Government should come up with a comprehensive agricultural policy as well as develop a clear irrigation framework spelling out selection processes for beneficiaries to enable the country to attract meaningful investment, legislators have said.The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development said mechanisation facilities should also include solar systems to minimise power costs. This was said by committee chairperson and Muzarabani South Member of the National Assembly Cde Christopher Chitindi (Zanu-PF) on Tuesday, while presenting a report on the utilisation of the Brazilian Mechanisation Facility.

Massive agriculture intensification is contributing to increased deforestation, water scarcity, soil depletion and the level of greenhouse gas emission, the United Nations warns. To achieve sustainable development we must transform current agriculture and food systems, including by supporting smallholders and family farmers, reducing pesticide and chemical use, and improving land conservation practices, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) director-general on May 30 said in Brussels addressing European lawmakers.José Graziano da Silva stressed that while high-input and resource intensive farming systems have substantially increased food production, this has come at a high cost to the environment.

Known as Growing Business Together (GBT), the two-year programme seeks to support early stage enterprises to access finance and coaching from experienced Ghanaian and Dutch entrepreneurs. The programme is on the theme: ‘’Accelerating young entrepreneurs’’, and would have partners such as Impact Booster of the Netherlands and the Ghana Netherlands Business and Culture Council to help in its implementation The Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Ron Strikker, in a statement, said the selected entrepreneurs would go through a nine-month GBT Academy, a GBT Coaches Programme and also participate in the GBT Startup Investment Conference as part of processes to sharpen their skills and knowledge in business.

Africa is undeterred by the failures of the past and the continent is motivated by the incredible energy and talent of its bustling youthful population, according to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo. Mr. Osinbajo spoke Saturday at the G7 Summit special outreach forum on Africa with selected African nations and leaders including Nigeria, Guinea, Tunisia, Niger, Ethiopia and Kenya.According to him, "Africa is confident of the future because we have learnt,... we are investing more in education, insisting on good governance and holding ourselves to account."

ECOWAS agriculture activities cover 15 member states, the main objective is to promote food and nutrition security in all the 15 member states and at the same time, constitute to the process of regional economic integration, and agriculture is central to the economy of all our member states. We have different programmes that cover the 15 member states of ECOWAS. In Nigeria particularly, we have programmes and projects that is being implemented by ECOWAS which includes the West African Agriculture Productivity Programme (WAAPP), it is a joint initiative of ECOWAS and the World Bank which deals with agricultural technology. We have the West Africa Seed Project, the West Africa Fertilizer Project. We have other projects like the partnership for Aflactoxion control in Africa, this programme is looking at how to reduce the harmful effects of Aflactoxion on agriculture and health.

North Eastern Kenya was one of the regions in the country that experienced perennial drought. One proactive and sustainable option for insulating the region and indeed, the entire country, against the negative effects of drought is through large-scale investment in desert agriculture. With the availability of labour and a virgin territory five times the size of Rwanda, there is no better place to experiment with desert agriculture. Some of the farm produce harvested locally already signifies the great potential for agriculture in the region.They include lemons, bananas, watermelons, pawpaws, mangoes, tomatoes, kales, onions, cassava and millet.

Only 100,000 hectares of arable land, out of Angola’s 5 million hectares, are annually prepared using machinery and/or animal traction for sowing and harvesting agricultural products, the agriculture minister said on Thursday in Luanda. Minister Marcos Nhunga also said that the rest of the available land is still tilled using hoes, which is worrying and reveals the low level of agricultural mechanisation in Angola.

The coconut is undoubtedly the most important tree in the Pacific. Over the past few decades the economic significance of this important tree to the Pacific has been subject to major international shifts. With funding from the European Union, the Pacific community has recently launched a new project entitled “Coconut Industry Development for the Pacific Project” or CIDP which aims to better position Pacific Island nations to take advantage of these opportunities.PIFON is proud to announce that it has recently signed a contract to support the CIDP over the next 16 months. Through its network, PIFON will be providing a range of expertise to CIDP to carry out market studies and value chain analysis for a range of coconut products from the region.

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) released its annual report showcasing the 110-fold increase in adoption rate of biotech crops globally in just 21 years of commercialization – growing from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 185.1 million hectares (457.4 million acres) in 2016. ISAAA’s report, “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2016,” continues to demonstrate the long-standing benefits of biotech crops for farmers in developing and industrialized countries, as well as consumer benefits of recently approved and commercialized varieties.

The ministry of Trade together with TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) are in advanced stages of developing a strategy to improve trade across borders. The proposed strategy lays out planned interventions and priorities that will eliminate some of the challenges faced by women and informal traders. Addressing the participants during a stakeholders' meeting to review the strategy held in Kampala last week, Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde said government is going to coordinate different stakeholders in different ministries charged with trade facilitation. "The strategy has also been developed and approved and we are now going to present to Cabinet. We are giving it less than a month. We are also going to ensure that they work on infrastructure and also approve the National Export Development Strategy which comprises all these projects," she said.