The Yara Prize 2008 is awarded jointly to Florence Wambugu of Kenya and Victor Mfinanga of Tanzania, for their respective contributions to the African Green Revolution through improving food security and developing agricultural value chains.

The fourth Yara Prize was awarded Wambugu for her many distinguished achievements in research and networking in East Africa, and to Mfinanga for his determined entrepreneurship in establishing a dairy business in Tanzania.

As a researcher and networker, Florence Wambugu has several significant achievements to her merit. She has mainly focused on the use of biotechnology for improving crops, especially the development and introduction of disease-free tissue culture for banana cultivation. This has resulted in greatly increased yields, providing income for small-scale producers (mainly women) and improved nutrition for consumers.

As an economist and entrepreneur, Victor Mfinanga, has ventured into a business benefiting both rural cattle keepers and urban milk consumers. He has developed a value chain which creates market access and income opportunities for mainly Maasai (women) milk producers and supplies the market with processed milk products. His work serves as an example of determination and visionary leadership.

The laureates will be awarded their prizes at the Award Ceremony in Oslo, on August 27, 2008.

Yara

When you enter the truck garden of the Sangalkam agricultural Training Center which is located some 30 km from the Senegalese capital of Dakar, you are struck by an admirable landscape, where fruits are obvious as vegetables of all kinds dot the scenario.

Tomatoes and red peppers are already beginning to show signs of life as the rainy season is setting in while cabbage and cucumbers are waiting for their turn to be harvested.

There are many other varieties of vegetables that are growing here under the very watchful gaze of Chinese agronomists and their Senegalese "apprentices."

"It is well over a year and a half since we began working here within the framework of the agricultural cooperation between China and Senegal," said Yang Tingming, head of the team of Chinese experts in charge of providing both theoretical and practical training to local farmers.

According to the top-notch agronomist, the Chinese team has already established a hectare of garden using organic fertilizers and equipped with an irrigation system that allows it to operate unhindered in case of droughts or floods.

"We have ensured that 25 species of vegetables are grown and replanted in this little Eden all year long, for a utilization rate that is greater than 500 percent," said Yang whose heavily tanned face leaves no trace of fatigue despite the fact that he is 60 years old.

"Since 2007, the center has hosted, in 15 stages, 420 people who have acquired knowledge in diverse areas such as growing young shoots, the maintenance of fields, prevention and treatment of plant diseases," according to the Chinese expert.

"The local farmers have also learnt a variety of techniques dealing with saline and alkaline soil, all depending on the specific conditions of different regions of the country, " said the leading agronomist.

"Thus, this is how we have created a perfect harmony between this sample-sized training space and its extension in real production in truck farming among the local farmers," he said.

On the top of his 40 years, Liu Qingbao, another Chinese expert who heads a group of agronomists in the field, adds a different twist to the story: "Thanks to this experience, we have managed to get excellent harvests from several different types of vegetables."

Pointing a finger at Chinese cabbage, the expert said: "It must weigh about four pounds and production per hectare could exceed seven tons! In addition, Xinxiang peppers (literally: spicy and fragrant) No. 4 and 6, which are adapting very well to the climate here, are highly valued both by Chinese and Senegalese nationals. Cultivation on a large scale is in sight."

In fact, the Chinese experts working here have not hesitated to use methods which involve practice training sessions at the center coupled with verbal instructions on the ground and training courses in the classroom. Since last December, over 900 farmers from near and far have received their "diplomas" from the center.

Issa Sene, one of the best students at the center, found it difficult to hide his satisfaction. Indeed, armed with the "scientific" knowledge acquired from his Chinese trainers, the budding farmer sowed cucumber seeds on Feb. 22 and began to reap the first fruits of his labor on March 7.

On April 25, the farmer was asking clients "do you want this one, here!".

The young farmer has made more than 1.93 million FCFA (about 4,565 U.S. dollars), which is eight times higher than the revenues he used to collect during the time he planted this kind of vegetable in his own way.

Most recently, the Chinese agronomists took time to expound on the "cultivation techniques for vegetable with or without land adapted to the climate and soil of the Dakar region."

