After close to 10 subsequent years without decent maize and bean harvests, farmers in Nyamira County are gradually diversifying into different crops, some of which are now being grown in the area for the first time. But two neighbours from Riomoro village, Priscillah Moseti and Nicholas Mang’era, have stood out …
Silvia Román writes “… we are heading towards the bio-based society, a new way of interacting with the environment where fossil fuels won’t be needed anymore and “more natural” processes for producing energy, food and materials will prevail. This bio-turn often involves highly advanced biotechnology and strict competitive targets, both …
Louise O Fresco writes “… New generations of farmers must receive assistance in order to increase productivity, and reduce hard labour and negative environmental impact. The challenge is not to maintain traditional production, but to protect tradition by combining it with the greatest advances in science to create truly sustainable …
Brian Moseti writes “… Mtanga Farms Limited (MFL), in partnership with the Tanzanian government, announced the registration of four new potato varieties with the company promising to multiply and sell these seed potatoes to local farmers. With access to clean seed material, Tanzanian farmers for whom potatoes are a major …
Sally Brooks writes “… The majority of genetically modified (GM) crops are now cultivated in the developing world. In 2014, around 53% of the 182m hectares (nearly two million square kilometres) of GM crops were grown in these countries… but in sub-Saharan Africa, there are only 2.7m hectares of …
OPINION, Lloyd Gumbo writes “… Government must allow trials on the BT Cotton to establish if it is compatible with Zimbabwean soil if we are to reduce the cost of production and increase yields.This is the only way our cotton farmers can get value for their products on the international …
The book “Extreme Misunderstanding of GM Crops”, the first science based publication on GM crops was recently released in Japanese by Mr. Masami Kojima. Mr. Kojima was an active anti-GM newspaper journalist in Japan. The book documents scientific information and benefits of GM crops from credible scientific studies, as well …
B4FA Fellow Lominda Afedraru writes: A study done by National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL) Kawanda shows that Uganda faces severe soil nutrient depletion. This is because many farmers keep tilling the land over and over again without applying practices that maintain soil fertility. Therefore, it recommends that small holder farmers …
An Accra Fast Track High Court dismissed the request of food advocacy organization, Foreign Sovereignty Ghana (FSG), to shelve the commercialization of biotech cowpea and rice until the provisions of the Biosafety Act were fully implemented. According to Justice Dennice Adjei, the commercialization of biotech products would not affect Ghanaians …
B4FA Fellow, Michael Ssali writes: Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Ugandan agriculture today is sub-division of farm lands. It is mainly associated with the traditional inheritance systems of our communities, which also still treasure large families. A man gets married to a number of wives, each one of whom produces …
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