The Trader Moni rolled out Wednesday in Gusau, capital of Zamfara state where hundreds of traders expressed joy for the programme they have earnestly waited for. The programme is designed by the federal government to help petty traders access collateral-free loans of N10,000, repayable in six months, to boost their businesses. According to one of the officers, beneficiaries could also access from N15,000 to N50,000 if they are able to repay the initial N10,000 within the stipulated time. Tagged, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), the initiative is targeted to empower two million petty traders before the end of this…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Sustainable Development Goal 6 estimates that “2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines” and that the world would “achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations by 2030.” Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 195.88 million people in 2018, is one of the countries in the world with the highest number of people (over 46 million people) practicing open defecation (OD). According to the 2016/17 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys…
By Daniel Foster, Flickr An affordable, globally available drug – low-dose Aspirin – shows promise as a new approach to preventing HIV transmission, a University of Manitoba study has found. HIV infection rates remain unacceptably high, especially among young African women. The study team, which included researchers from the universities of Manitoba, Waterloo and Nairobi and the Public Health Agency of Canada, tested the effect of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA or Aspirin) and other anti-inflammatory drugs on HIV target cells in a group of Kenyan women who were at low risk for HIV. The pilot study, published in the Journal of…
The Kaduna State Agricultural Development Agency, on Friday said it would train 270,000 Rice, Soya beans and Maize farmers in the state over the next three years on best farming practices for enhanced production. Malam Mukhtar Ibrahim, the Cooperative Officer of the agency, said in Zaria while distributing motorcycles to some Agricultural Extension Officers, that the training would cover selected farmers in 19 local government areas of the state. “The target of the project is to train farmers on good agricultural practice and to link them to ready markets to sell their produce,” the official said, stressing that the motorcycles were…
To the Leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and Governments around the world The United Nations Food & Agriculture Program has noted that global production of food, feed and fiber will need approximately to double by 2050 to meet the demands of a growing global population. Organizations opposed to modern plant breeding, with Greenpeace at their lead, have repeatedly denied these facts and opposed biotechnological innovations in agriculture. They have misrepresented their risks, benefits, and impacts, and supported the criminal destruction of approved field trials and research projects. We urge Greenpeace and its supporters to re-examine the experience of farmers…
By Classfmonline.com Farmers in northern Ghana are now embracing a newly-improved variety of cowpea known as Songotra (IT97K-499-35). This is because a genetic modification for in-built resistance has been introduced into the crop, thus, farmers would no longer lose between 20 and 80 per cent of their crop yield to Maruca Vitrata (Pod borer) infestation and other pests that cause low production… This is because a genetic modification for in-built resistance has been introduced into the crop, thus, farmers would no longer lose between 20 and 80 per cent of their crop yield to Maruca Vitrata (Pod borer) infestation and…
By Leah Rosenbaum For more than a century, scientists have tried to grow Treponema pallidum, the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that causes syphilis. But the stubborn spirochete has refused to thrive any place outside of a human or rabbit for more than 18 days. That doesn’t give researchers much time to study it. “I’ve basically spent my entire career watching these organisms die,” says microbiologist Steven Norris, of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Until now. Norris and colleagues have cooked up a new recipe that keeps the bacteria alive for months, they report June 26 in mBio. “We know very little…
In order to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment, the Lagos State Ministry of Environment on Saturday mopped up an illegal dumpsite at Coconut Area of the Apapa axis. The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti who observed that the black spot had been in the area for over a year, said the mop-up of refuse on the Apapa axis of Oshodi Expressway was necessary because of the hazard it posed for the residents of the environment. He said that after the mop-up, refuse bins would be placed at strategic locations in the area. ”There is a proliferation of trucks in…
The World Health Organisation (WHO), has recommended that every adult should consume less than five grammes of salt; less than one teaspoon daily to maintain a healthy life. WHO, on its Twitter Handle @WHOAFRO, on Saturday, said most people still consumed too much salt, an average of nine to 12 grammes daily or about twice the recommended maximum level of intake per day. According to the organisation, consuming too much of the product increases the risk of developing high blood pressure, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, which adds to health care cost for governments. It said that around 2.5 million…
An international study, coordinated by researchers from the French national Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD France), and involving the CEA/Genoscope and the Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice), has identified the geographic origin of African rice domestication. By sequencing over 246African wild and cultivated rice genomes, the researchers have shown that this plant was domesticated 3,000 years ago in the Inner Niger Delta in northern Mali. These results, published on July 5th 2018 in the journal Current Biology, also demonstrate how past climatic changes led to profound societal transformations, notably the adoption of agriculture. The third most produced cereal in the world after…