The 20th Brussels Development Briefing will be on 'Financing agriculture' and will take place on the 15th of  September 2010. As an input to the UN Summit on MDGs to be held in New York on 22-26 September 2010, we will discuss issues related  to financing development in the context of agriculture and rural development. This will include issue such as Aid and ODA, taxation (Domestic tax revenues), private investment (new donors), revenue generation. Speakers include: Centre for Environmental Policy at  Imperial College in London, the  Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa in the US, CONCORD, OECD, African Development Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, YARA, African regional framers organizations.

For more information please contact: lopes@cta.int or boto@cta.int

The 1.6 million Euro Tugboats Rehabilitation Project of the European Union (EU) and The Gambia Groundnut Cooperation (GGC), was last Friday commissioned at the GGC head office at Denton Bridge in Banjul. Speaking at the ceremony, Helene Cave, the outgoing charge d' affaires of the European Union in The Gambia, called for greater support to President Jammeh's back-to-the-land initiative to ensure rapid attainment of the country's food self-sufficiency drive.

The 20th Brussels Development Briefing will be on ‘Financing agriculture and will take place on the 15th of  September 2010. As an input to the UN Summit on MDGs to be held in New York on 22-26 September 2010, we will discuss issues related  to financing development in the context of agriculture and rural development.

Land is an asset of enormous importance for billions of rural dwellers in the developing world, and especially in ACP countries. The nature of property rights and their degree of security vary greatly, depending on competition for land, the degree of market penetration and the broader institutional and political context.

Farmers in the southwestern Democratic Republic of Congo are looking forward to increased production after 16 tractors and 200 ox-drawn carts were distributed across three regions in the province of Bandundu.

The European Union (EU), in collaboration with the German Institute KfW, have provided more than Sh40 billion (Euro 23.42m) to fund a water supply and sanitation project that will benefit more than 200,000 people in Iringa Municipality.

Total cereal production in 2010 should be close to the average from the last five years. While the yield per hectare will be 5% above average, overall cultivated areas have decreased. This agricultural year has been marked by unusual scattered weather events ranging from severe rain shortage to floods. However, the impact of poor weather on crops in some areas of the EU has been offset in other areas.

The European Union will spend Sh10 billion in Kenya this year for various projects, the Head of European Union delegation to Kenya, Eric Van Linden, has said. Mr Van Linden said Kenya is a priority in EU's development policy and strategy, and following the enactment of the new constitution in the country, the union will increase funding in infrastructure in arid and semi-arid areas, among others.

Subsidies for agriculture in the industrialised countries of the world grew again in 2009, benefiting the largest companies and land owners, such as Prince Albert of Monaco and Queen Elizabeth of Britain.The latest increase came despite repeated and consistent evidence that such subsidies contribute to the destruction of the livelihoods of poor farmers in developing countries, especially in Africa, and that they distort international trade.

The European Union (EU) funded Rural Water Supply Sector Support (RWSSS) projects in the villages of Bonto, Kombo East, Berending, Kombo South and Foni Bintang were handed over to the Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters.