News stories by Busani Bafana, page 16

LOUIS TRICHARDT, South Africa, Jul 26 (IPS) - Brightly coloured cans, bags of fertilizer and packets containing all types of seeds catch the eye upon entering Nancy Khorommbi's agro dealer shop tucked at the corner of a roadside service station.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jun 15 (IPS) - "It is everything" is how smallholder farmer Nyovane Ndlovu describes beekeeping, which has long been an alternative sweet source of income for drought-beaten farmers in Zimbabwe.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 23 (IPS) - Plugging Africa's funding gaps to accelerate social and economic development requires a fresh approach to using its natural capital, environment experts said on Monday.

DAKAR, Senegal, May 04 (IPS) - The tonnes of uncollected garbage piling up on the streets of her home in Cairo was a brain wave for Sherien Elagroudy.

MALANVILLE, Benin, Apr 18 (IPS) - Salabanya Tabaitou no longer squints from the irritating wood smoke each time she has to parboil her rice paddy.

Now Tabaitou feeds logs into a chute of a specially designed brick stove with a chimney that draws away the smoke. The stove with a stainless steel parboiling vessel cooks her rice in 20 minutes - something she would have spent two hours doing using the traditional method.

COTONOU, Benin, Feb 17 (IPS) - Africa is eating more rice than other food staples, though it produces less than it needs. This is good news for the cereal's potential to help Sub Saharan Africa out of poverty according to researchers. Rice is the second most important source of calories in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), a research organisation working to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jan 20 (IPS) - Small-scale farmer Augustine Sibanda has grown resilient tradition sorghum varieties passed down through generations but has increased his yields after he adopted improved seed varieties developed through research.

Lusaka, Zambia, Nov 24 (IPS) - Are you young, energetic, creative, ambitious and need a job? Africa's agriculture sector needs you!

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Nov 20 (IPS) - Aflatoxin contamination is a growing threat to trade, food and health security in sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholder farmers are challenged by food production and now climate change, researchers said.

SHAMVA, Zimbabwe, Oct 26 (IPS) - Last season, Mollene Kachambwa lost a tonne of the 5 tonnes of maize the family harvested to weevils and fungi.