New York, US (PANA) - The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on Wednesday said thousands of households in rural Ghana would benefit from Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - The state-owned Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has secured a loan US$ 2 billion to purchase cocoa and fund cocoa-related activities in the 2011/2012 crop season. Full text...

Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Benin has adopted a plan to boost the production of rice, which is a staple in the country, PANA learnt Friday from official sources in Cotonou. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - A new report by several regional and international organizations has said average harvests are expected in Africa's Sahel belt in 2011/2012. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria’s policymakers, the private sector and foreign investors have been urged to take advantage of the untapped opportunities available in the country's cassava sector, especially processing. Full text...

Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African leaders are working in concert to accelerate the issue of the adoption of "smart agriculture". Full text...

Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African leaders are working together to quickly adopt a "climate-smart" approach to agriculture to fight the impacts of climate change and increasing scarcity of natural resources. Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The US will later Wednesday host a conference on the role of biotechnology in advancing African agriculture, the US State Department said here. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - East African leaders wound up their day-long talks Friday on the region’s drought and famine, fearing that the crisis could lead to further weakening of their economies, create routes for illegal trade and smuggling of deadly arms. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Countries need to pay more attention to fire management on lands bordering forests in order to prevent the 95 percent of wildfires that originate from human activities in forests and adjacent areas, an international partnership for forests warned Friday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Against the backdrop of drought and famine in the Horn of Africa region, leading food experts have said greater investment in agricultural research, and an increased cooperation among scientists, governments, local enterprises and rural communities are critical to reducing the region's vulnerability to future droughts and extreme weather. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Unveiling its Agriculture Transformation Action Plan (ATAP), at its second meeting here since creation on 17 August, the Nigerian National Economic Management Team (EMT) said it would create 3.5 million jobs in the next four years, using massive focus on five agricultural crops – rice, cassava, sorghum, cocoa and cotton. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - About 6.3 million hectares of farmland have lost their fertility and water-holding capacity due to degradation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - East African ministers meeting here Thursday are expected to adopt a wide-ranging action plan, seeking rapid increments in long-term financing of drought-control measures, to deal with a cycle of drought and starvation in the Horn of Africa region. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf, Wednesday warned that pressure on the world’s limited amounts of soils available for agriculture, together with land degradation were threatening global food security and imperiling long-tem efforts to avoid widespread famine. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The FAO Monday called for increased efforts to stem the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, as famine spread to a sixth area of Somalia, threatened with starvation to death in the next four months. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Monday called for heightened preparedness and surveillance amid signs that a mutant strain of the deadly bird flu virus is spreading in Asia and beyond. Full text...

Cairo, Egypt (PANA) - Egypt's Agriculture Export Council chairman, Sherif Al-Beltaguy said he expected the early lifting of an export ban on some Egyptian seeds by the European Union (EU). Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has begun distributing the first batch of more than a million vaccines across Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, in a bid to protect livestock and other animals from deadly diseases during the current rainy season. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – Ghana, the world’s second largest producer of cocoa after Cote d’Ivoire, has so far seen a record one million tonnes of cocoa in the on-going 2010/11 crop season, according to a statement released by Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on Saturday. Full text...

Cairo, Egypt (PANA) - The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt, Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayeb, has asked Muslims around the world to help alleviate the suffering of millions of Somalis facing the threat of dying from starvation due to the severe drought and famine that has hit the horn of Africa country. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - With Africa pledging over US$ 346 million, the African Union (AU) Thursday secured over US$ 380 million from internal and external sources in response to its appeal to help over 14 million drought-hit people in the Horn of Africa, according to AU officials. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - African Union and United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has started airlifting vaccines as part of a three-month campaign to protect livestock herds in Darfur, a UNAMID statement said here Thursday. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - The Nigerien government Wednesday launched a programme of irrigated crops, valued at more than 10 billion CFA francs, in order to cope with the uncertainties of the current crop year, official sources told PANA here Thursday. Full text...

