Soil degradation costs African farmers $68bn yearly

Soil degradation holds back African farmers, costing them $68 billion annually and threatening to stall vital food production, Sir Gordon Conway, director of the group Agriculture for Impact and a professor at Imperial College London, said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Thursday.

“The problem is certainly getting worse,” Sir Gordon Conway said.  “Poor farmers don’t have the money, time or labour to prevent degradation or improve their soils,” Conway said. “If they don’t have land tenure, there is no incentive to invest in improving their farms.”

Climate change, the depletion of mineral nutrients, desertification, improper use

Lagos empowers 3,149 artisans in agric business

Lagos state Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives said a total of 3, 149 people in agricultural value chain businesses in four local government areas of the state have benefitted from its empowerment programmes.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahun Lawal, who disclosed this, said the beneficiaries were given equipment and input like brand new outboard engines, generating sets, garri processing machines, grinders, as well as fish feed, pig meals and body gears.

“At the last count, the empowerment programme had touched more than