Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Italy has pledged four million US dollars to support Mozambique's five-year National Agricultural Development Programme (PROAGRI), according to Agriculture Minister Helder Muteia. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A senior Zimbabwean agriculture official said Wednesday the country had clinched lucrative beef export deals with the DR Congo and Mozambique. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The UN food agency, FAO, has donated seeds and ploughing tools to 1,000 farmers in the Ewo, Okoyo, Mbama, Etoumbi, Kellé and Mbomo districts in the West-Basin region of northern Congo, the agriculture ministry in Kinshasa said. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Dr Nguyen Duc Tao, a Vietnamese who readily admits he does not miss his native Hanoi, has been in Senegal since 1997 as head of the special food security programme (SFSP), a 15-country pilot project launched by the FAO in 1994, but approved only two years later at the 106th session of the agency's council. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambique's five-year National Agricultural Development Programme (PROAGRI), utilised only 49 million US dollars from its total budget of 202 million dollars in the past three years, according to Agriculture Minister Helder Muteia. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The UN food agency, FAO, has donated seeds of food crops and ploughing tools to 1,000 farmers in the districts of Ewo, Okoyo, Mbama, Etoumbi, Kellé and Mbomo in the West-Basin region of northern Congo, the agriculture ministry in Kinshasa said Monday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said Monday his administration was implementing policies and programmes to boost cocoa production in the country. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger and France have signed a food relief agreement worth 630 million CFA francs (about 840,000 US dollars), official sources said in Niamey. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The John Platter Guide, winner of the 2001 Prix du Champagne Lanson for best wine guide world-wide, has launched its 2002 edition with 66 brand new entries plus exciting fresh features and enhancements. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The World Food Programme has launched an urgent appeal for 18 million dollars needed to procure food for 1. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and some of his Ministers are among dignitaries expected to attend a special symposium 23 November, in honour of Lukas Brader, the outgoing Director-General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), The 34-year-old Institute based in Nigeria's western city of Ibadan, said Wednesday the occasion would also feature scientific presentations and tributes to Brader, its fifth Director-General. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The African Development Bank (ADB) has granted Mali a loan of 19. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe Monday announced plans to resettle more than 50 000 new black farmers on commercial farms to be seized from whites under its controversial land reform programme. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan authorities have put into effect new tough measures meant to save dwindling fish stocks in Lake Victoria, the freshwater mass shared with neighbours Uganda and Tanzania. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Requirements for improved seeds for DR Congo are estimated at 25,000 tonnes per year with a renewal rate of 20 percent every five years, sources at the ministry of agriculture, fishing and livestock farming in Kinshasa said. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe Friday said it had secured a 25-million US dollars line of credit through a local bank to finance imports of maize from neighbouring South Africa. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Friesian cow breed preferred by most dairy farmers in Kenya is threatened by a genetic malformation that could affect local milk production, veterinary authorities disclosed to PANA Thursday. Full text...

