The Ministry of Agriculture agreed with the governments of Tanzania, Zambia, and Congo to establish three pilot model farms with areas ranging between 500 and 600 acres. Director of COMESA Department at the Ministry of Agriculture Maher El-Maghrabi said the ministry agreed with the three countries to establish farms to produce various crops.
A Kenyan cargo firm has called for more Chinese airlines to fly to Africa in order to expand Sino-Africa trade. Kenya's Astral Aviation CEO Sanjeev Gadhia told Xinhua in Nairobi that currently only two Chinese airlines fly to Africa. "We want more Chinese airlines to come Africa so as to improve connectivity between the two regions," Gadhia said. He urged more Chinese airlines to consider flying directly to Africa due to the huge demand for travel that is fueled by growing Sino-Africa trade. In 2015, Astral signed an agreement with China Southern Airlines. Under the agreement, Astral will transport Chinese goods that arrive in Nairobi from China Southern Airlines to the rest of East and Central African states. "Our role is to provide last mile logistics to Chinese goods headed to the hinterland countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan," he said.
As India seeks to intensify ties with Africa, trade between India and Senegal, described as one of the continent's model democracies, totalled over $700 million in the 2014-15 financial year, an Indian diplomat posted in the Francophone west African nation said. "Official figures on trade between the two countries have grown steadily from 2010-11, when the total volume stood at $425.48 million. Trade between the countries has been growing at over 25 percent annually. India's exports to Senegal during the financial year 2014-15 were valued at $518.72 million and India's imports during the period were $208.13 million (for a total of $726.85 million)," R Narayanan, second secretary of the Indian embassy in Dakar, told IANS in an email exchange from SenegalÂ’s capital.
Iran is reportedly looking to lease land in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania for large-scale food production to serve local and export markets. More than 10 Iranian companies have expressed interest in growing and processing rice, corn and wheat in East Africa, Iranian Ambassador to Kenya Hadi Farajvand has said. He said Iran is supporting mechanized agriculture beyond its borders, with companies leasing huge chunks of land and applying modern agricultural methods to grow food for export to Iran. The companies are willing to establish manufacturing plants in the region to cater to the local market and to export to Iran, Farajvand said.
Tanzanian farmer Zulfikar Mituro now can "comfortably support his family, and managed a somewhat luxury life" thanks to the rice farming technology he gained from a China-aided center. "Production has dramatically shot up here. It's a miracle," said Mituro, a paddy rice farmer based at Ikwiriri in Rufiji district of Tanzania's Coast region. "Before getting Chinese technology and training support, I used to get between 15 and 20 bags of rice per hectare, but now I can get up 44 bags using hybrid Chinese rice variety," he said, adding that his life has improved for the better as the production has increased both in quality and quantity.
The work has been supported by DFID-India, and has been led by colleagues linked to the Future Agricultures Consortium (in Ethiopia, Kenya and the UK), as well as at the RIS in Delhi. The final report, put together by Dominic Glover, is just out. It is accompanied by a shorter briefing paper too that focuses on the generics drugs-seeds comparison. The briefing opens; “Experts agree that Africa’s farmers need quality seeds, but the continent’s share in the global seed trade is very low. African countries often lack the institutional capacity to support the growth of seed markets in the continent, an issue that cuts across regulation and other areas.
Fiji has huge potential in its agriculture sector in relation to agro-processing, but requires the assistance of development partners for these to materialise. This remark was made by Minister for Agriculture Inia Seruiratu as he sought assistance from his Japanese counterpart, Hiroshi Moriyama, when they met in Tokyo last week. Mr Seruiratu's visit to Japan is a follow-up on the issues discussed between the two leaders of Japan and Fiji during the PALM 7 Summit held in May last year where leaders confirmed their commitment to promoting trade and investment between Japan and Pacific Island countries.
A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, has launched a commercial agriculture investment guide for the northern savannah ecological zone of the country. The guide was produced by the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) with support from the Soil Research Institute, the Queiroz Galvao of Brazil, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The guide presents information on business environment indicators, an inventory of natural resources for large-scale agriculture, including information on climate, soils and hydrography network, land suitability and effect of game-changing irrigation schemes on soil properties.
A team of ginger and turmeric farmers and processors from Ethiopia and Rwanda are now equipped with skills to better cultivate their spices after training with Indian experts, through a workshop organized by the International Trade Centre (ITC). Under ITC’s Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) project, the African farmers travelled to South India for a seven-day workshop to learn the best practices of ginger and turmeric cultivation. The trainings took place in Kochi, Kerala and Tamilnadu.
The governor of southern Huíla province João Marcelino Tyipinge Thursday said that he wanted the Chinese investments in Angola also to cover the sectors of agriculture, livestock, mining and tourism. João Tyipinge said so at the meeting he held with the Chinese ambassador to Angola, Cui Aimin, who is in the region for 12-hour working visit. The governor said that it was necessary to invest in these sectors because the province has potential in these areas. Expressing the government commitment to diversification of the economy, the official called the Chinese companies to extend their investment to other economic sectors.