Friday 30 November 2012

Agri4Africa Latest Newsletter: C.F

Agri4Africa Latest Newsletter

Tony and the USAID involvement in Africa development

Tony Elumelu with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Dr. Rajiv Shah at the second annual meeting of USAID's Private Capital Group for Africa's (PCGA) Partners Forum in Washington DC on Thursday. The Partners Forum was formed to consult with the United States government on how to strategically increase investment and unlock capital for the socio-economic development of Africa.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Attracting Africa youths to agriculture: the way forward

Nigeria World News: Attracting Africa youths to agriculture: the way f...: The President of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) , Dr. Namaga Ngongi, was at the recently held international conference on ...

Innovative action plan for youth employment in agriculture

Innovative action plan for youth employment in agriculture

Nigeria: Netherland Invest Over 5 Billion Naira in Nigeria's Agriculture

The Netherlands is investing over 26 million Euros, over 5.3 billion naira, in Nigeria's agric business for thousands of Nigeria, the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria, Bert Ronhaar, has said.
Mr Ronhaar, who made this known when the special advocate on financial inclusion for development to the UN Secretary General Banki-Moon, Princess Maxima of Netherlands, paid a visit to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development last night, said six million Euro is being spent on value-added chain for cassava thereby creating employment for 100,000 farmers.
"We are supporting the cassava industry and the small holder cassava growers in Nigeria with a contribution of six million Euros developing the value-added chain of cassava which results in creating employment and income for approximately 100,000 Nigerian farmers," he said.
"At the same time the Dutch government is supporting the coco growers in this country, the coco processing industry; it is also supporting the value-added chain in the coco industry. And the total amount invested in that programme which will last for over five years is approximately 20 million euro.
"It is not about money always. It is about the idea. It is about the drive, the experience with which we can help Nigeria.
"There is one other programme that will start in 2013. The programme is for nationwide public private partnership in agro-processing, in agriculture and horticulture. That will be implemented by the International Fertilizer Development Center, IFDC, well known to many of you, I know. And that will be a few million Euros. We really hope that they will bring expertise together of Dutch industry, but not only the Dutch, but African and many more local companies."
Princess Maxima, who said she is in Nigeria for the launching of the National strategy for financial inclusion, said stakeholders including the insurance industry need to come in to make financial inclusion a reality and limit the risk the famers have to go through.

DAILY TRUST

Thursday 22 November 2012

Online Modern Farming: Fish

Online Modern Farming: Fish: A limbless cold- blooded Vertebrate animal with gills and fins and living wholly in water. In internal resources of Bangladesh, 260 Specie...

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Jobs at Tunlay Farms _ November 27, 2012 :: Jobs In Nigeria, Vacancies in Nigeria :: MyJobMag

Jobs at Tunlay Farms _ November 27, 2012 :: Jobs In Nigeria, Vacancies in Nigeria :: MyJobMag

Spinach samosas with Nigerian salad..yummie

Between You and Me.....: Spinach samosas with Indian salad: Ingredients FOR THE SAMOSAS   600g ...

Centre for Agricultural Media CAM

Center for Agricultural Media or CAM was initiated in Dharwad, Karnataka on December 3, 2000. This venture by like-minded development journalists in Kannada drew influence from pioneering farm journal Adike Patrike. The aim is to strengthen agricultural journalism in Karnataka and network similar initiatives. CAM has been organizing programmes regularly to establish link between media and sustainable development. In 2007, the Centre was registered

Thursday 8 November 2012

Kanayo F. Nwanze IFAD’s fifth President

Kanayo F. Nwanze began his term as IFAD’s fifth President on 1 April 2009. A Nigerian national, Nwanze has a strong record as an advocate and leader of change and a keen understanding of the complexity of development issues. He was elected President by delegates from IFAD’s 165 Member States in February 2009.
Mr Nwanze served as IFAD’s Vice-President for two years before taking the organization’s helm. During that time, he championed and led the implementation of key processes that have improved the quality of IFAD’s operations in developing countries.

Mr Nwanze has over 30 years of extensive experience devoted to improving the livelihoods of poor rural communities. Prior to his arrival at IFAD, he served as Director-General (1996-2006) of the Africa Rice Center (WARDA) – a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) – and held several senior positions at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from 1979-1996. He started his international career as a post-doctoral researcher with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) shortly after his Ph.D. (1975) in agricultural entomology from Kansas State University, Kansas, USA. Mr Nwanze is a member of several scientific associations and a Board Member of a number of institutions. He has received numerous prizes and awards.
Kanayo F. Nwanze

Monday 5 November 2012

Daring Cassava bread♥ ♥ ♥(How to prepare it)

Between You and Me.....: Daring Cassava ♥ ♥ ♥: Cassava is a shrubby, tropical, perennial plant that is not well known in the temperate zone. For most people, cassava is most comm...

