Africa Archives - Grainews

Esther Kimani (right) received the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2024 for developing the Early Crop Pest and Disease Detection Device. Photo: Royal Academy of Engineering

Solar dry, soldier fly, AI: Africans fight hunger with innovation

By Kim Harrisberg, Reuters August 2, 2024

Alongside container farms in South Africa cultivating soldier flies for animal feed, solar-powered fish and crop dryers in Tanzania and machine-learning pest detectors in Kenya, Africans are coming up with innovative solutions to overcome the effects of climate change on food production.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari speaks at the Dakar summit under the theme “Nourrir l’Afrique” (Feed Africa) hosted by the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission on Jan. 25, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Ngouda Dione)

General, Markets, Reuters

Development partners commit US$30 billion to food production in Africa

Continent facing record-level hunger

By GFM Network News January 28, 2023

Dakar | Reuters — Development partners have committed US$30 billion to boost food production in Africa over the next five years, the president of the African Development Bank said on Friday at the close of a summit on food security on the continent. The continent is facing its worst food crisis ever, with more than […] Read more

Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow’s Red Square on June 24, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)

Crops, Markets, Reuters

Putin ally warns agriculture supplies could be limited to ‘friends’

By Reuters, GFM Network News April 2, 2022

Reuters — One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies warned on Friday that Russia, a major global wheat exporter, could limit supplies of agriculture products to “friendly” countries only, amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis. Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of […] Read more

General, Reuters

Canada shuts to seven African countries’ travelers

Latest COVID-19 variant spurs decision

By GFM Network News November 27, 2021

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada is closing its borders to foreign travelers who have recently been to seven southern African nations to help stop the spread of a newly identified variant of COVID-19, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters Friday. The European Union, the United States and Britain are among those tightening border controls as […] Read more

File photo of a soybean plantation in Brazil. (Mailson Pignata/iStock/Getty Images)

Crops, Reuters

More acres seen needed worldwide to meet mounting crops demand

U.S. acres may have already hit ceiling: AgResource chief

By Reuters, GFM Network News October 19, 2021

Geneva | Reuters — Farmers need more space to grow crops to meet mounting demand for food and renewable fuel at a time of slowing growth in yields, consultancy AgResource said on Tuesday. A renewable fuel push under U.S. President Joe Biden’s climate agenda is set to trigger a boom in soyoil use, reinforcing a […] Read more

David Kayi, a Hello Tractor engineer, installs an application on a John Deere 5503 tractor, using the Hello Tractor technology that connects farmers with vehicles’ owners, at a hay farm at Umande village in Nanyuki, Kenya on Feb. 4, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Njeri Mwangi)

Crops, Machinery, Markets, Reuters

Deere taps tractor-hailing tech in bid to break ground in Africa

Low incomes, lack of credit hobble African mechanization

By GFM Network News February 25, 2020

Nanyuki, Kenya/Johannesburg | Reuters — It’s ride-hailing, farm style. Deere and Co. is teaming up with the “Uber of tractors” in Africa and betting on a future where farmers summon machines with the touch of a button. The world’s leading farm equipment maker is outfitting its tractors with startup Hello Tractor’s technology, which allows farmers […] Read more

A spray plane flies over a swarm of desert locusts at Lemasulani village in Kenya’s Samburu County on Jan. 17, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Njeri Mwangi)

Crops, Machinery, Reuters, Weather

Drones to be tested against Africa’s locust swarms

U.N.'s FAO testing drones to detect, spray pests

By GFM Network News February 11, 2020

Nairobi | Thomson Reuters Foundation — The United Nations is to test drones equipped with mapping sensors and atomizers to spray pesticides in parts of east Africa battling an invasion of desert locusts that are ravaging crops and exacerbating a hunger crisis. Hundreds of millions of the voracious insects have swept across Ethiopia, Somalia and […] Read more

File photo of cattle seeking shade in Namibia. (Brytta/iStock/Getty Images)

Beef Cattle, Livestock, Reuters

Namibia looks to import cattle as drought decimates herds

By Reuters, GFM Network News January 21, 2020

Windhoek | Reuters — Namibian state-owned meat processing and marketing firm Meatco is in talks with neighbour Botswana to import cattle, as severe drought decimates local herds and threatens beef export deals with China and European countries. The southern African desert nation moved closer to famine last month after dam levels fell below 20 per […] Read more

Columns, Crops

How to feed 9 billion people

In this second part of a two-part instalment, Brian Wittal looks  at how we can feed a growing world population

By Brian Wittal April 7, 2015

This is a continuation of last week’s column about how we can feed a world with nine billion people in fifty years. As I noted last week, 30 per cent of the world’s food production is wasted. Resolving this would go a long way toward feeding the expected increase in population over the next 50 […] Read more

Columns, Crops

Funding: Public, private or PayPal

There are many ways to raise funds, from public-private partnerships to community donations and global campaigns

By Lisa Guenther December 12, 2014

Public-private partnerships grab headlines and stir up controversy when governments team up with the private sector on everything from highways to hospitals. Many rural communities are familiar with a different funding structure: public-public partnerships. These agreements ask local residents to kick in a good chunk, if not all, of the funding for public infrastructure. In […] Read more

Alberta crop conditions improve: report

U.S. grains: Corn sets contract lows on expectations for big US crop

U.S. livestock: Cattle strength continues

GFM Network News