World Health Organisation (WHO) experts said they have recorded 62 Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during this latest outbreak, with 38 confirmations and 27 deaths. Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response of WHO, Dr Peter Salama reported in Geneva that “very strong progress” in response to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC, one month after the start of the diseases. He said that the first phase – protecting urban centres and towns – “has gone well, and we can be cautiously optimistic.” “There have been 62 Ebola cases in the DRC during this latest outbreak, with 38…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday requested the African Export – Import Bank (AFREXIM) to align its lending schemes with the agricultural priorities of the Federal Government. The President made the request when he received the President of the Bank and Chairman of its Board of the Directors at the State House, Abuja. President Buhari acknowledged the fact that Nigeria was the biggest beneficiary of AFREXIM’s loans and facilities. He, however, observed that in spite of the impressive array of lending to institutions and industries in Nigeria, agriculture did not feature very well and needed to be taken on board. He…
The Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mr Erik Solheim says the Programme would support Nigeria’s waste management to reduce, reuse and recycle plastics in the country. He said this in Abuja on Friday when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of State for Environment, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibril. Solheim expressed happiness over the way the private sector in the waste management organised itself to provide technical solutions for effective collection and recycling of bottles in the country. The director said that beverages companies should devise ways to ensure that consumers return the used bottles to prevent…
ActionAid Nigeria says there is need for increased budgetary allocations and committed implementation of provisions of annual budgets in the agricultural sector. Mrs Gift Owonipa, the ActionAid Programme Manager in Kogi state, made the call at the inauguration of the state’s Public Financing of Agriculture Budget Committee on Thursday in Lokoja. According to Owonipa, from the analysis of the state’s 2018 total budget of N151.677 billion, N9.946 billion representing 6.56 per cent was allocated to agriculture, as against 4.53 per cent in 2017. “However, the point of concern for us is still the implementation of the 2017 budget which is…
UNICEF on Thursday said 1.3 million of Edo population still practised open defecation, and attributed it to low level awareness on healthy living and sanitation among residents. Mrs Mohsema Ishan, a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist in the world body, made this known in Benin at a sensitization on the implementation of WASH project for stakeholders. She said that children needed water, sanitation and hygiene to survive, adding that much needed to be done in Edo to improve access to potable drinking water. Ishan said that six out of 10 households either had their drinking water from contaminated sources…
By Kay Ledbetter A newly developed fertilizer system will provide nutrition to engineered cotton crops worldwide and a deadly dose to weeds that are increasingly herbicide resistant, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research study. The new system applies phosphite to cotton crops engineered to express a certain gene — a gene that makes cotton able to process the phosphite into nutrition while the same compound suppresses weeds that are unable to use it, researchers said. “Our researchers here at Texas A&M AgriLife have addressed an issue that costs producers billions of dollars,” said Dr. Patrick Stover, vice chancellor of…
The Government of Ethiopia is the latest African country to authorize cultivation of biotech crops by granting two landmark approvals for environmental release of Bt cottonand research trials on biotech maize. In a letter signed by the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change H.E. Gamado Dale to the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (Applicant), the country will start with two Bt cotton hybrids: JKCH1050 and JKCH1947. The release for Bt cotton is based on experts’ analysis of the results from two-season confined field trials conducted under the supervision of the Biosafety Affairs Directorate of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change and Biosafety…
The Regional Centre of Expertise on Education (RCE), for Sustainable Development, says Nigeria loses its forests at the rate of 11.1 per cent annually, making it the highest on earth. Prof. Albert Olayemi, the Focal Person of the Ilorin RCE for Sustainable Development, made the disclosure on Thursday, at the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara state. He spoke while signing a document backing the Kwara House of Assembly on its proposed amendments to improve the law governing the operations of chainsaw men and the law that governs the charcoal economy in the state. According to him, an estimated 13 million…
An Abuja-based Oncologist, Dr Uzodinma Kalu, has warned that younger people between age 30 and 50 could get thyroid cancer. Kalu said on Thursday in Abuja that thyroid cancer developed when cells genetically mutate or change. He said that the abnormal cells begin multiplying in your thyroid and, once there were enough of them, they form a tumor. According to him, if it is caught early, thyroid cancer was one of the most treatable forms of cancer. Although there are four types of thyroid cancer which included: papillary, follicular, medullary and anaplastic thyroid cancer. He explained that anaplastic thyroid cancer…
Germans are using far fewer plastic bags than before, reducing the use of plastic by more than one third, a report has shown. In 2017, there were 1.3 billion fewer plastic bags in use than in 2016, a fall of more than one third. The figures come from a report by the Society for Packaging Market Research ton Thursday. The average German used 29 plastic bags over the 12 months of 2017, representing a total of 2.4 billion for the whole country. The report looked specifically at plastic carrier bags, and not the transparent bags used for fruit and vegetables.…