawi -- still reeling from a devastating food shortage -- will this year record a 38,000-tonne deficit in the staple food, maize, while production in other crops have increased significantly. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Agricultural production in Africa has been projected to increase between 2003 and 2008, according to a report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued in Paris. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- The Zimbabwe government Friday listed more than 50 new commercial farms owned by mainly white farmers for compulsory acquisition for resettlement. Full text...

Evian- France (PANA) -- The world's eight most industrialised countries (G8) Tuesday ended their summit in Evian, south-eastern France, without reaching an agreement on support to Africa's agricultural sector. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The government has named an 8-member taskforce to review Kenya's Coffee Act, Agriculture and Livestock Development minister Kipruto Kirwa affirmed here Tuesday, saying the move falls within efforts at revamping the coffee sector. Full text...

Bissau- Guinea Bissau (PANA) -- An anthrax epizootic outbreak has killed 120 head of cattle within three weeks in Bissora, Mansoa, and Massaba, northern localities of Guinea-Bissau, state radio reported here. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambia, which recorded a deficit of 630,000 metric tons of food last year is expected to harvest more than a million metric tons of maize this year, with the possibly of exporting part of the bumper harvest. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- An agriculture expert, Israel Adu, has advised the Nigerian government to urgently and decisively intervene in efforts to reverse the perennial food shortage in the country. Full text...

Bissau- Guinea Bissau (PANA) -- Kuwait's Economic Development Fund is providing a US$4. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- The Zimbabwean government Friday listed more than 50 commercial farms belonging mainly to white farmers for compulsory acquisition under its controversial land policy. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) has elaborated a four-point memorandum on the plight of sub-Saharan Africa for consideration at the G8 summit holding this weekend in Evian, France. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwean tobacco merchants said Friday that the volume of the crop delivered to auction houses by farmers had increased, with the country earning 13. Full text...

Matsapha- Swaziland (PANA) -- Earthquake-troubled Algeria Friday donated over 1,000 tonnes of rice as food aid to the growing number of people desperately in need of food in rural Swaziland. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambican agricultural authorities have reported a two percent growth in grain production in the country for the 2002/2003 agricultural campaign despite a severe drought across the southern and parts of the central provinces, the "Noticias" daily reported on Wednesday. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe and Angola Wednesday signed a cooperation agreement with a view to propping Luanda's efforts at reviving its war-shattered agricultural industry. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A group of Maasai farmers in Kenya are benefiting from a new potato variety tht was developed by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute's National Potato Research Centre (NPRC). Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The FAO representative in Senegal, Edouard Tapsoba has emphasised the need for a $251-billion investment to implement the 2002-2005 detailed programme for the comprehensive development of agriculture in Africa. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers said on Tuesday that wheat production, which they dominated, would slump to under 100,000 tonnes this year from an annual average output of 300,000 tonnes after most commercial growers were driven off their farms by the government. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Angolan Agriculture minister Gilberto Lukucata said Tuesday his country will import seeds from Zimbabwe as it begins to re-build its war-shattered agricultural sector. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Seed and fertiliser producers in Zimbabwe on Tuesday increased prices of these essential commodities by over 100 percent in the latest hiccup to jolt the country's troubled agriculture industry. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- White farmers in Zimbabwe said Tuesday ostrich meat exports had fallen by half in three years to 150 tonnes, after the government seized thousands of their farms to re-distribute to landless peasants. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Angolan Agriculture Minister Gilberto Lutuka arrived in Zimbabwe on Sunday for talks on strengthening co-operation in the farming sector between the two countries. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian Agriculture and Food Technology minister, Pravind Jugnauth Saturday announced new measures to help vegetables farmers whose fields have been ravished by recent heavy rains in the country. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Local and international NGOs in Zimbabwe said Thursday the food situation in the country had improved owing to this year's good harvests, but noted aid would still be required. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A tobacco farming association in Zimbabwe said on Thursday the country earned 23 million US dollars from exports of the crop last month, mainly to European countries. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers say they have sold off more than a million head of cattle, worth over 250 billion Zimbabwean dollars (303 million US dollars) in the last three years because of the seizure of their farms by the government. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The European Union (EU) is formulating a new policy for researchers in biotechnology and genetic engineering in food production after its push to have Africa's 14 million starving population fed on such foodstuffs was rejected by African leaders. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Burundi's Citiboke and Makamba provinces have lost hundreds of pigs in the last three weeks to a plague, according to veterinary sources. Full text...