The training was conducted during a seminar organized by the Senegalese Agriculture Ministry under the theme of "Chinese techniques for truck and rice farming."

The Chinese trainers, according to reliable sources, managed to win the hearts of all 400 participants who took part in the workshop motivated by the hope of achieving food self-sufficiency of Senegal.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has announced a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to sponsor the Banana Conference 2008 (www.banana2008.com).

The Pan-African conference, the first of its kind to link state-of-the-art research to new markets, aims to develop a 10-year research-for-development strategy that will stimulate trade and boost the growth of the banana industry across Africa. Banana researchers, major industry players and farmers’ groups will be participating in the conference.

Bananas are among the most important food and staple crops in Africa, providing food security, nutrition and livelihood for millions of smallholder farmers. In the Great Lakes area of East Africa alone, the crop is worth some US$ 1.7 billion annually to 14 million resource-poor farmers. The conference seeks to link research, production, and marketing needs to support banana production and trade growth in Africa. The role of research and the importance of public-private sector partnerships will also be highlighted.

The US$ 74,000 grant will be used to support the participation of Africa-based farmer groups, cooperatives and entrepreneurs at the conference, where they will have the opportunity to present their products and services at stands and booths. The conference will explore the breadth of the banana industry in Africa, including disease control, seed improvement, and the development of local and regional markets. Of particular interest are farmers’ groups and cooperatives that provide loans to support banana production and new markets, and entrepreneurs involved in innovative income-generating banana activities.

“The support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for this conference is a major indication of the importance with which this conference is being viewed for its benefit to Africa,” said Dr. Thomas Dubois, coordinator of the Banana Conference 2008. “The funding will make attendance possible for up to 50 small farmers and regional entrepreneurs, giving them a chance to showcase their products and services.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Agricultural Development initiative is working with a wide range of partners to provide millions of small farmers in the developing world with tools and opportunities to boost their productivity, increase their incomes, and build better lives for themselves and their families. The foundation invests in efforts across the agricultural value chain — from seeds and soil to farm management and market access. The foundation also supports data collection, research, and policy analysis.

“We are eager to support opportunities to listen to the small scale farmers we are trying to serve,” said Dr. Rajiv Shah, Director of Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “This conference presents an opportunity for small banana farmers and entrepreneurs to forge links that will support their ability to increase yields and incomes – a critical step so they can lead healthy and productive lives.”

The conference will be held from 5 to 9 October 2008 in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya. It will be opened by Anna Tibaijuka, Undersecretary-General of the United Nations and Director of UN-HABITAT, and by Karl Falkenberg, Deputy Director General for Trade of the European Commission.

The event is organized and coordinated by IITA in cooperation with Bioversity International, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the International Society for Horticultural Science; and supported by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, the National Agricultural Research Organization of Uganda and Du Roi.

IITA

Fernando said Mozambique would import 400,000 tonnes of rice a year for the next three years, at a price to be negotiated between Mozambican importing companies and Vietnamese authorities.

"Vietnam has pledged to continue exporting rice to Mozambique, and we managed to persuade them to grant 1.2 million tonnes for the next three years," Fernando said. "As a government, we have done our part, and now the Mozambican companies should sit down with the Vietnamese and negotiate the prices."

Mozambique normally imports about 500,000 tonnes of grains, mostly wheat and rice which are not produced locally.

Earlier this year, the agriculture ministry said the country expected to increase its grain harvest to 2.6 million tonnes by August despite two cyclones and floods this season.

In spite of the anticipated bigger harvest, Mozambique will still need to import about 1.25 million tonnes of maize, wheat and rice this year to cover food shortages caused by the floods.

The government said recently it plans to increase its agriculture budget to 10 percent of the total state budget from 4 percent over the next three years to boost production.

The 2008 state budget is pegged at U$3.5 billion.

Mozambique is one of the poorest nations in Africa and is struggling to find the money to rebuild its dilapidated agriculture sector, which was neglected during a 17-year civil war that ended in 1992.

The rebuilding programme is likely to be prolonged by rising food costs that have sparked chaos and riots in many African countries including Mozambique, with the poor, who spend the bulk of their income on food, the hardest hit.