Cairo, Egypt (PANA) - The Head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in Egypt, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy, on Wednesday ordered the immediate airlifting of food and medical aid to famine-hit Somalia. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Senior UN officials are calling on countries, businesses and individuals to donate generously to support efforts to tackle the food security crisis gripping the Horn of Africa, warning that the world cannot “afford to lose momentum” in the fight against famine, disease and starvation. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Africa will conquer hunger when its governments give the citizens tools and resources they need to feed themselves, Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said on the eve of an international conference, which will be open Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to address the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - South Africa and Nigeria, the two leading economic giants in Africa, have received knocks from a civil society group, Africans Act 4 Africa, for pledging paltry sums of US$ 2.2 million and US$1 million respectively to the fund needed to assist victims of the famine in the Horn of Africa. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its partners said that investing in healthy ecosystems could boost food security, improve resilience to climate change and provide economic benefits for poor communities, Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, on Friday met President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) Moussa Idriss Ndélé, in Johannesburg, South Africa, to discuss the humanitarian crisis occasioned by the drought situation in the Horn of Africa and in particular Somalia. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Angola's Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - At least 14 Sudanese government officials, accused of squandering public funds following the approval of a "bad seeds deal" two years ago, have been referred to a Public Attorney for investigation and trial. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - At least 14 Sudanese government officials, accused of squandering public funds following the approval of a "bad seeds deal" two years ago, have been referred to a Public Attorney for investigation and trial. Full text...

Washington, D.C., US (PANA) - Women account for 75 percent of the agricultural producers in sub-Saharan Africa, but the majority of women farmers are living on only US$1.25 per day, according to researchers from the Worldwatch Institute, an independent research organisation based in Washington, D.C., US, that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - To support the agricultural transformation agenda of the Nigerian government, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is offering a total of US$75 million for a comprehensive agricultural development in the country. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The African Union Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping, Monday called on multi-nationals operating in Africa and Africa’s own private sector to be the leading actors in the contribution of funds to help the 12.5 million people affected by drought in the Horn of Africa. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Germany has pledged Ksh15 billion to finance long-term measures to tackle drought in the East African region, with Kenya expected to get at least half of the amount, the President's office said Monday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Global food prices are at high levels and when combined with continued volatility, put the poorest people in the developing world at continued risk, according to the World Bank Group’s Food Price Watch report released Monday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - France has tripled aid to the Horn of Africa region in response to the current humanitarian crisis affecting the region. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) - Belgium has made available 4 million euros to take care of victims of famine in the Horn of Africa, according to an official statement released here Thursday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - As part of its efforts to assist the victims of drought and famine in the Horn of Africa and in the light of the Pledging Conference to be held in Addis Ababa, Ehiopia, the African Union Commission Thursday launched a web platform, dedicated to the dissemination, exchange of information and promotion of activities undertaken by all sectors of the international community in response to the crisis. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - International prices of wheat decreased for the third consecutive month but those of rice continue to rise, though the prices of maize declined marginally globally, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Wednesday. Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - Burundi's main agricultural season for 2011has seen a 3% rise in production compared with 2010. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will host a high-level operational meeting 18 August, to decide on urgent measures to resolve the worsening crisis in the Horn of Africa, a news release issued by the organisation said Tuesday. Full text...

Harare, ZImbabwe (PANA) - Tobacco merchants in Zimbabwe said Friday the country had earned US$ 313.5 million from tobacco exports. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - The Niger government has called for collective prayers for good harvest in the country, according to a statement issued here Friday after a cabinet meeting. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Visiting Swiss Confederation President Anne-Marie Calmy-Rey Thursday held talks with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki about the raging drought in the Horn of Africa region after paying a visit to thousands of Somali refugees in Kenya. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A UN-European Union (EU) initiative to help Togo cope with high food prices and bad weather by providing seeds, fertilizers and other input for 20,000 rural farmers, has produced returns that are almost double the cost. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The African Union (AU), which postponed the international pledging conference it planned to hold on 9 August in aid of Somali famine victims, says the meeting will now hold 25 August and urged African countries to set aside a date to dedicate attention to the Horn of African humanitarian crisis. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN on Wednesday declared famine in three more areas in drought-ravaged Somalia, bringing to five the number of regions in the Horn of Africa country where acute malnutrition and starvation have already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. Full text...