At least 110 smallholder cassava farmers drawn from five local government areas of Kwara state have been fortified against pesticide contamination and other health hazards associated with their farming activities. The cassava farmers beneficiaries, who were selected from Ilorin South, Moro, Ifelodun, Irepodun and Asa local government areas of Kwara state, received personal protective equipments (PPEs). The items were distributed by Ayosifam, ...
Amidst efforts to boost cassava production, scientists through the NextGen Cassava Project have released five improved cassava varieties to the delight of farmers. The newly released varieties were designed to have a significant impact on food security, and enhance farmers’ income, agro-industrialisation, and employment in the country, and more widely in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Project Director, NextGen Cassava, Professor Chiedozie Egesi,...
Cassava Chips production is a relatively new business idea in Nigeria. Cassava Chips is a product derived from cassava. Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world with a yield of about 54 million tonnes of cassava in 2012. Cassava (Manihot spp) is a tropical perennial crop cultivated mainly for its edible root, is a staple food consumed worldwide and provides much economic benefit to the producers. Cassava can be processed in a...
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group (WBG), World Food Programme (WFP), and World Trade Organisation (WTO) want urgent action to address the global food crisis. FAO Director-General, Qu Dongyu; IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva; WBG President, David Malpass; WFP Executive Director, David Beasley, and WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala issued a joint statement on...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, Abebe Halle-Gabriel have visited Nigeria in a bid to meet with some selected government officials to chart a way forward in improving the livelihood of the citizens. The FAO Deputy Director of the Office of Emergency and Resilience, Shukri Ahmed who is also part of the visit will accompany the Halle-Gabriel to...
China’s modernization started in 1978 under its leader, Deng Xiaoping. The keys to his approach were: 1. Maintain political stability at all costs; 2. Focus on the grassroots, bottom-up reforms (starting in agriculture instead of in the financial sector); 3. Promote rural industries despite their primitive technologies; 4. Produce manufactured goods (instead of only natural resources); 5. Provide enormous government support for infrastructure...
Agrifood tech startups in Africa have raised $1.1billion in five years, a report has said. The Africa Agrifood tech Investment Report 2022, AgFunder’s first Africa investment report, in partnership with FMO-Dutch entrepreneurial development and British International Investment, aims to contextualise trends on the continent with global trends. The report also indicated that African agrifood tech firms have $1.1 billion since 2017. A...
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Dr Mohammad Abubakar, on Thursday, said the agriculture sector contributed 23 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first half of 2022. Abubakar stated this in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 45th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD) in Jos. The minister said the figure was from the National...
Farmers across the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have expressed their readiness to tap the opportunities in cassava and maize value chain as proposed by the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. The farmers, under the auspices of Asiwaju Farmers Forum, stated this yesterday in Abuja. The group said their resolve to tap from the abundant opportunities in staples such...
Running for almost two decades already, a local project in Vietnam has been exhibiting the economic, environmental, and social benefits of cassava-based conservation models. By the early 2000s, the Van Yen District in Yen Bai Province, Vietnam, had experienced yield loss and food insecurity due to unsustainable practices, such as intensive farming and monocropping. These practices reduced forest coverage to accommodate agricultural production...