Reuters

Nyasa Times

Output may increase to 317,000 metric tons between June 2008 and March 2009, from 265,000 tons in the same period a year earlier, said Matthew Kombe, director general of the board. The east African nation aims to produce 400,000 tons by 2010.

Sugar imports for household consumption in Tanzania will probably fall to about 30,000 tons in 2008-09, from 50,000 tons last year. An additional 70,000 tons is expected to be brought in by manufacturers for use in soft drinks, candies, cookies, juices and beer, Kombe said.

Sugar rose to its highest in almost four months in London yesterday on speculation near-record crude-oil prices will spur demand for ethanol produced from cane. White sugar for October delivery rose $14, or 3.7 percent, to $391.20 a metric ton on London's Liffe exchange, the highest since March 3. The commodity added to a 20 percent gain last month that was the biggest since June 1989.

Sekab, the biofuel company owned by Jonkoping, Sweden-based Nefab AB, has begun developing Tanzania's first large-scale sugar plantation for conversion to fuels such as ethanol, Kombe said. The 20,000 hectare experimental farm in Bagamoyo, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) north of Dar es Salaam, is expected to start producing 160,000 tons of sugar annually by 2010, he said.

About 12,000 small-scale farmers and major companies, including Illovo Sugar Ltd., Africa's biggest sugar producer, grow cane in central and northwestern parts of Tanzania.

Exporters in Dubai, India, Guatemala, South Africa and Brazil often sell white and brown varieties of the sweetener to Tanzania, said Kombe.

Bloomberg

Kenyan environmentalists have called for the government to revoke a decision to allow a controversial biofuels project to go ahead. The project involves growing sugarcane for biofuels in coastal wetlands.

The project's backers argue the development in the Tana River Delta will produce ethanol and generate power, providing thousands of jobs. But Nature Kenya says the project threatens the habitat of hundreds of species in the 20,000-hectare site.

"Clearly these species are going to be really negatively impacted," said Sarah Munguti, the organisation's spokeswoman.

The area, more than 100km north of the port city of Mombasa, has 350 species of birds as well as lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles including the Tana writhing skink, according to the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

The Tana Integrated Sugar Project aims to produce 23 million litres of ethanol a year.

The $369m plant will mill 8,000 tonnes of sugar cane daily and generate 34 megawatts of electricity, as well as creating thousands of jobs, the project's developers say. It was approved last week.

But the environmental impact report on the project was flawed and did not incorporate concerns raised by environmentalists, Ms Munguti said. She added that the project was not economically viable because its income had been overestimated by three times, and it would not improve the lives of local residents. "They don't take into account the lost livelihood due to the project because local people will be displaced," she said.

The production of biofuel has been blamed for rising food prices and shortages by diverting resources from the cultivation of food crops.

He said, "It's a country coming up, it's safe, and the climate is good for flowers. We guessed the business would take off.''

Today Prasad's 10 hectares of greenhouses in the central Ethiopian town of Debre Zeit send 40,000 roses a day to the world's largest flower market in Amsterdam. He employs some 300 Ethiopians and is one of 70 commercial flower operations to open in the country since 2002.

Ethiopia, which suffered an estimated 1 million deaths during famines in the mid-1980s, is handing over arable land to entrepreneurs. As a result, flower exports have grown to $125 million from $159,000 six years ago, helping make the country Africa's second-largest flower exporter, after Kenya.

``We can catch up with Kenya in the next two to three years,'' said Fantaye Biftu, a senior adviser at Ethiopia's trade ministry. One day the flower industry may rival coffee, currently responsible for 36 percent of overseas earnings, as the country's leading export.

Ethiopia has some natural advantages in growing flowers. The country's main airport in the capital, Addis Ababa, is two hours closer to Europe by jet than Kenya's, which is important in an industry where air freight accounts for 40 percent of costs.

The country's central highlands -- 6,000 feet above sea level -- more moderate temperatures and reliable sunlight also make it easier to produce the large roses that make up 70 percent of exports. Producers say big-bulb roses are particularly popular in Russia, where sweethearts often prefer a single giant flower.

