Stories tagged: Africa

Sylvia Natukunda: Combatting the AMR Crisis in the African Livestock Sector

sylvia-2-blog

In this guest post, Sylvia Natukunda, business & partnership manager and Wim Goris, network facilitator at AgriProFocus discuss steps needed to curb the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance in the livestock sector.

Antibiotics are crucial in human and animal health and yet growing levels of resistance to these drugs pose an increasingly serious threat to public health. One of the key contributing factors to such antimicrobial resistance is irresponsible use of antibiotics in the livestock sector.

AgriProFocus is a multi-stakeholder network with Dutch roots that promotes farmer entrepreneurship as a contribution to food and nutrition security in developing countries. Food quality is a growing concern in many of these countries. But the awareness of the threat of antibiotic resistance is still low. Continue reading →

FEB152017
Argus FMB Africa Fertilizer Conference

screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-12-39-42

15-17 February 2017

Cape Town, South Africa

The 8th annual Argus FMB Africa Fertilizer conference will feature more than 450 participants from 55 countries. A cross-section of stakeholders including government leaders, finance providers, NGOs, regional distributors and global producers with gather at the event, organised with the support of the International Fertilizer Association (IFA), IFDC, Africafertilizer.org and AFAP. Read more >>

NOV232016
Webinar: Climate services for smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Africa

screen-shot-2016-11-17-at-15-08

 

23rd November 2016

Online

Farming and pastoralist communities have survived by mastering the ability to adapt to widely varying weather and climatic conditions. Increasingly variable climate and the rapid pace of other drivers of change are, however, overwhelming local knowledge and traditional practices for coping with climate related risks. It is increasingly becoming evident that climate services—climate and weather information and advisories—can help farmers and pastoralists better manage risks and adapt to the changing climate. Continue reading →

#IamAg! What motivates Tarik Choho?

Tarik Choho, CEO of OCP Africa, started out as an engineer and now runs the African division of an international fertiliser company. He tells Farming First why engineering is so important to the sector.

To find out the range of exciting careers available to young people in agriculture, visit our infographic. For more interview with experts on how they were inspired to take up their careers, visit the Farming First TV channel

Video: H.E. Joyce Banda Speaks to Farming First TV

President_of_Malawi_Joyce_Banda_(8985928177)

For the Former President of Malawi, agriculture is the one sector that can transform African economies. But it relies on leadership to make this happen she told Farming First TV. This leadership should not only come in the form of politicians, she tells us, but traditional leaders at a local level as well.

Citing the success of the input subsidies in Malawi in 2004, she comments: “In a country that is traditional, like Malawi, whatever (traditional leaders) say at the grassroots, is what will happen.”  Continue reading →

Alex Simuyandi: Providing Working Capital for African Agribusinesses

Alex Simuyandi

In this guest post, Alex Simuyandi of AgDevCo discusses approaches for financing the “missing middle” of African agribusinesses, and tells us more about the new Lending for African Farming Company.

There are many challenges that agribusiness in Africa face. Skilled and experienced management is a resource in short supply, as is access to affordable finance. With the latest UN numbers suggesting that more than 200 million individuals in Africa are chronically undernourished, and the FAO estimating that investment in sub-Saharan Africa is 11 times more effective in reducing poverty than investment in any other sector, there is a great demand for financers to take a frontline position to combat poverty and increase food security.

As one of the most active investors in small and medium agribusinesses in Africa today, we provide innovative financing to help these businesses grow and mature. At AgDevCo, we also work with each of its investees to develop their management capacity, and provide its portfolio companies with hands-on commercial agricultural and financial management support. Continue reading →