Brussels- Belgium (PANA) -- Belgian authorities have ordered the withdrawal of 80,000 tons of fertilisers made from chicken droppings bound for Senegal, sources at the exporting company conceded Wednesday. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers said Wednesday that their production of the staple maize crop had fallen tenfold in the last two years to 80,000 tons this year, due to the government's controversial land policies. Full text...

Ezulwini- Swaziland (PANA) -- Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Stella Lukhele has advised Swazi sugarcane farmers to also consider growing food crops in order to avoid the kind of imbalance that led to the current food shortage in the kingdom. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Farmers belonging to various Mauritian associations, Tuesday demanded financial compensation from the State before they could resume cultivation of their lands, citing the destruction caused by recent torrential rains in the country. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The European Union (EU) has disbursed two million Euro to boost irrigation schemes in northern Mauritius, an EU official said. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- White farmers evicted from their property in Zimbabwe to pave way for the resettlement of landless peasants are being funded by various international donor agencies to re-locate to neighbouring countries, their leader said Sunday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- More than four decades ago, stiff porridge made from millet flour used to be the staple food for Matula Lusesa and his fellow Sukuma, a large ethnic group south of Lake Victoria in Tanzania. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Mali produced some 60,000 tonnes of bananas in 2002, generating domestic incomes of about 18 billion CFA francs, the federation of associations of banana producers of Mali revealed here Thursday. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Cotton growers and merchants in Zimbabwe said Thursday that the crop's output had increased this year to 230,000 tons, up from the 195,000 tons produced in 2002, due to improved rains. Full text...

Mbabane- Swaziland (PANA) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday pledged to continue providing food aid to over 250,000 starving families in Swaziland. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- The Malawi government has effected a blanket ban on all meat movement from southern Malawi into other parts of the country following an outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease. Full text...

New York- UN (PANA) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has in a report called for more food aid and accelerated emergency food deliveries to Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mauritania to avert possible famine. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Famine threatens 500,000 persons in the West African Sahelian region this year, the World Food Programme (WFP) executive director James Morris declared in Dakar Wednesday. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Farmers in Zimbabwe said Wednesday that soybean output this year would fall to 50,000 tonnes, from 75,000 tonnes last year owing to the government's controversial land policies. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambia's leading horticultural farming company, Agriflora, is to raise its agricultural exports, mainly to Europe, from the current level of 28 million US dollars annually to 50 million dollars by 2005, according to media reports on Wednesday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) depute executive secretary Dr Oluremi Arabisala on Monday called on development partners to help the sub-regional grouping fashion a comprehensive agricultural policy. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya has express inability to export premium coffee to the US under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), citing a biting shortage of the commodity. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Tobacco growers in Zimbabwe said on Monday the country had earned 598 million Zimdollars (about US$737,000) from sales of the crop since auctions started two weeks ago. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambique's National Wages and Prices Commission has approved a new minimum producer first-grade cotton price of 3,800 meticais per kilo, up from the old price of 3,000 meticais. Full text...

London- UK (PANA) -- The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has cautioned the authorities against letting a good harvest in the productive northern region mask the severe famine in the southern provinces of Mozambique. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- The shortage of fertilisers and other farm inputs is troubling Tanzanian farmers, as a potential reduction in food production is foreseen this year due to dismal rainfall. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Buoyed by good market prices, maize farmers in Uasin Gishu, a northern Rift Valley district of Kenya, are turning to planting passion fruits, which they say are also cheaper to maintain. Full text...