The Ondo State Government has disbursed N120 million to 2,400 farmers comprising 232 groups in the state under the Fadama III Project Additional Financing (AF).
The state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, made this known on Monday during the official flag-off ceremony of Fadama III Additional Financing (AF) and presentation of cheques to farmers in the state.

The Director of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, has said that the continent cannot afford to neglect women scientists in its plan of achieving food sufficiency. She decried the attitude of seeing African Women role in agriculture from the narrow view of women farmers in the villages, forgetting the multitude of women scientists and researchers in agriculture in the continent.

Lusaka, Zambia: More than 500 leaders from over 40 countries are expected to attend the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), which opensWednesday in Lusaka, Zambia, just as AGRA will be releasing its annual Africa Agricultural Status Report. Also expected at the AGRF 2015 are high-level government officials, leaders of pan-African development organizations, representatives of youth and women’s organizations, academic experts, investors and agriculture business innovators.

The large and growing African youth population has been described as an incredible resource which needed to be tapped into to usher in a new era of economic prosperity in the fast growing agriculture and food sector. This assertion was made by Hugh Scott, the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) Director at KPMG International Development Advisory Services in Lusaka, Zambia Tuesday as officials from an ambitious, innovative partnership that is investing almost a quarter of a billion dollars in small businesses across Africa met with influential industry and government leaders to discuss unlocking financing for a new generation of African agriculture entrepreneurs.

The large and growing African youth population has been described as an incredible resource which needed to be tapped into to usher in a new era of economic prosperity in the fast growing agriculture and food sector.

HE Federal Government has resolved to go tough on fake fertiliser producers as they have been selling the commodity to unsuspecting farmers who have raised alarm over the damages done to their farmlands and produce.

Two new hybrids of maize that will help improve productivity and income of farmers in Nigeria have been released at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IART), Obafemi Awolowo University in Ibadan.

Partners and funders of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project this week convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to take stock of the project. DTMA concludes its work in Africa after eight years of work on improved drought-tolerant maize, to help maize farmers in sub-Saharan Africa mitigate drought.

Two New Hybrid Maize that will help improve productivity and income of farmers have been released in Nigeria.

HarvestPlus’s Global Director, Product Development and Commercialization, Wolfgang Pfeiffer has promised that the body will continue to work with partners to ensure that many more vulnerable people to hidden hunger are taken care of.

A biotechnologist, Prof. Dele Fapohunda, has urged the Federal Government to formulate a mycotoxin policy in the country that will among other things determine and regulate the amount of aflatoxin in food consumption.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have said that the current difficulties being faced by Nigeria’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in accessing funds to develop their business will be greatly reduced by the strengthened credit reporting system and the launch of a national collateral registry (NCR) for moveable assets before the end of the year.

A major importer of rice in the country, Pearl Universal Impex , is set to commit one hundred million dollars into the cultivation of 7,500 hectares of rice farm and construction of two rice mills in Niger state.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Arc. Sonny Echono, was in Lagos recently for the inauguration of the Nigerian Agric Business Group. He took time out to talk on the vex issue of rice waiver, the Growth Enhancement Scheme and the efforts of the ministry in creating jobs through youth empowerment as well as what they are doing in terms of agric financing.

One of the biggest problems Presidents and Prime Ministers face, virtually all the time, is who to believe among their Ministers and Advisers – especially those who are recruited from international organisations. President Ibrahim Babangida had nothing less than four Nigerian economists who had worked for the World Bank before coming on board to help midwife the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, which was later to give his administration the bad name it has failed to shed till today.