Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Nigerian government says it will import 130 metric tonnes of fertiliser this year for sale to farmers at a reduced price to boost food production in the country. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritius has embarked on the wholesale development of horticulture and its food-processing industry, an official at the ministry of agriculture said. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Burkinabe textiles company SOFITEX has urged growers to produce 500,000 tonnes of cotton for the 2002-2003 season (up 100,000 tonnes), in spite of price falls at the world market. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- Heavy rains across Morocco have raised prospects for this year's farming, according to press accounts that cited sources at the Agriculture ministry, Wednesday. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- A combination of factors will make yields of Malawi's staple food, maize, to drop by 300,000 metric tonnes in the current harvest season, thereby extending the spectre of the hunger crisis that has hit seven million Malawians. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- The UN Development Programme currently finances a large agricultural project in DR Congo initiated by the government to boost plant, animal and fish production in the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Participants at the agriculture workshop during the just-ended NEPAD conference on private sector financing have emphasised the importance of modernising African agriculture in general through adequate investment. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Fears are rising among Kenyan farmers that they could lose the entire maize crop following reports that they had been using fake pesticides. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Ivorian pineapple growers have been asked to comply with new European Union export requirements by September 2002, sources close to the Collective of Ivorian Pineapple Growers (COPLACI) said in Abidjan. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- As the conference on financing the New partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) got underway in Dakar Monday, the private sector was challenged to give a new lease to the agricultural sector so as to bridge the gap with industrialised countries. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo said Monday in Dakar that Africa needed to harmonise its environmental and agricultural sectors. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A Zimbabwean bank said Monday local banks had continued to lend heavily to the country's key agriculture sector despite its instability following the government's controversial agrarian reforms. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A senior official of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Robert Booth, says efforts to develop and expand farming systems in Africa stand a better chance of succeeding if they are established as business ventures. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Despite the severe drought that hit Zimbabwe this year, the country's tobacco output is projected at 200 million kilogrammes as it was in 2001. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Hunger and famine in Africa could be relegated to history if the cassava crop is expanded and popularised, says a Nigerian researcher, Olumide Tewe. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- A research conducted by the Ivorian Agronomic Research Association (AISA) reveals that potatoes should grow in Cote d'Ivoire, the researchers reported Wednesday in Abidjan. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The 3rd edition of an international fair on agro-industry and food technology (SIAGRO 2002) is underway in the Senegalese capital with more than 150 exhibitors from Africa, Asia, Europe and America in attendance. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Over 1,000 hectares of various crops have been destroyed by heavy rains in the northern lakeshore district of Nkhata Bay, further worsening the food crisis that has hit most parts of the country. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe increased export earnings from horticulture last year to 67. Full text...

Chiredzi- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- "As we plant here, the maize we are importing from Brazil, Argentina and other places will be coming and the two will complement each other," Zimbabwe's Vice President Simon Muzenda said Sunday as he inaugurated a pilot winter maize growing scheme. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Only about 14,000 visitors attended Burundi's first national agriculture and livestock trade fair which ended Sunday in Bujumbura the capital. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A five-day regional workshop on how to improve the production and commercialisation of the cassava crop opened in Nairobi Monday, hosted by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), based in the Kenyan capital. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Meteorologists in Botswana are predicting that a severe drought will hit the country by the end of the year and are advising the government and farmers to stock up on food and water. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Chemicals made from plants with pesticidal or fungicidal properties are currently being used on experimental basis by farmers' groups in the East and Central provinces of Cameroon, as well as in the country's northern region, Felix Monfire Nkapemin, national co-ordinator of the National Agricultural Extension Programme (PNVA), has told PANA. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Jacques Diouf, Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), is in Kinshasa on a three-day visit to DR Congo at the invitation of the Congolese government. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- For the third time in two weeks, the Zimbabwe government Friday listed more white-owned farms for seizure to resettle landless peasants under its agrarian reform programme. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Farmers in Zambia's southern District of Namwala are rejoicing over the killing of a lion that had been terrorising villages and killed some 40 domestic animals. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe said Thursday it was resuming lucrative beef exports to Libya, suspended last year after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Zimbabwe. Full text...

Mbabane- Swaziland (PANA) -- Swazi honey producers are unable to meet the domestic demand of some 2. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers said Wednesday invasions and seizures of their farms by landless peasants had risen since last month's presidential election in which President Robert Mugabe, who backs the land grabs, retained power. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegal's third International Agriculture and Animal Resources Trade Fair (FIARA) held from 25 March to 2 April in Dakar attracted over 6,000 visitors and 150 exhibitors from nine countries, the organisers said Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A group of youths in Kenya's Nyanza Province has urged the government to lift the temporary ban on "Omena" (Rastrineobola argentea) fishing in Lake Victoria, saying it would affect the community's source of livelihood. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The chairman of the National Federation of Coffee Farmers in Guinea, Sidiki Camara said the signs of revamped coffee production in the country have appeared after the drop recorded in the current campaign. Full text...

Monterrey- Mexico (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's land reform programme can only make meaningful progress when the political dispute between the government and donor nations is resolved, UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, said Monday. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- As Zambia prepares for a radical transformation of its farming sector, details are emerging why the widely maligned Food Reserve Agency failed to deliver the much needed services, leaving the nation in the grip of a devastating famine. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will extend it projects in 10 Burundi's 17 provinces with particular emphasis on perennial crops, fishing and the environment, it was revealed in Bujumbura Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said it would fund poverty alleviation projects in five of Kenya's six central districts, officials from the organisation said Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Auctioning at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange Tuesday registered an upswing in total sales with the Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK), attributing the active performance to a steady increase in the crop's prices. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- France Tuesday agreed to grant Congo 74,789,000 CFAF (over 100,000 US dollars) to develop a small- scale farms along the Bacongo coastal road. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- The DR Congo district of Bas-Fleuve, in the province of Bas-Congo, is facing a migratory locust invasion which has ravaged subsistence crops in the area, an agriculture official, Mvemba Nzuzi, told PANA. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Amid dwindling returns from copper, Zambian farmers are asking for further concessions above those given by the government in this year's budget, in a bid to make agriculture the backbone of the national economy. Full text...

Chipinge- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe Thursday declared a prevailing drought in the country a national disaster compelling the government to raise local and international resources to import food to avert starvation. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A former South African military weapons testing range at Salfdana north of Cape Town has been leased to a company for the development of a massive abalone farm. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A feeling of satisfaction could be noted among the African delegations that took part in the 39th international agricultural show (SIA), which ended Sunday in Paris. Full text...

Bissau- Guinea-Bissau (PANA) -- Guinea-Bissau parliament has passed a law prescribing jail terms of up to five years for convicted livestock thieves. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Increased supply of high quality coffee from growers boosted the crop's prices at the auction held Tuesday in Nairobi, the Coffee Board of Kenya has announced. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe Monday signed an agreement with Belarus for the supply of tractors, combine harvesters and other farm equipment to support its agrarian reforms. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Scientists from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) have developed new cashew nut and cotton varieties in a bid to revitalise the collapsed cotton and cashew nut sectors in the country. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin's Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Ministry has approved a national action plan for sustainable management of the country's soil fertility. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), is preparing a common agricultural policy, according to its Secretary General Erastus Mwencha. Full text...