The Programme Director of Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), Dr Stefan Kachelriess-Matthess said that its second phase was aimed at enhancing rice production and farmers’ income in West and East Africa. Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, he said that CARI had been operation in Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania since 2013, adding that its first phase would wind up in June this year. Kachelriess-Matthess added that the first phase was adjudged as successful in all the five criteria of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which included relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency, and sustainability. “On the basis of the very good…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
Scientists in developing nations plan to step up research into dimming-sunshine to curb climate-change, hoping a man-made chemical-sunshade will be less risky than a harmful rise in global-temperatures. Research into “solar geo-engineering”, which will mimic big volcanic eruptions that can cool the Earth by-masking-the-sun with a veil of ash, is now dominated by rich nations and universities such as Harvard and Oxford. Twelve scholars, from countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Jamaica and Thailand, wrote in the journal `Nature’ on Wednesday that the poor were most vulnerable to global-warming and should be more involved. “Developing countries must lead on…
Sokoto state government said it has increased access to immunization by more than a thousand fold from a meager 2.5% in 2014 to 25% in 2018. A statement issued by government’s spokesman, Malam Imam Imam in Sokoto Monday, said Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal disclosed this during a review meeting on the progress of routine immunization in Sokoto. “The recent Lot Quality Assurance Survey (LQAS) by the National Bureau of Statistics and partners have clearly outlined the progress we have made in that direction. More still needs to be done and we will not relent on our efforts. Within this period under review,…
An expert in charge of Apiculture at Audu Bako College of Agriculture in Kano State, Dauda Abbas has said that Nigeria has the potential of producing 20 million litres of honey annually. Speaking at a three-day training on poultry, fisheries and bee-keeping organised for members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Monday in Katsina, he disclosed that Nigeria presently produce two million litres of honey. ‘‘The current production of honey liquid in Nigeria is two million but the expected production is 20 million. We have the potential to produce that because majority of bee species in Africa reside in…
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has emphasised that its investment in promoting local farming was yielding results as production of made-in-Nigeria fertiliser had reached 2.22 million metric tonnes. The Managing Director of the Authority, Mr Uche Orji in an interview on Monday in Abuja said among NSIA’s investment priority was to make fertiliser affordable to farmers, all year round. “Prior to December 2016, Nigeria’s stock of blended Fertiliser was shipped into the country as fully finished products, even though Urea and Limestone, which constitute roughly two-thirds of the component of each bag are available locally. Knowing this, President Muhammadu Buhari…
A cheap, safe and effective method of dealing with harmful algal blooms is on the verge of being introduced following successful field and lab tests. Moves to adopt use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an effective treatment against toxic algae are already underway following the results of new research by a team from the John Innes Centre and the University of East Anglia (UEA.) Successful trials last summer showed that H2O2 was effective against the golden algae, Prymnesium parvum. This is responsible for millions of fish kills worldwide each year and a threat to the £550m economy of the Broads National Park where trials…
An environmental group, “Let’s Do It Nigeria” said it had developed a mobile app to help track trash points and illegal dumpsite across the country. Disclosing this in an interview on Sunday in Lagos, the Marketing and Public Relations Manager of the group, Gafar Olorunleke said the mobile app was developed as part of efforts to help in the effective management of waste as well as realize the group’s dream of a waste-free environment. “Let’s Do It Nigeria is not about cleaning up alone, we also unite organisations and stakeholders over various sectors of the economy to achieve a common goal…
A combined team of researchers from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), University of Osun and Afe Babalola University have successfully devised a system of cleaning underground water contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbon caused by seepage from oil pipeline. The project was unveiled at the Lagos Sheraton hotel during a one day workshop held on Tuesday March 27, 2018. The leader of the team of Experts, who is a professor of Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering at FUTA, Samuel Ola said that the method, which pilot project was undertaken to clean water wells contaminated by oil spillage from pipelines of the Nigerian…
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Some Ugandan officials are optimistic that the nation’s biotechnology biosafety bill will soon pass, saying that President Museveni’s concerns have been addressed. “The president expressed concern on seven out of 44 clauses in the biosafety bill,” noted Kafeero Sekitoleko, chairman of Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee. “These have since been addressed and we’re ready to report back (to Parliament). I want to leave Uganda with a biosafety law by end of my term in May (2018).” After years of wrangling, Parliament passed the bill in October 2017. But President Museveni referred it to back to lawmakers in December, citing various…