Rwanda: Exports Board Moves to Improve Tea Quality
Over 1,200 tea farmers have been trained in harvesting standards, a move tailored at improving quality and ensuring the crop fetches high premiums on the regional and international markets.
“Rwandan tea, especially the liquor type, is always the best at the Mombasa auction. However, traders always complain that they find foreign materials in the tea. With the skills gained, we hope the problem will cease,†said Francis Twagirayezu, the National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB) representative in Mombasa.
Agricultural Production Increases in 2012
Sumbe – The Confederation of Peasants Associations and Agro-Livestock Cooperative of the coastal Kwanza Sul province (UUNA), has recorded an increase in agricultural production in the region.
According to UNACA chairman, Davide Nunes, who was speaking to Angop, the increase resulted from the funding of the government to support the local farmers, through micro credit.
Nation Produces Hybrid Cassava Varieties to Boost Productivity
Nigeria has released two improved cassava varieties in an effort to maintain its lead as the world’s largest producer of the root crop, improve incomes of farmers and make them smile.
The varieties were developed through a collaborative effort between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Nigerian Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike.
Climate data has helped African farmers boost production
Farming communities in Africa are benefitting from an exchange programme to improve access to, and understanding of, climate science, according to a report presented at a seminar.
The seminar, held in in Dakar, Senegal, last month (20-21 November), discussed the results of the programme – which encompassed two demonstration studies in Kenya and Senegal  and identified the opportunities and challenges faced in making better use of short-range forecasts and early-warning systems for flooding.