Persuading investors to come to Ethiopia in the first place wasn't easy. In the 1970s, most businesses were nationalized by Ethiopia's Communist Derg regime. Although it was toppled in 1991 by Eritrean rebels and a group headed by current Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, large-scale private enterprise is still rare.

In 2002, Zenawi's government began offering free land leases on former state-owned farms, government loans of 70 percent of start-up costs, and a five-year tax holiday for new enterprises. In addition, duties on greenhouse materials, seedlings and chemicals were waived for five years.

Over the past six years, the government has loaned more than 1 billion birr ($104 million) to flower farmers -- about half what the country spends annually on health care for its 78 million citizens, according to Ministry of Finance figures.

The tax breaks have been criticized by environmentalists who argue that they benefit few citizens and that the self-regulation of the industry use of pesticides leaves some workers at risk.

``There is little public debate on investments in general and who the beneficiaries of these luxury packages are,'' said Berhe Costantinos of the Center for the Human Environment, a nonprofit group for sustainable development.

That's disputed by government officials, who point out that chemical use is partially monitored by an umbrella group of local charities called the Forum for the Environment.

``If you put in place compulsory inspection, it will have a cost,'' said Dessalegn Mesfin, deputy director general of Ethiopia's Environmental Protection Authority. ``The market itself is a regulator.''

Frequent power outages, a result of Ethiopia's overstretched infrastructure, may hold back expansion of the flower industry. Following rolling blackouts for as many as three days a week this spring, the government agreed to guarantee power to flower farms even as other businesses -- including manufacturers of porridge and feeding paste for malnourished children -- ground to a halt.

The tax breaks have also lured Ethiopians like Yidnekachew Ayele, who returned home in 2003 after attending St. Cloud State University in Minnesota to start a 20-hectare rose farm with a government loan. Ayele produces an average of 85,000 stems a day, with 90 percent shipped to the Netherlands for distribution in Europe.

``We probably compete with someone in Ecuador or Holland,'' said Ayele, who brought in Dutch and Israeli consultants to plan the facility.

Just 40 percent of the flower farms are owned by Ethiopians. The locals who most benefit from the industry are workers earning less than a dollar a day.

Sinayta Tshoma, a former housewife who harvests roses for the equivalent of 83 cents a day on the farms, said she is grateful for the work. "There are no jobs for women other than this,'' she said. "The flower farms are benefiting the people.''

Foreigners are still banned from entering the banking and telecommunications industries or even owning land. Imported cars are taxed at more than 100 percent of the sticker price, and it is still impossible to use credit cards because no local bank is equipped to process international transactions.

Ayele said the fledgling flower industry gives his native land a chance to change its reputation as a famine-prone economic basket case. "The goal is to make a name for Ethiopia,'' he said.

Bloomberg

UK supermarket chain Tesco is to stop importing about £1m of fresh vegetables from Zimbabwe, reversing its previous stance that the trade was essential to support the families of the farm workers who grow crops such as mange tout and baby corn.

The supermarket group said its abrupt U-turn followed the escalating political crisis last weekend and growing consensus in the international community, including among UK politicians, that further action was needed to maximise pressure for change.

Tesco added that it would be looking for other ways to support the farmers and hoped to resume imports from Zimbabwe once stability returned to the country.

Peter Hain, the former Africa minister who led the anti-apartheid campaign in the 1970s, welcomed the Tesco move. "It gives a lead to other British and global companies to suspend or freeze their trade and investment in Zimbabwe until Mugabe's tyranny is ended."

British companies still trading with Zimbabwe include mining groups such as Anglo American and Rio Tinto, Unilever - which makes consumer products at a factory near Harare - and the banking groups Barclays and Standard Chartered.

However, several UK-owned businesses in Zimbabwe said disinvestment would increase the suffering of ordinary people and allow business cronies of Robert Mugabe's government to buy the assets at bargainbasement prices.

Waitrose, which imports fair-trade tilapia from a fish farm on Lake Kariba, said while it shared concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe, withdrawal would hurt the workers at the fish farm and their families.

The Foreign Office said it was not calling for commercial sanctions except where the trade supported the regime or benefited its members. British policy was to strengthen targeted sanctions against leading figures in the country's government and their families.