Friday 2 November 2012

About CGIAR

About

Dr Silim Nahdy takes up his appointment as Executive Director of AFAAS

Dr Silim Nahdy, who was appointed to the post of Executive Director of AFAAS after a competitive international recruitment process, took up his appointment on 1 November 2011.
Dr Nahdy holds a BSc in Zoology and Botany from Makerere University (Uganda), an MSc in Entomology from Khartoum University (Sudan) and a PhD from the University of Reading (UK). He comes to AFAAS with a wealth of experience gained in a career spanning over 30 years and embracing university teaching, scientific research in crop post-harvest systems, as well as planning and managing national agricultural research and advisory services. He led the team that designed the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) of Uganda which he subsequently led as the Executive Director for a period of 10 years. Prior to taking up the NAADS post he was the Director of Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute – one of the Uganda’s premier research institutes.
During his tenure at NAADS he was at the forefront of efforts to mobilise agricultural advisory services (AAS) in Africa for purposes of sharing experiences, seeking common voice in agricultural development forums, and influencing national, regional and international policy agendas for enhancing the effectiveness of AAS.
Dr Nahdy was the inaugural Chairman of the Governing Board of the Sub-Saharan African Network of Agricultural Advisory Services (SSANAAS) in 2004 and continued to serve as Chairman through its transformation into AFAAS in 2006. Through his efforts, both SSANAAS and AFAAS were hosted and resourced by NAADS until funding was provided by the European Union to establish institutional and organisational structures in May 2010.
Dr Nahdy is currently the Chairman of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), the global body that brings together practitioners of AAS from all over the world.
At his inauguration, Dr Nahdy said, ‘I hope that my leadership will propel AAS as an organisation that enhances the networking of AAS actors for the purposes of contributing to continental agricultural development agendas – most notably the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

The Roles of Mass Media in Disseminating Agricultural Information to Farmers

The Roles of Mass Media in Disseminating Agricultural Information to Farmers in Birnin Kebbi Local Government Area 0f Kebbi State: A Case Study of State Fadama II Development Project

 The study examined the roles of mass media in disseminating agricultural information to farmers in Birnin Kebbi Local Government Area. Eighty (80) structured questionnaires were randomly administered to selected respondents from five districts participating in the State Fadama II Development activities in the study area. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The studies revealed that majority of the respondents are full time farmers and are having personal lands with more than twenty one (21) years of farming experience. The study further shows that access to mass media on agricultural information is through radio and television, and most of them indicated that the media sources are conventional, accessible and preferred to listen to the agricultural progammes in the night time (8pm -11.59pm).The respondents identified purchasing and maintenance of media source (television and radio) as their major problems. The hypotheses tested showed a significant relationship between farmer’s sources of agricultural information and relevance of information received in solving agricultural problems (r = 0.544, p = 0.290). Finally, it is recommended that more efforts should be intensified in providing more agricultural information to farmers through radio and televisions most especially during night time and local community viewing centres should be established by the government 

 B.Z Abubakar, A.K Ango, U Buhari

Thursday 1 November 2012

What the imminent rice revolution means for Nigerians

What the imminent rice revolution means for Nigerians

YOBLOCO AWARDS Celebrating Youths in Agriculture

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), in collaboration with FARA, Yam-Pukri, CAFAN, AYF, ANAFE, SPC/PAFPNET is organizing the Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloCo Awards).
This contest is launched in the framework of the ARDYIS initiative which aims to raise youth awareness and improve their capacity on agricultural and rural development issues in ACP countries using Information Technology.
This blog competition aims to:
  • Put into limelight issues, successes and challenges faced by youth engaged in: agriculture in urban and rural areas;
  • Encourage the production of information and the use of new information technologies by young farmers’ groups and organizations interested in the “youth in agriculture” question;
  • Promote the sharing of information on the issues of agriculture and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Future Farmers Network..Australia

As a result FFN was established in 2002, with the belief that it is not a shortage of young people in the rural industries, but a shortage of identified and communicated opportunities that is the major problem.
Key project deliverables:
  • Successfully completed the 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?' project to improve young people's connection with peak rural groups and provide a forum for increased discussion between young people in rural industries.
  • The 'Building Our Rural Futures' project - a trial of a career mapping service to provide members with information about career and training options in rural industries.
  • Initiated and delivered  the 'Think Big' interactive workshop for young South Australian farmers on the topics of agricultural value chains and marketing in agriculture.
  • Facilitated the 'Youth Forum' to brainstorm methods of attracting young people to rangeland industries, including research, extension and rural sectors, at the Australian Rangeland Society 2008 Conference.
  • Hosted the inaugural Future Farmers Week, with participation of over 400 young people in rural industries, increasing the leadership skills and experience of approx 20 young event hosts.
  • Awarded  six scholarships to members (valued in excess of $15,000) to enable them to attend a range training and educational opportunities.
  • Hosted 'Youth Agricultural Central' Australia's first rural, regional and state based youth groups forum developing collaborative approaches to meet the needs for the industries next gen.