Increasing numbers of domestic livestock and more resource-intensive production methods are encouraging epizootics (epidemics in animals) around the world, a problem that is particularly acute in developing countries, where livestock diseases present a growing threat to the food security of already vulnerable populations, according to new assessments reported February 10 at the International Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition & Health.
"Wealthy countries are effectively dealing with livestock diseases, but in Africa and Asia, the capacity of veterinary services to track and control outbreaks is lagging dangerously behind livestock intensification," said John McDermott, deputy director general for research at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which spearheaded the work.
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Coffe Development Fund is a state corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture; the Fund is mandated to provide sustainable, affordable credit facilities to coffee farmers for farm development, farm inputs, farming operations and price stabilization.
It serves coffee farmers through a network of 26 rural-based financial intermediaries.
Since its establishment in 2007, Coffee Development Fund (CoDF) has disbursed over Ksh 1 Billion to approximately 60,000 coffee farmers.
The Fund strives to remain adaptive to emerging financial challenges in the sector by creating new innovative loan products along the value chain as provided in her Strategic Plan 2008-2012.
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Everyone would agree that the Kenya Prisons Service has undergone tremendous improvement over the years.
In line with vision 2030, the prisons have realized the importance of agriculture as a way to achieve a competitive edge in the market. Kenya Prisons Enterprises was established around 1911 – around the same time the prisons farm department itself was established.
It is the outfit that supports farming and other economic aspired activities in the prison.
In 1993 the Prisons Enterprise, through an act of parliament became a revolving fund to enhance the department's self sufficiency on food.
However the core mission of the prisons department – rehabilitation- has not changed.
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The meteorological department has warned the country of the effects of Lanina drought which started in the last quarter of 2010.
Lanina is the opposite of El Nino which brings about floods. What happens with La Nina is that the rains tend to be deficient and the distribution is erratic where some places get rain and others do not get.
This condition is likely to affect the long rain season in the highlands and in turn affect crop performance. As Kenya Seed, we wish to inform our dear farmers that can greatly reduce the risks of Lanina drought by diversifying their crops to include drought tolerant varieties.
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The way you package and label your product is important. Packaging protects it from physical, chemical and microbiological invasion.
With the current sharp focus on the environmental credentials of packaging products, it is essential that packaging companies look for ways to minimize not only their own environmental impact, in terms of energy usage and waste elimination, but that of their customers too. The package is one of the greatest influences on a consumer's decision to try a product.
The amount of packaging and food waste sent to landfill continues to influence producers' packaging choices and packaging companies are coming under increasing pressure to develop products which are lighter and more recyclable, yet still offer the same high degree of protection to food, thus reducing food spoilage and waste.
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prepare farmers in readiness to the impacts of climate change
It is a relatively old technology whose usefulness was until recently confined to few farming households in western Kenyan districts around Lake Victoria.
Now however, push-pull, a novel farming system developed by ICIPE, Rothamsted Research (UK) and national partners in East Africa, is raising interests from beyond Kenya's borders and scientists think it holds the key to unraveling challenges climate change portends to farmers in drier parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
A 2.9 million Euro funding from the European Union could just have been what this technology needed to have it scaled up its anti-striga and anti-stem borer's qualities. ICIPE Director General, Prof. Christian Borgemeister says stem borers, parasitic striga weeds and poor soil fertility are the three main constraints to efficient production of cereals in most sub- Saharan Africa.
Losses caused by stem borers can reach as high as 80% in some areas and an average of about 15- 40 per cent in others.
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By Calestous Juma
Sub-Saharan African countries are bracing for dramatic impacts of climate change. As Andrew Simms of the UK-based New Economics Foundation has aptly put it, they are "caught between the devil of drought and the deep blue sea of floods."
Africa's greenhouse gas emissions have been minimal because of its low levels of industrial output.
Yet African countries are likely to suffer disproportionately from global warming.
They are therefore right to demand that international climate negotiations be based on principles of historical justice.
But behind this seemingly dismal outlook lies a unique opportunity for Africa to lead the way in adopting low-carbon growth strategies.
The region is not too heavily committed to the same damaging industries that its industrial counterparts are having difficulties abandoning. African countries therefore need to complete their demand for historical justice with the design of climate-smart policies.
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