Support for this position came from Peter Tatchell, the human rights activist who in 1999 tried to make a citizen's arrest on Mr Mugabe. "It's unlikely that a withdrawal would have a serious adverse effect on the regime," he said. "Much more important would be the extension and toughening of sanctions against officials and their families, suspension from the African Union and peacekeepers to stop the violence."

Heads of British-owned companies in Zimbabwe are referring queries about their future plans to their headquarters in the UK.

Many of the UK-owned businesses are making no profit during the economic turmoil, but have remained amid hope of a political solution before much longer. "Neither we nor our foreign shareholders want to go unless forced to by indigenisation," one executive said.

Banks accused of lending money to the government or to prominent members of the ruling party say they have no choice.

Financial Times

Genetically modified crops will not solve the current food crisis, according to the head of one of the world's largest agricultural biotechnology companies.

Martin Taylor, chairman of Syngenta, said the current industry focus on farmers in rich countries meant it would take 20 years to launch crop varieties designed to address the problems of the developing world. He said, "GM won't solve the food crisis, at least not in the short term."

His words appear to contradict statements from UK politicians, industry bodies and the European Commission that GM technology should be considered as a way to address chronic shortages and soaring prices of basic staples across the world.

Recently, the environment minister, Phil Woolas, said Britain was rethinking its position on GM for that reason. He told the Independent newspaper: "There is a growing question of whether GM crops can help the developing world out of the current food crisis. It is a question that we as a nation need to ask ourselves. Many people concerned about poverty in the developing world and the environment are wrestling with this issue."

A European Commission briefing documents says that GM crops can "play an important role in mitigating the effects of the food 'crisis'".

Syngenta is a member of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, along with other GM companies such as Monsanto and BASF. The council has said the technology "has to be seen as part of the solution" to combat rising food prices.

Supporters say that GM technology can boost crop yields and reduce losses caused by pests. Groups opposed to GM technology argue that companies are exploiting the current food crisis to win approval for their products.

Taylor told an agricultural conference in London this week that, because it was so expensive to win regulatory approval for a GM crop, the industry has been forced to focus on a few lucrative "blockbuster" varieties, which could be sold to western farmers but had "hardly any environmental benefits".

He called for looser, cheaper regulations that would allow companies to develop thousands of GM crops for smaller, more diverse markets, including those in poorer countries. But he said it would take up to 20 years for them to be developed and tested. Existing varieties, largely designed for the climate, chemicals and pests of the northern hemisphere, would be unsuitable.

Most GM crops grown commercially are soya bean, maize, cotton and oilseed rape. Most goes into animal feed. None are grown commercially in Britain, though significant amounts are planted across Europe. The EU has an unofficial moratorium on approving new varieties – no new GM crop has been approved for commercial production since 1998 – but is coming under increasing pressure to review its stance. Taylor said its opposition was based on a "superstitious fear among supposedly educated people about new technology".

Earlier this year, a major report from UN experts said there was little role for GM, as it is currently practised, in feeding the poor on a large scale. The report from the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) said: "Assessment of the [GM] technology lags behind its development, information is anecdotal and contradictory, and uncertainty about possible benefits and damage is unavoidable." The GM industry, which helped to fund the report, pulled out before it was published.

Bob Watson, director of the assessment, and chief scientist to the UK environment department Defra, said on the report's publication: "The short answer to whether transgenic crops can feed the world is 'no'. But they could contribute. We must understand their costs and benefits."

A leading British plant scientist told the London conference that the UK needed to set up a dedicated site to test GM crops under secure conditions. Howard Atkinson, of the University of Leeds, said Europe should establish "secure vandal-proof national testing centres".

Atkinson's field scale trial of GM potatoes near Tadcaster was destroyed this month, though nobody has claimed responsibility. The crops were designed to test technology that could make important African crops resistant to a nematode pest. Atkinson compared the trial's destruction to "burning university books 75 years ago."

The Guardian

The World Bank has approved 37.8 million U.S. dollars for Malawi, to support government investments aimed at improving food security and the growth of sustainable agriculture.

