Africa Archives | Alberta Farmer Express

Colin Boender with a group of women who several years ago had a duck house built and were given eggs. Now the ducks and their eggs both supply their families and are sold, providing the families with a small but precious income stream.

Farmers and Canadian Foodgrains Bank set down deep roots

By Alexis Kienlen September 25, 2020

Across the country, thousands of farmers take time during their busiest season to harvest crops that will be sold to support the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. A few have been going for more than three decades, but many came to be during the 23 years that the charity, an alliance of 15 churches and church-based agencies, […] Read more

Crops, Machinery & Shop, Markets, Reuters

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

Low incomes, lack of credit hobble African mechanization

By Omar Mohammed, Joe Bavier, 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

Crops, Machinery & Shop, Reuters, Weather

Drones to be tested against Africa’s locust swarms

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

By Nita Bhalla, 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

Beef Cattle, Livestock, Reuters

Namibia looks to import cattle as drought decimates herds

By Reuters 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

News

Educators invited to Ethiopia to learn about global hunger

By Canadian Foodgrains Bank April 18, 2019

Applications are being taken for a Canadian Foodgrains Bank’s youth educators’ tour to Ethiopia in August. Anyone who is an educator of youth or young adults is welcome to apply, including, school teachers, 4-H leaders, and church youth leaders. The delegation will learn about food security issues in Ethiopia, visit communities receiving support from the […] Read more

Columns, Opinion

Enterprising young farmers are the hope of a new Africa

The beleaguered continent has the potential to feed the world — if it can rise above the divisions created by its troubled past 

By Brenda Schoepp August 28, 2017

The concept of a united Africa feeding the world is often considered. With a massive land base, Africa has an estimated 632 million hectares of arable land of which only 179 million hectares are currently being utilized. More than 40 per cent of these lands are in Nigeria, DR of Congo, and North and South […] Read more

Look past the current woes of African agriculture and you’ll see vast potential, says South African farmer  Theo de Jager.

Crops, News

African farms are vastly different but share common bonds

Subsistence farming is still the norm in Africa, but agriculture is the  key to changing its economic fortunes

By Alexis Kienlen May 25, 2017

Africa is a world apart but as in Canada, farming is increasingly being recognized as a key driver of economic growth. “There’s no other way to fight poverty than to create wealth,” South African farmer Theo de Jager told an international gathering of farm journalists here last month. “And there’s no other sector in this […] Read more

News

Foodgrains Bank launches African Drought Appeal

By Canadian Foodgrains Bank March 23, 2016

With millions of people in southern Africa and Ethiopia facing extreme drought this year, Canadian Foodgrains Bank is asking Canadians to donate to its African Drought Appeal. The prolonged drought, which affects about 14 million people in southern Africa, and another 10 million in Ethiopia, is a consequence of the most powerful El Niño event […] Read more

The ‘Spring into Song’ concert package features music by Ron Klusmeier. In 2012-13, he and Christina Bogucki put on 126 concerts across the country to raise money for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Heartland

Got a song in your heart and a desire to help others?

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank wants singers from across the country to help small-scale farmers in the Third World

By Alberta Farmer Staff October 23, 2015

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is looking for singers and musicians for an initiative called ‘Spring into Song.’ The goal is to have local groups put on fundraising concerts across the country on or near the 2016 Earth Day weekend (April 22-24). The project is a joint effort by the Foodgrains Bank and Musiklus, a provider […] Read more

Small farms have been the lifeblood of Senegal but are increasingly being squeezed out.

Crops, Opinion

In Senegal, a land rush is pushing local farmers to the side

Africans without formal title are losing their farms to international biofuel and cash crop companies

By Farm Radio Weekly August 26, 2014

From Farm Radio Weekly, published by Farm Radio International, a Canadian organization that works with farm broadcasters in sub-Saharan Africa Doudou Sow is furious. For the last 10 years, small-scale farmers in his area have been steadily losing their land to an influx of private investors. The Senegalese farmer says that outsiders have been purchasing […] Read more

U.S. pork packer Smithfield offers ultra-cold vaccine storage

Richardson to boost Peace region grain handle

Feed weekly outlook: Export demand supports prices

GFM Network News