At least 1 078 veterinary health professionals from 13 African countries are among the 4 700 trained by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture and Organisation (FAO) to strengthen the developing countries’ capacity to manage livestock disease outbreaks. In a statement, the FAO said with funding from the United States…
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has developed a mobile phone application for use by smallholder farmers and agricultural extension officers to collect data to monitor and quantify the impact of fall armyworm (FAW) outbreaks. The FAO says the Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning Syste (FAMEWS) app…
Southern Africa faces food deficits as a result of prolonged dry spells and fall armyworm, says the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This comes as the Zambian agricultural think-tank the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) predicted the climatic and crop disease factors would negatively impact this year’s…
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the goal of eradicating Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) globally by 2030 can be achieved if governments and development agencies invest urgently in combating the spread of the disease. In an update on the status of the disease on 19 December,…
Namibian farmers have started testing the first batch of 4 staple crop seeds that were treated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Austria through irradiation. The crops have been adapted to Namibian conditions by local agricultural scientists using the induced mutation breeding method. The project, which covers cowpeas,…
Strong production gains in the Southern African and Far East Asian regions have pushed up the 2017 annual cereal output of Low-Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDC), a leading global food security agency has said. LIFDCs are defined based on the level of annual national per capita gross national income (GNI),…
Governments and non-governmental organisations in Africa have been challenged to concentrate on funding programmes that form partnerships to build local institutional capacity and farmer resilience against the fall armyworm (FAW), since it is “here to stay”. The call was made by stakeholders at a joint expert and multi-stakeholder meeting convened…
African governments should promote innovative risk management tools and methods to protect root and tuber crop farmers from the effects of climate change, a United Nations (UN) food security agency has advised. Addressing a workshop that discussed climatic risk management for African root and tuber crop farmers in Kigali, UN Food…
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for the urgent adoption of new measures to tackle 3 emergent, fast-spreading cross-border pests and diseases that pose threats to global food security. In a statement issued after the World Organisation for Animal Health meeting that was held in Rome…
Illegal fishing rigs are causing serious harm on Lake Kariba, shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe, resulting in dwindling catches in the vast man-made lake, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). According to FAO’s assessment of the fishing industry in the lake, a lack of monitoring and surveillance capabilities made…
Global production of coarse grains is expected to reach a record of 1 359.7 million tons in 2017. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicates in its biannual food outlook report for global food markets that this is 13.4 million tons higher than last year. This growth is…
Some players in the Zambian fish industry want government to ban the import of tilapia fish from Asia, after an outbreak of the highly contagious Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV) there. Local media report that Aquaculture Development of Zambia (ADAZ), the umbrella body for Zambia’s fishing industry, raised the alarm following…
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) will train 1 800 Zambian smallholder farmers in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) to increase productivity and enhance resilience. National Technical Coordinator Misael Kokwe said the training will not only help farmers cope with the adverse effects of climate change, but will also…
A coordinated strategy to decrease the damage caused by fall armyworm in southern Africa, before the next season starts, was developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). David Phiri, FAO coordinator in southern Africa, said the strategy includes observations and reporting of the pest, recordings of the…
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has signed a US$39 million deal with the Zambian government to implement a programme that will aim to help small-scale rural farmers increase production. This is as the African Consumer Union (ACU) called on government to create a more enabling…
Another four cases of the deadly bird flu virus was this morning confirmed at three different locations in South Africa – this time in wild bird populations. According to a World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) alert, the H5N8 strain was found in Mpumalanga’s Lekwa Municipality in two southern masked weavers.…
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) have warned that timely and effective support to the agricultural sector in eastern Africa is urgently required, due to prolonged drought conditions in the area. In a special alert on the Global Information and Early warning system on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS),…
After scares of possible El Niño conditions returning in 2017, current outlooks predict neutral conditions for this spring. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology changed its El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) outlook to inactive, with the American Climate Prediction Centre doing the same. “ENSO-neutral is favoured (50 to 55% chance) through the…
A rebound in grain production and improved livestock conditions means food security is recovering in Southern Africa, the FAO said. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Southern Africa is expected to produce 34.6 million tons of grain in 2017 mostly thanks to wetter conditions in the…
The fall armyworm is now also in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first central African country to report the presence of the South and Central American pest in its maize fields. According to news agency Reuters, a total of 63 000 ha of maize was destroyed in the southern…
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says water availability and power supply are a major hindrance to Zambia’s irrigation potential. The international body also cited land tenure, lack of knowledge by farmers and access to finance among other challenges to crop irrigation. According to FAO, only 14% of Zambia’s arable…
An upsurge in cross border crop and livestock pests is bringing together role players in Southern Africa to enhance preparedness. A three day regional meeting that started on 14 February is currently underway in Harare, Zimbabwe, where increased investment in the preparedness and response capacities to new and endemic threats…
Zambia shut down its maize exports in October, but, according to Reuters, the government had opened its borders to export of 100 000 tons of white maize to Malawi. “The maize has already started moving, through two companies, and we hope that it will alleviate the food situation in Malawi,”…
Musika has trained staff from the ministry of agriculture, from the Zambian National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU), and from several agricultural dealers, in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). The Southern Province and the Eastern Region were the first to receive this boost to the farming sector. CSA has been rolled out by…