Bulawayo- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Veterinary officials in Zimbabwe said Thursday that foot and mouth disease had broken out again in the main beef producing areas in the south of the country, just a month after an earlier outbreak in the region was brought under control. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe said Thursday it had foiled an attempt by white commercial farmers to illegally export huge quantities of wheat and maize, commodities which the southern African country is itself importing from Brazil and South Africa to meet a shortfall. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzanian legislators Wednesday passed a bill setting up a new regulatory body to take charge of the country's shaky sugar industry. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The Mauritius National Conservation Parks and the British Royal Botanical Gardens have succeeded in producing 21 plants from a single cutting of a very rare coffee plant - the Ramosmania heterophylla - the only type to exist in the world. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Some 94 onion growers in Boko district, south of Congo, have fixed 31 October as their annual Onion Promotion Day, Agriculture ministry officials in Brazzaville disclosed Tuesday. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided 11,416 tonnes of cereals to several school canteens in the northern regions of Mali seriously affected by a food crisis due to a cereal deficit this year, a source said at the food agency. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Mali plans to liberalise its cotton sector by 2005, with a view to increasing production and improving competitiveness in the industry, a source close to the Malian Textile Development Company (CMDT) hinted Friday. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Thirteen of Burkina Faso's 45 provinces are likely to suffer cereal deficits this year, according to the Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and the Burkinabe Agriculture and Livestock ministry. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The European Commission and the Mozambican government Friday signed an agreement in Maputo under which the commission will provide 17. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The Malian government recently approved a project for the development of 3,100 hectares in the rice producing area of the Niger (River) Authority, a source close to the Malian rural development ministry said on Friday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Tobacco growers from 18 countries have expressed outrage at the exclusion of two member countries from an important regional meeting of the World Health Organisation (WHO) held recently. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A team from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is in Zimbabwe for preparatory talks with the government ahead of the visit by officials from the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) to explore ways of resolving the country's land crisis. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambia may have to import maize again next year unless seeds and chemical fertilisers are urgently delivered to farmers ahead of the farming season, a church organisation has warned. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Experts from Southern and Eastern Africa are meeting in Maputo to discuss the crisis in cashew production in the region. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Ethiopia is to launch an irrigation and land conservation project that will involve 32,000 small producers in the western Amhara State, it was officially disclosed here Monday. Full text...

HARARE- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe agriculture officials said at the weekend the country netted 35 billion Zimbabwe dollars (1 USD - 55 ZD) from this year's tobacco crop whose marketing season closed Friday. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's flower growers said Friday that despite instability on commercial farms caused by the government's controversial land reforms, they had increased export earnings by 15 percent this year compared to last year. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe would lose beef export revenue of up to 1 100 million Zimbabwean dollars (20 million US dollars) this year due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, industry officials said Friday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Zambia's Food Reserve Agency is to import fertiliser worth 29 million US dollars from South Africa under a financial deal concluded with the Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Some 300 delegates from Africa and Europe will gather in Yamoussoukro for a six-day conference on the future of perennial crops starting 4 November, it was officially announced here. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The UN Food agency, FAO has donated seeds and gardening tools to denizens of Djambala and Lekana in Congo's central Plateaux region, the agriculture and livestock ministry said Tuesday in Brazzaville. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Cuba on Wednesday offered land surveyors to help Zimbabwe speed up the demarcation of thousands of farms compulsorily acquired from white commercial farmers to resettle landless blacks under its controversial land reform programme. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Ethiopia's Institute of Biodivesity Conservation and Research (IBCR) has indicated it was drafting legislation to govern access to biodiversity in the country. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The newly created Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) is to set up a temporary headquarters in Lusaka, a Zambian Union official has said. Full text...

Lubango- Angola (PANA) -- The Angolan government is investing one million US dollars to boost animal farming in the central and southern regions of the country, an official said. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- A senior official of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation on Monday urged African governments to review their water resources development and irrigation policies to meet the continent's food security goal. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Due to various constraints affecting the development of the livestock industry, Ghana has failed to meet its demand for animal protein from local sources, deputy food and agriculture minister Matthew Antwi said here Monday. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambian government says it is strengthening the role of the private sector to increase agro exports to regional markets through the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) Free Trade Area (FTA). Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Five Indian technicians are expected in Mozambique within the next two weeks, to help relaunch rice production in the Zambezia district of Nicoadala. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Trade and Industry minister of State Haile Taddesse has said that only 160,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia was under irrigation, noting that this was less than five percent of available irrigable surface. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a loan of 5. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Intensive cultivation of spirulin, a microscopic algae known a long time ago by the Aztecs and Kanembous in Chad could solve food deficiency problems faced by millions of African children. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The development of the cassava sub-sector to replace cotton, experiencing difficulties for a few years now, will cost Benin over 51 billion CFA francs (about 6. Full text...