The approved amount consists of a 32-million-dollar International Development Association (IDA) credit, and a 5.8-million-dollar Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant provided by the regional GEF investment program for sustainable land management linked to Africa.

The government of Norway will contribute an additional 10 million dollars, while the Malawi government will put in the equivalent of 2.3 million dollars in kind. The total value of the ADP-SP will be 53.3 million dollars over a five-year period (2008-2013).

The objective of the ADP is to improve food security and generate agricultural growth through increased production of food and cash crops, while ensuring sustainable use of natural resources.

"We believe that through this project both agricultural productivity and food security will be improved, and that Malawi will be cushioned from the adverse impacts of the rising prices of agricultural commodities," said Timothy Gilbo, the World Bank country manager for Malawi.

Battered by soaring fertiliser prices and rioting rice farmers, the global food industry may also have to deal with a potentially catastrophic future shortage of phosphorus, scientists say.

Researchers in Australia, Europe and the United States have given warning that the element, which is essential to all living things, is at the heart of modern farming and has no synthetic alternative, is being mined, used and wasted as never before.

Massive inefficiencies in the “farm-to-fork” processing of food and the soaring appetite for meat and dairy produce across Asia is stoking demand for phosphorus faster and further than anyone had predicted.

“Peak phosphorus,” say scientists, could hit the world in just 30 years. Crop-based biofuels, whose production methods and usage suck phosphorus out of the agricultural system in unprecedented volumes, have, researchers in Brazil say, made the problem many times worse. Already, India is running low on matches as factories run short of phosphorus; the Brazilian Government has spoken of a need to nationalise privately held mines that supply the fertiliser industry and Swedish scientists are busily redesigning toilets to separate and collect urine in an attempt to conserve the precious element.

Dana Cordell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology in Sydney, said: “Quite simply, without phosphorus we cannot produce food. At current rates, reserves will be depleted in the next 50 to 100 years.

She added: “Phosphorus is as critical for all modern economies as water. If global water supply were as concentrated as global phosphorus supply, there would be much, much deeper concern. It is amazing that more attention is not being paid to ensuring phosphorus security.”

In the past 14 months, the price of the raw material - phosphate rock - has surged by more than 700 per cent to more than $367 (£185) per tonne. As well as putting pressure on food prices, some researchers believe that the risk of a future phosphorus shortage blows a hole in the concept of biofuels as a “renewable” source of energy. Ethanol is not truly renewable if the essential fundamental element is, in reality, growing more scarce, researchers say. Within a few decades, according to forecasts used by scientists at Linköping University, in Sweden, a “peak phosphorus” crunch could represent a serious threat to agriculture as global reserves of high-quality phosphate rock go into terminal decline.

Because supplies of phosphates suitable for mining are so limited, a new geopolitical map may be drawn around the remaining reserves - a dynamic that would give a sudden boost to the global importance of Morocco, which holds 32 per cent of the world's proven reserves. Beyond Morocco, the world's chief phosphorus reserves for export are concentrated in Western Sahara, South Africa, Jordan, Syria and Russia.

Natural distribution of phosphorus could create a small number of new “resource superpowers” with a pricing control over fertilisers that some suspect could end up rivalling Opec's control over crude oil. The economic battle to secure phosphorus supply may already have begun. China, according to US Geological Survey estimates, has 13 billion tonnes of phosphate rock reserves and has started to guard them more carefully. Beijing has just imposed a 135 per cent tariff on phosphate rock exports to try to secure enough for its own farmers, alarming the fertiliser industry, as well as Western Europe and India, which are both entirely reliant on phosphorus imports. With America's own phosphorus production down 20 per cent over the past three years, it has begun to ship phosphorus in from Morocco.

American projections suggest that global phosphorus demand could grow at 2.3 per cent annually just to feed the growing world population, an estimate that was made before the growth of biofuels.

Few observers hold out hope of a discovery of phosphorus large enough to meet the continued growth in demand. The ore itself takes millions of years to form, and the prospect of extracting phosphorus from the sea bed presents massive technological and financial challenges.

The answer, say crop scienctists, lies in better husbandry of phosphorus reserves: an effort that may require the creation of an international body to monitor the use and recycling of phosphorus.

The Times